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Today on the 15th of August 1947, India got its freedom from the British Raj. It was a day when the entire country rejoiced, it was the day of the country's "tryst with destiny".
For me, it was a very special day. It was the Birthday of my Mother, Smt. Savitri Devi,also known as Mahamateshwari. She was born on the 15th of August 1916.
So I salute Mother India and My own Mother as well, on this day the Day of Independence, or rather the Day of Freedom in India.
Soon thereafter the British Raj crumbled, and all the colonies under the British Raj acquired freedom, so that all that was left of the mighty British Empire that had once spanned the world, was simply the little area known as "The British Isles" or U.K. as we know it today. Quite a shrinkage indeed!
But there is another Freedom that needs to be acquired.
The Freedom of the human soul. Freedom from sorrow and misery, freedom from repeated births and deaths into this world, freedom from this ocean of Fear, "The Bhav Saagar".
As the famous Urdu Poet, Jigar (1890–1960), wrote:
"Issee Kaayenaat men ai Jigar, Kabhi inquilaab utthegaa phir
Ke buland ho ke bhi aadmi, abhi kwaahishon ka gulaam hai"
"O Jigar! one day the Voice of Freedom shall rise again in this Universe,
That man, who is the highest of the high, has become the slave of desires!""
Yes, man is the slave of his own desires. One desire ends and another begins. These desires bind man to the world of materialism, and, when he leaves his body, he is born again and again into this same world-- to suffer the pangs of sorrow, suffering and death, for 84,00, 000 lives and deaths. according to Hindu belief. Or until the time he sheds the habit of desire.
Even when man is alive in any birth he is constantly haunted by the grim spectre of sorrow and suffering.
As my Father, HH Shri Bhola Nathji, would say:
"Man does not enjoy life.
For as long as he is living, he is afraid of death so that the joy of living is gone.
And when he is dying, he wishes to live, so the joy of dying is also gone."
So how does he gain Freedom from life and death, both?
" Man becomes free of the sorrows of life and death when he looks upon life as an Order of God that sent him into the world, and Death as another Order of God, which takes him away from the world.
"There is neither life nor death, there is just the Order or the Will of God. And when man bows his head before the Will of God he is freed of the sorrows of life and death, and becomes truly free!"
A child who runs away from his mother falls and cries, even as the dreadful things of the world frighten him. He thinks he has gained freedom from the lap of his mother. But when does his misery end, when does he stop crying?
Only when he has gone back to the lap of his mother again! Then he can challenge all the people and all the creatures that had frightened him when he was free.
So Real Freedom lies, not in running away from God and chasing after the perishable objects of the world, but rather in delivering one's life and death into the hands of God, who will make them both beautiful and free of all fears.
Today I am also reminded of my mother who never celebrated her birthday separately today, saying: "The whole of India is celebrating today!"
I am also reminded of my Father who used to walk with an umbrella in hand, in the rain, walking with the children who marched past for the flag hoisting ceremony in the city, to which all the eminent citizens of the city had been invited.
I can see him even now, with his umbrella in hand, walking with the marching school-children on the Mall Road, to celebrate the Day of Independence of the country into which he been born for the salvation of humanity. The umbrella appeared to be a refuge for humanity.
COPYRIGHT
PRIYA NATH MEHTA
SON OF SMT. SAVITRI DEVI & HH SHRI BHOLA NATHJI
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