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That is a big statement, and it needs a lot of explanation to understand what exactly I mean when I say that. Let’s begin with "Freedom." What exactly do I mean by "freedom?" I mean: doing activities from a state of "wanting to do" rather than "having to do." Let me explain by giving two examples, one from work-life, and one from marital-life.

Example 1 – "He" is in a job. His office timings are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., six days a week. He has to be at the office by 9.00 a.m. If he is late by more than 15 minutes, his day is treated as a half day. He is allowed up to three late-comings of up to 15 minutes per month and after that, even a minute late means it’s going to be marked as a half-day. So he has to make every effort to be on time. Keeping a few minutes buffer time, he has to plan to be at the office by 8:50 a.m. and he has to make every effort to keep to this time. Now it is a one-and-a-half hour commute from his home, so he has to leave home by 7:20 a.m. To give himself enough time for breakfast and daily ablutions, he has to get up by 6:00 a.m. Since he believes in giving himself proper rest of 8 hours sleep, he has to be asleep by 10:00 p.m. Now on at least 3 of the 6 days of the week, the boss calls the daily review meeting (which is supposed to start at 5:15) at around 5:45 p.m. since that’s the time he’s "really free." The meeting invariably goes on till 6:30, sometimes till 7:30, and on extraordinary days (at least once a month), even up to 8:30-9:00! Since traffic is more jammed in the evenings, it means that he normally reaches home at around 8:30, sometimes around 9:30, and around 10:30-11:00 at least once a month. That leaves him with hardly any time for entertainment, or for family, leave alone for self-development. And no matter what time he goes to sleep, he has to wake up at 6 a.m. to be on time at the office.

Sunday is the only day he gets and he looks forward to taking some good rest, maybe even sleeping through the day, after having put in a hard week’s work. This is to be "his day!" But his wife has "other" plans! Being a sensitive woman, she has seen how hard he has been working through the week, and how tired he is when he comes home. She has hardly had any opportunity to talk to him, or to visit that friend or relative whom she wants to visit with the family. As a mother of two children, realizing the importance of spending time with them, she has wisely given up her job and has been a full-time housewife now for the last ten years. Every day of the week, she actually gets up at 5:30 every morning, half an hour before he does. She prepares breakfast till 6:30, and while he is busy in his morning ablutions, going through the newspaper, and having his breakfast, she is getting the kids ready for school. He leaves home at 7:15, and she leaves with the kids at 7:45 to drop them to school. Back home by 8:15, she gets busy in preparing lunch, and in the thousand-and-one things that have to be done in the house and outside, which husbands can’t even dream of in their wildest imaginations. She is free only by 1:00 when she has her lunch and then immediately rushes off to school to pick up the kids. Back home by 2:15, she gives the kids their food, and finally moves towards the bedroom to catch a few minutes rest, maybe even a quick catnap! But the kids are in no mood to give her any rest. Feeling "free" after school, they get themselves playing, and in no time are fighting with each other in a loud voice. She moves in to "solve their problem." Soon it’s 4 p.m. and she has to be behind them to complete their homework. Finally they go off to play at around 6 p.m.. Back home at around 7:30, she gets busy with their dinner, watches a little TV and waits for her husband. During the day, she has made a mental note of the things she has to talk to him about, and is anxiously waiting for him so that she can unload some of her burden on him. But when he comes home and she sees how tired he is and how he just wants to "crash out," she no longer has the heart to talk to him and leaves him to flop down, leaving the matter to the next day. The next day it’s the same story and before she knows it, its Sunday.

Sunday morning, being the state he is in, he wakes up late – around 9:00 a.m.! After he has had his breakfast and is feeling a little relaxed, she opens up the topic and unburdens herself. His heart sinks and he says in his mind, "There goes my Sunday." Earlier he would have fought tooth-and-nail for "his day," but he is a "mature" person now, and he simply says, "Give me a few minutes to think about it." She leaves him alone and he realizes that she is right. Reluctantly he gets up from the bed and gets down to doing what she has suggested. The Sunday too is gone.

