Outer and Inner Freedom
Freedom is one of the prime pursuits, if not the ultimate goal of all life. We all want to be free, to have space, not to be closed in or restricted and above all, to be able to realize our true potential without any interference from outside forces. But are we really free – and does our pursuit of freedom really liberate us from ignorance and sorrow?
Our entire culture is based upon a seeking of freedom or liberty in one form or another. The American Declaration of Independence recognizes “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” as fundamental rights of all human beings. Our country prides itself in promoting freedom: the freedom to vote for who we like, to pursue the type of vocation that we want, to marry whoever we love. Our cultural notion of freedom includes intellectual freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of opinion and freedom of religion.
“The yogi can experience the ultimate freedom of the spirit without having to go anywhere, do anything, become anything or strive for anything new.”
Yet the freedom that we pursue is defined mainly in outer terms, politically, socially or economically. It reflects an eighteenth century European view of the human being as a commercial entity and the idea of material prosperity as the main goal of life. Its idea is of an outer freedom that defines the human being primarily on an egoic level as a consumer. We define our freedom in terms of money, possessions or social status, not in terms of how free we really are in our minds, hearts and souls.
Pursuit of freedom outwardly, while having its benefits, can have the side effect of making us forget to look for any real freedom within. It is not so much a freedom from want as a freedom to pursue want and desire which only breeds further desires.
Yoga is a tradition that also promotes freedom as its highest goal. This it refers to as Moksha (meaning liberation) or Kaivalya (the Yoga Sutra term), which means a state of independence beyond all the forces of nature. Yogic liberation is a state in which our higher Self (Atman or Purusha) is released from its bondage to the outer world and from the process of karma. It is an existential freedom or freedom as a state of being that does not require external actions or possessions to sustain. We can perhaps best define it today as a psychological state of freedom, in which we are at peace within regardless of our outer circumstances of gain and loss, success or failure.
Yogic freedom is a liberation of the spirit, rather than merely the fulfillment of the mind, senses or physical body. It is not simply a political or economic freedom but a release from all outward desire, necessity and conditioning. It implies the freedom in which we can rest content in our own higher awareness beyond all outer compulsions or allures, whether of this world or another.
The yogic freedom rests upon a spiritual view of the human being as one with the highest consciousness beyond time and space. It addresses our entire nature as body, mind and spirit and our connection to the entire universe, not just our relationship to our human society. The yogi can experience the ultimate freedom of the spirit without having to go anywhere, do anything, become anything or strive for anything new. In our deepest awareness, we can embrace the entire universe within our own hearts as a manifestation of our own deepest Self. This inner realization is the freedom at which Yoga aims.
The Balance of Inner and Outer Forms of Freedom
We do need an outer freedom of belief, expression, action and communication even for our inner being to come forth. It is hard to pursue inner freedom in a society ruled by a theocracy, dictatorship or one that abounds in social inequality. The spiritual life is mainly a matter of individual direct experience of higher consciousness and requires freedom from control by outer institutions even of a religious nature.
Yet without an inner freedom from fear, desire and compulsion, (the kleshas or afflictions of the mind in the teachings of Yoga) mere outer freedom cannot take us to our highest potential in life. It can get us further lost in the realm of desire, seeking and its inevitable sorrow as we run after all the attractions of the outer world. A freedom to do what we want or get what we want can still be a bondage to action and desire. Once we have fulfilled one desire, another will rise quickly and take its place. We get caught in a treadmill of chasing desires and lose our very vitality and spontaneity to the process, like a cog in a machine.
It is impossible to find inner freedom through the mere pursuit of outer freedom. However much we may be able to achieve or acquire in the outer world, we still remain an inner prisoner of desire and its inevitable sorrow once our physical ability to enjoy is reduced by either disease or the unavoidable aging process.
Our pursuit of outer freedom and the inner freedom of Yoga can clash, particularly relative to the commercial realm. Though the commercial realm gives us an appearance of freedom with the many different and changing choices and entertainments it offers, it is really only providing us a variety of forms of bondage, keeping us caught in an external seeking, never feeling content as we are.
“Our highest duty to ourselves is the liberation of our spirit, which is the universal spirit, not simply achievement of personal desires.”
Our commercial society, though seemingly free outwardly, works to restrict our inner freedom in many ways. It has created a free market that instills artificial wants, desires and needs into people, encouraging us to run after the latest form of entertainment, technological innovation or affluence. Most of us spend our lives in the pursuit of money, property, fame and power and cannot find the time to look within, let go and find the freedom of consciousness that does not require any outside recognition or verification.
Our commercial society can even negatively impact our outer freedoms, creating its own social control mechanisms and various forms of social inequality and exploitation. We confuse a freedom to choose our entertainment with real freedom, which is the freedom for any need for external stimulation.
