Freedom from what?

Posted by dinesh

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Freedom from what?

via kksblog.com by hina on 1/5/12

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Dec 2011, Sasolburg, Johannesburg, South Africa)

In religious tradition we find many values that are restricting interactions between men and women. Or restricting foodstuffs, consummation of alcohol, drugs – all of these things are governed by religious tradition. But there is logic to it, because there are also problems with these things. This is what we see, that when these things are becoming very prominent, then it gets into a huge mess! I mean if one's own son becomes severely addicted to drugs, then you cannot even have him in your house anymore, since he will steal everything that is there. That is what will happen and everyone knows that it gets like that. What to speak of all the violence and other things that are relating to something more socially accepted, such as alcohol!

So many spiritual traditions in the world are either forbidding or restricting these things, because they obviously bring problems in life! So there are regulative principles. The Vedic scriptures – the Bhagavad-Gita (which is one of the Vedic scriptures) is saying that it is introducing the regulative principles of freedom. All these regulations that are there, are not actually meant to suffocate people. A lot of people from all over the world have turned away from religion because they were tired from all these narrow suffocating ideas, and they just want to be natural:

'I just want to be natural!'

That tendency is there in the modern world…it's everywhere. It doesn't matter whether it is in Bombay…New York… Johannesburg…Paris or London, since it's all the same thing. The churches, temples and other religious buildings are empty due to people wanting to be free and natural. That is fine, but the Bhagavad-Gita is saying that these restrictions are the regulative principles of freedom. Freedom from what? Doesn't look very free at all! Not allowed to do anything. Not allowed to drink or smoke…………….. With so many restrictions, how can we call that the regulative principles of freedom? Yes they are called the regulative principles of freedom, because they set us free from suffering – that is the essence of it!