Human freedom and divine freedom³⁰

There are two kinds of freedom: human freedom and divine freedom. Human freedom means moving around here, there and elsewhere. Divine freedom is surrender. We do have the capacity to surrender to God’s Will. With human freedom, we try to dominate others. But with divine freedom, we become the chosen children of our Absolute Lord Beloved Supreme.

When God gives us freedom, alas, we may misuse it. We may not use it in a divine way. We may bring about all kinds of problems, unnecessary sufferings and misunderstandings. Everything negative we may invoke.

About a year ago I composed a song called, “Give Me No Freedom.”³¹

That song I really want you to sing. You are holding meditations here twice a week. Wednesday is your most important day. “The Invocation” is, of course, compulsory for all my disciples to sing. Towards the end of your Centre meditation, please sing “Give Me No Freedom.” The message of this song is, “O Lord Supreme, do not give us freedom, do not give us freedom! If You give us freedom, then we shall feel that You do not care for us. But if You do not give us freedom, O Lord, then we shall know that You claim us to be Your own.”

When we tell God not to give us freedom, God is very pleased with us. God says, “You really care for My Way of life, My Way of life!” If God wants us to run, we will run and run and run. If God wants us to sleep, we will sleep. If God wants us to swim, we will swim. Whether God asks us to sit down or stand up, we know that to execute God’s Will is our freedom.

One freedom is to separate myself from God and then make my own choice. I separate myself from Him and I lord it over others. Another freedom says, “No, I want to cling to You, my Lord Supreme! I want to cling to Your Feet. I want to be Your own, only Your own.” With that freedom also I am making a choice. With one choice, I am going away from God. My mind is taking me away from God so that my mind can rule the world. The other freedom is divine freedom. I have made the decision. I have made the choice: “My Lord, I want to be Your own, I want to be Your own! Please accept me as Your own. Consciously, sleeplessly, I want to feel You as my own.” That is my divine choice.

The divine choice is coming from my heart. The other choice is coming from my mind. The mind says that if I can get a little freedom, then I can do whatever I want to do. And what do I do? I do everything wrong, everything wrong! I create more and more problems for myself when I use my freedom in my own way. But if I can use my freedom to become inseparably one with God’s Will, then God says, “You are mine.” If He asks me to do something, I will do it.

When we please God in His own Way, we get real joy. When we please ourselves in our own way, temporarily, for one day or for ten days, we get a kind of joy. But deep inside our heart we shall feel miserable. Our heart is so pure, so pure. It is all for God. We will say, “Why did I exercise my freedom in my own way? That is absolutely wrong!” Once we enter into the spiritual life, at every moment we have to say, “God, Your Way is the only Way. God, Your Way is the only Way.”

Our God is the Supreme. It is the same God, but I like the term “Supreme” much more than the term “God.” It is the same in our human life. When the child sees his mother and father, he calls them Mama and Papa, and they get tremendous joy. Somebody else will call them Mr. and Mrs. In the same way, one person addresses you in one way, a second person in a different way and a third person in another way. Each one has a way of approaching you and calling you. Similarly, each person has to get joy by calling God in his own way.

I am your teacher, your Guru. I feel that when I say “Supreme,” I get much, much more joy than when I use the term “God,” but it is the same Person, the same Being. Since you are my disciples, when you pray I would like you to say, “Supreme, Supreme, Supreme, Supreme.” All your prayers and meditations have to be for the Supreme. Everything has to be for the Supreme. You are offering your prayers and meditations to Him. At times if you want to say, “Guru, Guru,” immediately your prayer will go to the Supreme. I cannot keep anything! If you say, “Guru,” your prayer will go directly to the Supreme. And if you pray directly to the Supreme, using the term “Supreme, Supreme,” I will be very happy.

Again I am speaking about the freedom of becoming one with God. This is my choice. If I use my mind, my choice will be separation from God. I want to lord it over the world. I want this; I want that. That is our human freedom. The divine freedom is also my choice, and my choice is that I shall be always faithful, devoted and surrendered to God’s Will. That is my divine freedom. I have to choose. I can choose ignorance, or I can choose knowledge, wisdom. When I choose God to guide me, to shape me, to mould me in His own Way, then I make the right choice.

If we make the wrong choice, using the mind, then after two weeks or two years we shall feel miserable. We shall say, “What have I done, what have I done? I have gone so far away from my God, from my Lord Beloved Supreme.” Once again when we are awakened, the Supreme comes and takes us as His own, very own. But why should we make that deplorable mistake at the beginning of our life? No, no, no! Always we should surrender, surrender to God.

I always say that divine surrender is not the surrender of a beggar or a slave. The slave surrenders to the boss. Why? If he does not surrender, then he will suffer. If the boss discards him, then he has no way to stay on earth, to meet with his material needs. But divine surrender is offered out of love. God does not compel us to love Him, whereas an ordinary human being may compel us to surrender to him. God does not compel us to surrender to His Will. God waits indefinitely for us to become wise enough to feel that we are ready to surrender to God’s Will. As soon as we accept the spiritual life, we must feel that God’s Way is our own way, our only way. The Way of our Lord Beloved Supreme is our only way, only way.

You want to know how much you as an individual can love God. But you do not need to show your love for God to anybody, or to make others feel how much you love God. This love is so secret, so sacred — your love for God and God’s Love for you. It is so secret; it is so intimate. That love you do not have to exhibit. You do not have to show the world how deep your love is. In ordinary life, human beings are always expressing love, artificial love or emotional love. But the divine Love is sacred, sacred, sacred. In divine Love, you will love God because without loving God, you cannot breathe, you cannot exist even for a fleeting moment. That kind of love has to be yours.

If we use one freedom, we become the so-called lord. If we use the divine freedom, God becomes the Lord. The Supreme becomes our Lord. When we keep the Supreme as our Lord, we are always safe. We do the right thing and we become the right person. When we become our own lord, at every moment we make mistakes, and we make ourselves miserable. When the Supreme is our Lord, it is all joy, all joy, all joy. When we want to become the lord of our life, then we make a Himalayan mistake. Misery after misery we go through. We have to be wise. We have to make the right choice.

In the song, “Give Me No Freedom,” we are saying to God, “If You give me freedom even for a fleeting moment, I will do the wrong thing.” Again, it is a matter of our choice. God’s Freedom we can choose as our own. When we enjoy our human freedom, like a mad elephant we go here and there, and we do not see any danger. We see a wall, and we feel that it is so beautiful. But when we dash against it, we break our head! The other freedom is to choose God’s Way. With this freedom we are always flying in the sky, swimming in the ocean of love, sweetness and delight.

At every moment we have to make the choice: right or left. The right side, let us say, is God. The left side is ignorance. We have to choose the right side, always the right side. Then we shall get tremendous, tremendous joy. If we do something divine, we get joy, innocent joy. If we eat a piece of mango or smile at someone, or somebody smiles at us, we get joy. On a particular day when we pray and meditate well, we get tremendous joy. But the day we can claim God and God’s Will as our own, we will see that we will get infinitely, infinitely, infinitely more joy.

Claim God! Cling to God! The way a child clings to his mother, in exactly the same way you have to cling, cling to the Heart of the Supreme or to the Feet of the Supreme. We all are beggars for one thing: joy, joy, joy, joy. This joy that we get from claiming God is everlasting joy. Other joy is fleeting, fleeting, fleeting.

I am carrying your hearts deep inside my heart. You, too, are doing the same. You are carrying my heart inside the very depths of your hearts.