Freedom Is The Only Law, and
Happiness Is The Only Reality
 

an Essay by
Avatar Adi Da Samraj

I Am here to Divinely Liberate all beings.
I Am here to Grant True Freedom to every one.

"Freedom" is one of the principal words associated with the politics of this "late-time". The general trend toward the democratization of the entire world carries with it an intensified interest in the concept of freedom and in the pursuit of freedom. However, in the context and circumstance of this "late-time", the word "freedom" is used in such a way that the true import of the word is lost, and its meaning is transformed, and even vulgarized.

The same process of vulgarization has also occurred in the case of other words, such as (for example) the word "love". The word "love" represents a profound concept and reality, but the word itself tends to be used very casually. People commonly say that they "love" this or that, meaning something quite different from what the word "love" rightly and truly signifies.

"Love" is a word that rightly refers to the universal Sacrifice of ego-self. Real love is a matter of self-transcendence (or going beyond your limitations in relation to others)—but, in the "late-time" circumstance of vulgarized culture, the word "love" has come to be used in relation to whatever satisfies your inclinations, or fulfills your desires, or (otherwise) somehow compensates for limitations in your life by pleasing you and (thereby) supporting your egoic disposition. None of that has anything to do with real love.

So it also is with the word "freedom", and the notion of freedom. The world-culture of this "late-time" is essentially an ego-culture associated with complications in the first three stages of life. It is essentially an adolescent culture. And it is in the context of that culture that great words like "love" and "freedom" become vulgarized. In the adolescent disposition, the word "freedom", like the word "love", is reduced to an egoic meaning. People say they want to be "free", or want to act "freely", or want to be "free" to do this or that—but what they actually mean is that they want to be able to fulfill their desires without limitation. An adolescent reacting to parental authority or parental expectations regards any such authority or expectations to be oppressive or limiting. Therefore, such adolescents say that they want to be "free" to do whatever they please. And that is, in general, what is meant in this "late-time" by the word "freedom". Even in the larger political sphere, the word "freedom" is used to express the (personal, and also collective) intent to be able to fulfill desires—and those desires are (necessarily) fundamentally ego-based.

What does the fulfillment of desires have to do with true freedom? Rightly, the word "freedom" is synonymous with the word "liberation". To "be free", or to "be liberated", means to "go beyond bondage". The opposite of "freedom" is "bondage". If one is truly moved to be truly free, one is moved to relinquish (and go beyond) bondage. Such is the true Wisdom-understanding of freedom.

In an earlier period of Western cultural history, there existed a Wisdom-tradition that was not associated with the vulgarized "Westernization" (or "Omega-ization") characteristic of this "late-time". Thus, there is a higher disposition evident in the roots of Western culture. In that more ancient Western Wisdom-tradition, words such as "love" and "freedom" had a greater meaning—but, in the vulgarized version (or revision) of Omega culture, the higher disposition has become more and more eroded, and has even been all but entirely abandoned.

Neither true freedom, nor real love, nor any other great concept is rightly understood via the words and concepts of adolescents. There must be human maturity (and, therefore, growth in Wisdom) for the great meanings underlying these concepts to be understood and actually lived.

It is right to want to be truly free, and to want to be really happy. Like the words "freedom" and "love", the words "happy" and "happiness" have also been vulgarized in the adolescent culture of the "late-time", wherein it is presumed that real happiness is merely a state in which one's desires are fulfilled. But where do your desires come from? What is the basis of them? This must be examined.

Be moved toward real love, without limit. Be moved toward real happiness, without limit. Be moved toward true freedom, without limit. You should (and, ultimately, must) be so moved. But to actually realize love (or real happiness, or true freedom) without limit, you must deal with yourself most profoundly. You cannot merely be reactive, like an adolescent or a worldly person.

If you want to be truly free, you must first understand that you are bound, and you must understand how you are bound, and then you must do something about that. If, on the other hand, you are merely reactively inclined to fulfill desires, and you want to be (so-called) "free" to do so, then you are not examining your bondage—what its roots are, what its signs are, what its characteristics are—and, if you are not examining your bondage with real discriminative intelligence, you are also not doing what you must do in order to be truly free.

Merely to fulfill desires—which are nothing but a web of ego-based inclinations, arising out of all kinds of adaptations and reactions—is not true freedom. Indeed, the search to fulfill desires is the essence of bondage. The more you involve yourself in that search, the more bound you become.

