Liberty

Liberty comes in so many forms. It could be physical, spiritual or mental. Foreign domination can control people physically but it cannot subjugate the minds unless it is desired by the people themselves. Thought is and will always remain the ultimate catalyst for change. Change is in itself an essential element in the progress and evolution of human civilization as a society cannot survive if it becomes stagnant.

No force in the world can practically place bars on human mind. It is essentially free to venture deep into the realm of thought. Still we find this world full of people who are unwilling to accept reality when it is presented to them. Denial is almost revered as a virtue. It is not strange that we are told to close the doors of our minds as a first step towards acceptance of the essential truths.

The first lesson in our contemporary spiritual training is to close our minds towards any curiosity, question and free thought. Tradition takes precedence over reality. Reality in essence does not exist anymore, religious history being fragmented into conflicting streams to ensure the stability of sectarian doctrines.

A Eulogy of Reason

Myopia is the other name for short-sightedness. I have no doubt in claiming that we all suffer from it and indeed we love to suffer from it. We, the torch bearers of social, political and religious status quo do not want to look ahead as it threatens the vile sense of comfort we have developed in our lives. We do not want to change as we fear that moving everything that has been going on for centuries will destroy everything we believe and experience.

For centuries we are a society without reason. We do not have the slightest idea about anything we do in our lives and we never care to find out why. Almost five centuries ago, some “learned” people of our religious establishment decided that human reason (that was carried on in Islamic traditions for almost a millennium) was not to be trusted. The application of reason and logic to human life should be out of question. The doctrine of “following” was thus established. Human reason was denied its due share in human development. People were asked to blindly following the clergy as it was the best path towards salvation. Reason and logic were declared incompetent and in fact heretical as they could lead someone to search for some of the fundamental questions and as a result find out that truth could be found without clergy.