Our pursuit of intellectual freedom has also generally fallen short of any real spiritual striving, which requires going beyond the mind to the consciousness within that is not conditioned by time, place or person. It has created new forms of expression, a glib media and a journalistic approach to truth that can fail to understand the place of meditation or real inner experience on an individual level. We may have the freedom to read all the books or all the news releases, but without the direct perception that arises from meditation, we cannot really perceive the true reality of our lives. We can get so caught in reacting to the statements and opinions of others that we don’t develop any realm calm or detachment within.
Even science, which has given us many practical freedoms through its technological innovations, has not been able to provide us with a higher goal of human life beyond the mundane realm where our inner spirit can find its freedom and transcendence. Its discoveries and inventions can complicate our inner life if we look to them to solve the ultimate issues of who we are or what is life. Our minds can get lost in the pursuit of subatomic particles or supragalactic quasars and miss the mystery and magic of nature that occurs at every moment in every movement of nature.
Much of modern Yoga has aligned itself with this culture of outer freedom, youth, beauty, enjoyment and adventure. Some people pursue Yoga classes, conferences or Yoga paraphernalia like any other commodity designed to bring pleasure to our outer being and popularity in the external world. We have trendy, sensate, physical approaches to Yoga, which has now become franchised and made into brand names like any other commodity of the marketplace. The sacred dimension of true Yoga and its deeper spiritual seeking has gotten lost and forgotten in the process.
The modern commercial Yoga is often self-indulgent and bodily based, rather than releasing us from the ego and body-consciousness to our higher awareness within. How successful a Yoga teacher may be economically or socially or with the media, is not necessarily an indication of their inner freedom. The expression of true yoga is an internal state of balance in the face of all the disturbances and dualities of life, which even poverty, disease, suffering and death cannot shake.
Liberation and Dharma
The Yoga Tradition rests upon the greater concept of dharma of which liberation of the spirit is the highest aspect. Our true inner freedom is the ultimate result of the pursuit of dharma. Moksha is the highest of all dharmas. Without a foundation in dharma, our freedom is only illusory. We need the freedom to find and pursue our dharma but running after what is not our dharma or is adharmic cannot bring us peace or happiness.
Dharma teaches us that there is a natural and spiritual law behind the greater universe, which functions as a single integrated organism or conscious being. Each being or entity in the universe has its own dharma, its place and purpose in the cosmic order that must be respected. We must honor our own dharma and that of others.
Dharma does not stop short with political or economic human rights as the supreme goal of life. Dharma also teaches us that we not only have rights, we also have duties. We have dharmic responsibilities to our families, societies, planet and to the greater universe that is our deepest Self. Our highest duty to ourselves is the liberation of our spirit, which is the universal spirit, not simply achievement of personal desires.
Rights without duties cannot take us to real freedom. What we need is a dharmic or value based society, in which universal truths guide us in how we spend our time. We have our legitimate dharmic needs for enjoyment, prosperity and social recognition. There is nothing necessarily wrong with these, if they are part of a greater respect for the universal order.
Respecting dharma requires that we respect not only the role of each human person in the cosmic order but also the role of animals, plants, minerals, ecosystems, the entire planet, solar system and the greater universe of matter, energy, life, mind and consciousness, extending the Divine Father and Mother as the source of creation. Much of our current ecological crisis has arisen because we pursue our own freedom to get what we want while ignoring the needs of others and of the planet as a whole. We must bring dharma back into our commercial society if we wish to have true freedom that does not damage either our worlds or our souls.
Inner Freedom
Yoga teaches us that our inner nature is freedom, the freedom of pure awareness from all suffering, desire, death and limitation. Our true Self or Atman is the state of freedom or liberation which is only possible in pure consciousness. This inner freedom is gained through the deeper practice of Yoga, particularly through meditation which is designed to free our inner being from the compulsions and conditionings of the mind and ego. Gaining that inner freedom requires that we are able to look and live within, not to be a puppet of external forces.
Who is the entity that we want to become free? Usually it is the freedom of the ego that we pursue, the freedom for our individual personal happiness, desire, power and glory. But that ego is itself a product of external desires, habits, conditionings and compulsions. To make freedom of the ego the goal of life is to divide us from others, from life and nature and to isolate ourselves from the greater universe. Inner freedom is only possible when we move beyond the conditioned ego, which is largely a social entity, to our unconditioned Self that can feel at home anywhere in the universe.
If you want freedom, then seek real freedom, which is not simply the freedom to dress as you like, say what you want, have the job you prefer or the ideal relationship. It is the freedom of the inner Spirit to soar beyond the limitations of time and space. Be free in your mind and heart, in your soul and spirit, not just in your outer behavior.
If we can combine and harmonize the outer pursuit of freedom with the inner pursuit of freedom, then we can create a culture that fulfills both our inner and our outer needs and capacities. But for this to occur we must give priority to the inner state of freedom and make that the bedrock of our values and our aspirations.
