Ananda Sangha of Portland--Inner Freedom by Swami Kriyananda

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Inner Freedom
Chapter Seven of the book Eastern Thoughts--Western Thoughts, published by J. Donald Walters (Swami Kriyananda) in the late 1960s for the young adults of that era. As the book is no longer in print, we're pleased to offer this chapter in its entirety.

Part I | Part II | Part III

I had a friend in college who admitted frankly enough that certain of his habits didn’t exactly add to the general luster of his name.

"But what can I do about them?" he would wail after every discussion of the troubles they were causing him. "My mother dominated me as a child. My father never shared my interests. My older brother always despised me. My health was fragile. We were always poor. My dog...."

What could I do in the face of such devotion to the misfortunes of his past? To remonstrate against this litany would have seemed almost like defiling a sacred ritual. But if his excuses sometimes taxed my patience, I was willing to admit that, in one respect at least, the blame did belong on other shoulders than his. It belonged on those of psychologists who throughout this century have been claiming that none of us is to blame for his personal defects—that we are the products of a series of biological and social accidents, that we can’t possibly do anything to change or improve ourselves, and that in any case we shouldn’t think of our qualities as defects.

I wonder if those learned men have been as broad-minded toward patients who didn’t pay their bills.

It always seems wiser to seek answers one can do something with than to settle for dead-end ones that leave one saying, "Next question, please." Obviously there is some truth to the saying that man is the result of numerous external influences. But equally obviously, a complete acceptance of this saying only makes it all the more true, by giving those influences complete sway in one’s life. Obviously also, rejection of eternal influences helps a person to stand more firmly on his own feet. There are some people who float with every passing fad. There are others who, more centered in themselves, are simply not affected by fads at all.

Some of the world’s greatest men and women have lifted themselves up from degrading childhood environments. It must be obvious to anyone of normal, common sense (leaving aside, that is, the behavioral psychologists who, like anyone with a Cause, refuse to admit that their particular coin might have two sides) that some people are more influenced by biological and social factors than others. This can only mean that others are less influenced by such factors. And if less so, it is conceivable, at least, for a person not to be influenced by them at all.

Why be a pawn in the game of life? Great yogis have demonstrated that the more a person lives centered in his own Self, the more perfectly he becomes the master of his destiny.

Are you merely the product of your environment? To some extent, anyway, it must be said that you are its creator. Why not shift the balance in your life? Become fully a cause, not an effect!

* * * * *

I have found, when I travel, that people often take me for a native of their own countries. Mexicans say, "But you can’t be American!" Frenchmen say, "But surely you are French?" Indians ask, "What part of India do you come from?" These reactions used to puzzle me, until I studied the travelers from different countries and saw how generally they expressed attitudes that were prevalent in their own homelands. And then I observed that certain other travelers were simply human beings, not Americans or Germans or Englishmen; their outlook was universal. They spoke from their souls to the souls of others. And wherever their bodies went, these travelers always seemed at home.

* * * * *

We hear much talk these days about "liberation" movements—women’s liberation, students’ liberation, liberation of minorities from suppression by majorities, liberation of plants, of wildlife, of senior citizens, of teachers, of majorities from oppression by everyone else. One almost needs a movement to liberate him from so many liberation movements, if only to keep his conscience viable. But how sad it is, because futile, to equate that word, "liberty," with power.

Each one of these causes is no doubt meaningful and necessary. Oppression in any form is odious. For a woman merely because of her womanhood to be judged incompetent is insulting. In fact, I have often observed that men who pass such judgments are generally covering up a personal sense of excessive dependence on women. Their exercise of power—when they can exercise it, anyway—is a sign of weakness, not of strength.

But therein, to my mind, lies the weakness of the entire "liberation" movement. Whether one actually has power or not, if he depends on worldly power for his strength he will surely develop also that fear of weakness which is the Achilles heel of power-consciousness. It is strange, but the greater the dependency on worldly power the more (though subtle) the signs of a slave mentality. The big bully is invariably at heart a big coward. The ruthless dictator trembles in secret fear of those whom he oppresses.

So why do you want liberation? To exchange old forms of slavery for new? I think you are right to want the freedom to express yourself fully. But the best way to achieve such freedom is not to involve yourself in a game in which no one ever wins. Stand up for your human rights—yes, demonstrate, strike even, if you must, but always calmly, never with anger, and never with a view to seizing power from anyone else.

Be the master of yourself. That alone is true freedom! Such a person moves in this world like a lion—his own ruler wherever he goes.

Continued in Part II