Freedom

I bow to the soul and heart of this august University. I also bow to the most illustrious student of this University, President Gorbachev. And today, my talk on freedom I am dedicating most lovingly and most gratefully to President Gorbachev, the greatest leader of humankind.

Now I am asking my students to sing a song which I composed on President Gorbachev many years ago.

[Sri Chinmoy’s students sing the following song in English and Russian.]

Freedom-grower, Freedom-giver, Freedom-delight!
The liberator-sun of the world’s division-night.
Love-peace-fountain, Mikhail
Earth and Heaven’s oneness-thrill.
Gorbachev, Gorbachev,
All-where the peace-blossom-tree.
The master-key of the global heart,
Bondage world-free.

Freedom is happiness. Freedom is fulness. Freedom can be otherwise, as well. Freedom can bring about untold miseries.

Human beings need freedom — freedom from tyranny, freedom from slavery, freedom from bondage, freedom from ignorance. Some human beings want freedom in creation, while others want freedom in destruction. Still others need freedom in aspiration and dedication.

Freedom can be a sea of peace. Freedom can be utterly empty of peace.

The outer freedom wants to enjoy Himalayan supremacy. The inner freedom wants to enjoy singular ecstasy.

The outer freedom quite often leads us nowhere. The inner freedom safely takes us all-where.

The freedom of the body is shockingly limited. The freedom of the soul is unimaginably unlimited.

The freedom of the mind is earth-bound. Why? Because it wants to enjoy happiness by division. The freedom of the heart is Heaven-free. Why? Precisely because it wants to enjoy happiness by union and multiplication.

Each thought has the capacity to carry either freedom-immensity or bondage-intensity.

The freedom-hunger to conquer and dominate the lives of others is founded upon utter stupidity and ultimately ends in self-destruction. Again, the freedom-hunger that aspires to win the hearts and lives of others — the world-heart, in a sense — by virtue of unconditional self-giving embodies happiness in infinite measure.

Desire-freedom and aspiration-freedom. Desire-freedom wants to be millions of miles ahead of the rest of the world. Aspiration-freedom longs to be with the world, in the world and for the world, sleeplessly and self-givingly.

Desire-freedom ultimately ends in happiness-bankruptcy. Aspiration-freedom is happiness-multitude-multiplication forever.

Freedom with no wisdom-light is an unconscious danger-invitation. Freedom with wisdom-light is a de-light-heart-song and a delight-life-dance.

Sound-freedom has a very short breath, therefore, a very short life; while silence-freedom has a ceaseless breath, therefore, an immortal life.

Sri Aurobindo, India’s spiritual Master of the highest Height, enlightens us: “Only when one is free can one free others.”

Rabindranath Tagore, India’s greatest poet, tells us: “We gain freedom when we have paid the full price for our right to live.”

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, India’s greatest freedom-fighter, tells us: “The road to freedom is not strewn with roses, it is a path covered with thorns, but at the end of it, there is the full-blown rose of liberty awaiting the tired pilgrim.”

It is not that we never had freedom but, unfortunately and to our great sorrow, we misused it. President Gorbachev enlightens us: “Society was given freedom, became liberated politically and spiritually. It is the main accomplishment which we did not yet realise fully as such because we did not yet learn how to use freedom.”

America’s great President Abraham Lincoln tells us: “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”

Equanimity in possession and equanimity in renunciation is, indeed, Infinity’s freedom-bliss. I pray to God to free me from likes and dislikes, to free me from possession-greed, to free me from the dire world-domination-necessity.

I pray to God, I pray to God, I pray to God and I shall forever pray to God only for one thing: a sleepless and breathless God-obedience-freedom.

Now I am inviting my singer students to come up once again and sing a song which I composed in 1990 for Raisa Maximovna. My most highly esteemed Sister Raisa Maximovna was also a most brilliant student of this University.

[Sri Chinmoy’s students sing in English and Russian.]

Raisa, O rainbow-queen
Of culture-light,
The soul-wisdom giver
Of summit-height.

Indeed, a thunder-roar
And flower-fragrance,
And effulgence-glow,
Empty of ignorance

Russia's seed, Raisa,
A cosmos-tree,
Snow-white fondness, oneness
And fullness free.

Once more I offer my soulful gratitude to this great University and this gratitude comes from the inmost recesses of my heart.