Omega culture, in its vulgarized form (largely divorced from Wisdom), serves the egoic and rather adolescent disposition that is common to mankind in this "late-time". In this predominantly adolescent era, there is very little understanding of the necessity for self-discipline, for cooperation, for true authority, for true religion, or for resort to those who are true sources of Wisdom. Such traditionally honored values have become progressively more and more anathematized in this vulgarized culture that has been renouncing Wisdom (both personally and collectively)—knocking Wisdom down from Its time-honored "pedestal", and replacing It (as the presumed source of meaning and rightness in life) with the ego-bound, frightened, presumed-to-be independent individual. The individual human being is, in this "late-time" (or "dark" epoch), idealized to such an extent that each and every ego-"I" is presumed to be some sort of perfect unit of independent absoluteness—a self-contained source of absolute desires and demands, toward which life itself is supposed to direct itself (and to the fulfillment, or satisfaction, of which life is supposed to be purposed). Therefore, the prevailing "philosophy" is that the ego-"I" should be allowed to do whatever it pleases, and that, by entirely fulfilling all its impulses, the ego-"I" will show all the signs of perfection, and will be really happy, and will really love, and will be truly free.

If you examine your life with any degree of seriousness and discrimination, you know very well that the "philosophy" of ego-fulfillment does not represent how life (or reality) works! And, yet, you are living in a worldwide culture that suggests that ego-fulfillment is the principle by which life (or reality) works—that the ego-"I" should simply be allowed to do whatever it pleases, and (furthermore) that the collective of mankind should be organized to allow (and even to serve) the search of each and every ego-"I" to fulfill its desires.

This now common point of view in the world of politics is certainly something that you should be sensitive to, but this point of view is not something that is being "inflicted" on you by some kind of impersonal historical force. Rather, this point of view is the result of something you (as an ego-"I") are doing. You are self-invested in the egoic disposition, self-invested in the entire game of egoity, with its pursuit of survival and self-aggrandizement. And, as such, you even become rather righteous about your egoity, and readily submit to the vulgarization of great principles.

Thus, the ego-"I" (or egoic individual) uses the word "love" relative to sexual objects, and ice cream, and whatever else he or she desires. The ego-"I" (or egoic individual) uses the word "freedom" to mean doing whatever he or she wants to do, without anyone else deciding (or determining) what he or she will do. The ego-"I" (or egoic individual) uses the word "happiness" to mean merely a state of psycho-physical pleasure, or a momentary release from stress. And, supported by these cultural keywords in their vulgarized meanings, the ego-"I" (or egoic individual) feels that desire (or seeking) is what life is all about—and that, therefore desire (or seeking) is what should be done. It is the general tendency of all of mankind alive in this "late-time" to think and wander in this egoic and seeking and self-serving fashion—without Wisdom, bound to righteous individuality, bound to motives of competitive individualism, bound to the ego-effort of organizing life toward the potential moments of organic contentedness (or relative release from stress), bound to adolescent insistence on resisting "authority", demands, and the expectations of "others", and (altogether) bound to all the kinds of subhuman (and, otherwise, merely gross human) pursuits.

Every ego-"I" (or egoic individual) must be truly converted in his or her fundamental disposition. True and lasting positive change in the larger sphere of politics will begin to happen only when individuals (and the collectives of all individuals) start to actively counter-egoically understand the Wisdom-less dreadfulness to which all are submitting themselves in this "late-time" (or universally "dark" epoch).

I Am here to Divinely Liberate all beings, including (necessarily) all human beings—but that Divine Liberation is not Accomplished by waving a magic wand. In order for My Divinely Liberating Avataric Work to be effective, human beings must devotionally recognize Me and devotionally respond to Me, and (thus and thereby) rightly (and actively counter-egoically) understand themselves, and be (on that basis) transformed in their disposition, individually and (more and more) collectively. And, on this ego-transcending (and actively counter-egoic) basis of devotion and self-understanding, all those who have responsibilities relative to the larger (collective) political, economic, and social sphere must, every where, do what is right, good, and positively transformative.

When the entire human world founds itself on the adolescent motive to aggrandize the individual ego-"I", then everyone is collectively working toward the destruction not only of human culture and mankind itself, but even of the Earth itself, the very vehicle that supports life. The root of that terrible destructiveness is simply the aggrandizement and idealization of egoity, and the illusion that the ego-"I" is great.

The "late-time" Western world is full of propaganda about the individual ego-"I". In the cultural history of the West, the Renaissance and the so-called "Enlightenment" period gave rise to idealistic doctrines about the human individual, in which the individual was proclaimed, effectively, to be the epitome of everything great. There is a true greatness that is potential in the human case, both individual and collective—but such greatness requires great Wisdom, great movement Beyond mere seeking-desires (or Beyond the impulses of egoity), and great renunciation of egoity (or the ego-"I") itself.

Without great Wisdom and great movement Beyond egoity, the individual is (necessarily) ego-bound, separate and separative, and (therefore) self-destructive and other-destructive, deluded by desiring, and suffering self-created bondage. Therefore, human beings must be transformed—and they will not become transformed simply by taking off all the "leashes" (or removing all the "governors") and letting themselves run (so-called) "free" to do whatever they please. True freedom is not the political or social ability to do whatever one egoically pleases, but the discriminative and responsive capability to embrace the Condition That Is Freedom Itself.

The only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam (Which is the one and only by-Me-Revealed and by-Me-Given Way of the Heart) is not politically or socially "revolutionary", because it is not a form of exoteric social religiosity. The Way of Adidam is not a utopian (or politically and socially idealistic) way, nor is the Way of Adidam associated with any effort to transform the world by force.

