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What is unconditional freedom? || Acharya Prashant (2014)
Acharya Prashant
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6 years ago
Unconditional Freedom
Bondage
Grace
Slavery
Meditativeness
Light
Misery
Essential Nature
Description

Acharya Prashant explains that human life is typically a series of bonded movements in time, where thinking, acting, and even breathing occur under forces that are not understood or controlled. Occasionally, this chain of slavery is disrupted by accidental moments of freedom that illuminate the mind like a flash of lightning. These moments, which occur without explicit demand, provide relief by reminding the individual of their essential nature. However, because these instances are conditional and dependent on specific situations, people, or books, they are temporary. This transience leads to deep misery once the glimpse of freedom disappears and the individual returns to their old ways. The speaker describes the transition from conditional to unconditional freedom as a deepening longing to abide in a state of meditativeness and lightness under all conditions. While the first glimpse of freedom is always bestowed as grace through external conditions, it increases the desire for a permanent state that is not dependent on anything. As one stops relishing slavery and loses the capacity to tolerate bondage, their entire being becomes aligned toward creating situations of freedom. Eventually, when no part of the mind resists this state, one becomes firmly established in unconditional freedom, where the inner state remains unchanged regardless of changing external conditions. Acharya Prashant emphasizes that freedom is compulsory and destined, but failing to move toward unconditional freedom results in profound sorrow. He suggests that those who have experienced freedom must surrender to its beauty and charm rather than resisting it. The method to achieve this state is to move toward the light whenever it is seen. By seeking and moving toward these moments of clarity, an individual eventually becomes freedom itself. In this state of unconditional freedom, even the individual is unable to make a slave of themselves, as bondage becomes impossible and one becomes the light they once sought.