Chaitanya Jyothi Museum Opening, 2000

RAMANAM
In the Name of The Father, and of The Son and of The Holy Spirit, Amen.

Countrymen,

ORBIS NON SUFFICIT
SOLUS DEUS SUFFICIT

Creatures of all kinds yearn for freedom and try to avoid its opposite, which is captivity.  The Sanskritic root of the word free means to love.  The suffix dom means an area in which freedom is secure, independent, not vexed, such as a domain.

Yearning for freedom is natural because the essential nature of creatures of all kinds is freedom.  If freedom is not present and complete, captivity is present somehow, more or less.

Yearning for knowledge is natural because creatures’ nature is truth.
Yearning for awareness is natural because our nature is consciousness.
Yearning for happiness is natural because creatures’ nature is bliss.

And yet:

The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,
— Robert Burns

Why, we ask?  Why does this fate await one’s yearning and striving?  To fetch a metaphor, it were because we look for what is natural to us in places it is not; such as in a toilet bowl rather than beyond a cathedral dome; or again, in attachment to delights of this world rather than in detachment from them; and perhaps most stupidly, in settling for a piece when we could have the whole.

The Jihadi says he wants to rule the world.  But that is a trifle.  Why does he want a trifle?  Also, it is contested.  The Social Justice Warrior says he wants to control speech and, ultimately, who gets to live and how.  But that, too, is a trifle.  And impossible.  Why does he low-ball himself?  The Powerskirt says she wants to eliminate men or at least control them.  And either of those ambitions is a trifle.  And what, she will settle for just those?  How jejune!

You want to control human beings and even nature.  Fine.  Techniques for doing that are well-known and ancient.  They are deployed many times in many climes and failed always in the ultimatum.

You want to control everything that happens to you and have all your desires and urges gratified upon arousal.  Fine.  That, too, is trivial.  And you think it will constitute freedom for you to be in that condition?

What about controlling your self?  That would be fine.  Can you do that?  Will you?

That question is pertinent because if you want the domain of freedom that is secure from impingement, you must control yourself first.  You must drink the sweet orange juice, so to speak, rather than just look for it, and in places it isn’t.  After accomplishing that mission — if you do accomplish it — you will have no taste for controlling others.  You will want them to control their selves as you do yours.

If you look at your condition carefully, you will see that, while your desires are true and legitimate, your efforts to gratify them aim away from things and places which conduce to that happening.

You want to enjoy the sweet savor of orange juice.  Fine.  Are your efforts — not your immediate efforts but your efforts altogether — to acquire that experience directed at the places and things which make it available?

You want to relish the ecstasy of pure love in the dimensions of life, physical, mental and spiritual.  Fine.  Are your efforts — not your immediate efforts but your efforts altogether — to experience ecstasy directed at objectives which make it available?  Have you considered that the word ecstasy means standing outside oneself?  Have you considered the terrifying (mysterium tremendum) as well as the fascinating (mysterium fascinosum) aspect of that experience?

You want to control the human condition and all humans in it.  Fine.  Is that all, you twinkie?  What about your own condition?  Can you control that?  Do you control that?

I think the most common fallacy of living is seeking and asking for too little.  One seeks freedom to do this or that but not freedom itself.  One wants to love and be loved but does not want love itself.  One wants to be admired and thought great but does not yearn for the great and the good.

Man and woman low-ball themselves.  This is a near-universal failing that harries our lives, making them Gang aft agley.  We attack ourselves by aiming low.  Raise your aim, boys and girls, raise your aim!  Want the whole, not a piece.  Desire bliss, not a rush.

If you are having trouble in life, if you are not happy, put that down to your having trivial rather than consequential desires.  And probably laziness into the bargain.

ORBIS NON SUFFICIT
SOLUS DEUS SUFFICIT

Update 1: Other posts on Freedom are here.

Update 2: Roger Kimball: Don’t Celebrate Bastille Day

AUM NAMAH SHIVAYA