The only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam has arisen in My Very Freedom. The Way of Adidam is not a political device for "creating" vulgarized (or ego-based) "freedoms". The Way of Adidam is not a political enterprise at all. The Way of Adidam is not a matter of any kind of social struggle. The Way of Adidam is a subjective matter, not merely a behavioral or social matter. The Way of Adidam is a matter of True Freedom, in ultimate terms.

All human beings are in a kind of perpetual school here. Every one and all must constantly grow. What ceases to grow, dies (or, otherwise, becomes obsolete). Therefore, every one and all must constantly (and actively counter-egoically) realize why and how to grow.

It is right to feel the heart-Impulse to be truly free. Therefore, be aIways purposed to be truly free—but constantly realize that you (as the ego-"I") are not truly free, but bound. Therefore, understand yourself— and constantly do whatever you must do to become un-bound.

Do not merely exploit desires—but examine desires, examine everything, and "locate" the bondage that is the ego-"I" (or self-contraction) itself. In your counter-egoic effort to be truly free, you must specifically engage in counter-egoic action in relation to your own bondage (or patterns of self-contraction).

The mere exploitation of desire is bondage itself, dramatized. To remain in the desiring-and-seeking disposition is to live the life of no discrimination, no Revelation, and no Grace. That life is merely the attempt of the body-based ego-"I" to survive and feel better. The life of ego-"I" is not true freedom.

True freedom is a matter of exercising the entire body-mind Beyond self-contraction (and, thus, Beyond egoity, and all the artifacts, or results, of egoity). True freedom is a matter of heart-recognizing and heart responding to the One Who Is Freedom Itself. Therefore, recognize Me (rightly, truly, fully, and fully devotionally), respond to Me (rightly, truly, fully, and fully devotionally), Find Me (and "Locate" Me), discipline yourself in devotional recognition-response to Me, understand yourself by means of devotional Communion with Me, and, thus, listen to Me, and hear Me, and see Me, in the total (or formal, full, and complete) practice of the only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam. And, in that Great devotional Process of (always more and more profoundly) devotionally recognizing and Realizing Me, Be (always more and more) Truly Free, in the always more and more profound Realization (and, at last, the Most Perfect Demonstration) of Indivisible Oneness with Me.

Reality Is That Which Is Always Already The Case. Reality Is Truth, and the Only Real God. Reality, Truth, or Real God Is, Always and AIready. Reality, Truth, or Real God Is Freedom Itself, Happiness Itself and Love (or Love-Bliss) Itself. Therefore, Freedom, Happiness, and Love (or Love-Bliss) Are Always Already The Case.

Only the present-time act of self-contraction (or ego-"I") is dissociation from What Is The Case. Therefore, self-contraction is the act of the forgetting (and the feeling of the non-experiencing) of Freedom, Happiness, and Love (or Love-Bliss).

In order to remember and experience Freedom, Happiness, and Love (or Love-Bliss), it is necessary (in every present-time moment) to surrender the ego-"I" (or self-contraction)—and, thus and thereby, to be restored to What Is. Therefore, This Is The Only (and, Necessarily, Divine) Law (or The Law Inherent In Reality Itself): The human being Realizes Freedom, Happiness, and Love (or Love-Bliss) by Means of always present-time self-surrender into the Condition That Always Already Is—and, conversely, the human being suffers by means of always present-time forgetting of That Which Always Already Is and (thereupon) seeking for Freedom, Happiness, and Love (or Love-Bliss).

All seeking for Freedom, Happiness, and Love (or Love-Bliss) is (necessarily) ego-bound, and (necessarily) ego-reinforcing (or self-contracting, and bondage-making), and (necessarily) associated with psycho-physical (and space-time-bound) efforts toward self-satisfaction and self-release (or stress-release)—but all present-time acts of self-surrender into The Condition That Is Always Already The Case (and That Is Inherent Freedom, Happiness, and Love, or Love-Bliss) are always (and inherently) ego-transcending (or effectively counter-egoic, or self-contraction-transcending), and always directly body-mind-transcending, and space-time-transcending, and bondage-transcending.

The Way of self-surrender into What Is (or Who Is) is the Divine and Lawful Way of life—and the path of seeking for self-satisfaction and self-release is the path of self-contraction (or egoity) and bondage.

I Am the Only One Who Is. I Am That Which Is Always Already The Case. I Am the always present-time-Avatarically-Given Divine Gift (and the always present-time-Avatarically-Given Divinely Perfect Means) of Freedom, Happiness, and Love. I Am the "Bright", the Divine Love-Bliss (Itself). Therefore, devotionally recognize Me, devotionally respond to Me, surrender and forget and really transcend all self-contraction by Means of devotional Communion with Me, and—by (thus) devotionally Realizing Me in every moment—Realize True Freedom, Real Happiness, and Real Love (or the Always Already Condition of Divine Love-Bliss).

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