Freedom From Belief – In Gita Verse 15.2 The branches of this tree extend downward and upward, nourished by the three modes of material nature. The twigs are the objects of the senses. This tree also has roots going down, and these are bound to the fruitive actions of human society.
Krishna in this verse says that truth is only one but beliefs are like banyan trees and its branches. False can even come out from all the branches like roots of banyan tree grow from all the branches.
In my Bhagavad Gita Verse 13.16, blog, I wrote – Belief cannot give you the truth, it only pretends. It is cheap, it is a plastic flower. You need not take all the trouble of growing a rosebush, you can simply go to the market and purchase plastic flowers – and they are more lasting too, in fact they are almost eternal.
A seeker of truth is to cut himself away from all belief systems, from all borrowed knowledge – in other words, to have the courage to be ignorant rather than to have borrowed knowledge. Ignorance has beauty; it is at least yours, authentic, sincere.
Freedom from belief: Man is tied up in chains of thoughts like a prisoner. In this prison of thoughts what kinds of stones have been used as a foundation? There are two kinds of stones.
First kind of stone is we go on collecting thoughts.
The first step is not to create a collection of thoughts in the first place. If you go on collecting thoughts on the one hand and try to become free of thoughts on the other hand, how will you manage? If we want to be free from the leaves of a tree and go on giving water to the roots of the tree, then how will we be able to get free from the leaves of the tree? While watering the roots we don’t seem to realise that there is some relation between the roots and the leaves – some deep relation. The roots and leaves seem to be separate. But the leaves are not separate from the roots, and the water which is given to the roots goes right up to the leaves.
So we collect many thoughts and water their roots and then, when thoughts make the mind very uneasy and disturbed, we want to find a way to silence them. To stop the tree from growing leaves, we have to stop giving water to its roots. We should understand how we water the roots of our thoughts – if we come to understand this, we can stop it. Then it will not be long before the leaves wither away.
If these two foundation stones are removed, the mistake of thinking that learned knowledge is real knowledge should be realised, and man can then very easily rise above his prison of thoughts.
What is the second stone? What is the other foundation stone on which the prison of thoughts in man’s mind has been built, on which the web of thoughts has been woven? Perhaps you do not know. Perhaps you have no idea how we got so full of so many contradictory thoughts.
Our situation is like a bullock cart which is being pulled by bulls from all four sides. The bulls are being forced to move so that different destinations can be reached. The bullock cart is in danger.
Its structure is becoming loose. The bulls are pulling it from all sides in different directions – can it reach anywhere? Can it reach any destination? There can be only one destination for it, only one destiny – it will be broken apart, destroyed. With the bulls pulling it apart, running away in opposite directions with all its pieces, nothing else but destruction can happen. The bullock cart cannot reach anywhere.
The inner conflict between the thoughts in our mind is killing us. All our thoughts are irrelevant and contradictory – in opposition to each other. All the bulls of our thoughts are pulling our mind in different directions and we are disturbed and suffering in the middle. We have no idea how this contradiction, this conflict, has come to be there within us.
How can an imprisoned person, an imprisoned mind, become free from thoughts? How can he become free from the thoughts which he is holding on to with his whole being and which he believes in? How can he get rid of them? It is very difficult. We can get rid of them if we remove the foundation stone.
Belief is the foundation stone at the bottom of the pile of thoughts. On the basis of belief, man has been initiated into thoughts and when thoughts grip the mind tightly then a fear also takes hold – what will happen if I drop them? So man says that if he is given something better to hold on to then he can drop his present thoughts – but the thought of dropping the idea of holding on, does not enter his mind.
Freedom, liberation of the mind, happens not from changing one’s beliefs but from becoming free from belief itself.
One should search for one’s own understanding because one cannot attain anything by worshipping the insights of another. In fact, the search for one’s own understanding can only begin when one drops the idea of the other. As long as there is any outer substitute, as long as something is being supplied from the outside, the search cannot begin.
When there is no support or fulfilment from something else, when nothing can be attained, from another then a challenge arises within man to search for his own way, for his own understanding.
Life changes by fighting and by struggling. Life changes by the effort of facing it and changing it.
Life does not change by keeping your eyes closed and chanting mantras. All these things are simply opium – so forget about chanting words, names, mantras. Meditation is the way of waking up the consciousness deep inside you, not making it go to sleep. That which is hiding deep inside you should wake up, and become so aware that not a single part inside remains asleep. Your whole being should wake up. Meditation is the name of that state of awareness.
Krishna says become aware of all your beliefs. Once you are free of all the beliefs Truth which is hidden inside you will reveal.
Tags: Freedom From Belief