The same story is repeated the next week, and the week after that. Some weeks there is such a workload at the office that he has to be there on the Sunday too. Some public holidays he does get down to doing what he "wants to do," but generally, he is always doing what he "has to do." Now imagine that his company makes him an incredible offer. The company says that it is offering him a lifetime "paid holiday!" In other words, his company tells him that he can sit at home and do what he wants, that he need not come to the office, and that it will pay him his full salary with perks! His annual increments and any other benefits too will not stop. Only his name has to be on their rolls. How many people will jump at such an offer? Answer: All! One hundred percent of the people who are made such an offer will jump at it. Why? Because they are doing what they "have to do" not what they "want to do!"

Now suppose a similar offer is made to another type of person. This person is a small-time actor and acts in plays. He gets his monetary compensation, but since he comes from a wealthy family, he has no real need for it. He acts in plays because he loves to act. He loves being on the stage, he enjoys the effect he is making on the audience, he revels in the applause he receives. He enjoys every moment of it. Now suppose such a person is made a similar offer by the producer of his plays – from the next play he need not come to work if he doesn’t want to, but he will get his regular compensation nevertheless. What will be his response? His response will be: "No! If you don’t want to pay me, don’t pay. But I would like to keep working!" Why? Because he is doing what he "wants to do" not what he "has to do." He is in it because he likes to do it. The moment he will stop liking what he is doing, he will leave by himself. The moment he finds himself operating from a state of "having to do" what he does not want to do, he will walk out.

Most people in this world operate for their entire lives from a state of "having to do" rather than "wanting to do." That makes their life miserable, a burden. It drains away their energy leaving them with a feeling that they are wasting away their lives. (They are.) They may console themselves by philosophizing their predicament but in their heart-of-hearts they know that this is not what life is meant to be. Months pass by, and years pass by. Soon they are 55 or 60, and retire. They now have all the time in the world and have stacked up enough money for their old-age security. But they no longer have the energy to pursue the dreams they once held dear. Their dreams are now dead, having been replaced by a "philosophical attitude towards life" which puts practicalities above dreams.

That’s in the work-life. In real life, no one offers "lifetime paid holidays." In real life there are far more interesting possibilities, to which we shall come to after we look at the "wanting to do" vs. "having to do" dilemma in marital life. The doing of what you "have to do" rather than what you "want to do" makes work life miserable. And work life constitutes a huge percentage of your waking life! But the other area that constitutes a large part of your life (if not your time) is your home life with your spouse, your marital life. Now in the work-area, if you feel that you have enough money stashed up to chuck your job and live a life more according to "what you want to do," you can freely do so without any qualms, any feeling of wrong-doing, or any societal pressures. Also, it can be easily reversed if need arises. That’s not something you can do in your marital life. In the marital area, "doing what you want to do" rather than "what you have to do" or "what is the right thing to do" can be disastrous, and it’s irreversible. Let’s look at an example, this time from the personal area.

"He" is a successful manager in a multinational company, in his late thirties, and takes home a fantastic salary plus all kinds of perks. Yet he is never profligate, always acting with a sense of responsibility and commitment, a picture of dependability and reliability, handling his authority firmly, yet with grace and gentleness. He has been this way in his home too. But in the last few months, his marital life has gone from bad to worse. His wife has been becoming too bossy, domineering and unreasonably demanding. For him, home has become a place of constant quarrelling with his domineering wife.

"She" is in her late twenties, has recently joined his company, in a position in which she has to interact with him quite a lot. She comes from an average middle-class family, and is happy for the job because the pay is good. Over the last few years, her husband had got into gambling, had lost a lot of money, and had now even got into heavy debt. To avoid the creditors, he had started keeping away from home, but whenever he was home too, he used to vent his frustration on her, blaming her unfairly for all his troubles, sometimes even physically beating her.

"He" soon gets attracted to "her." Besides having outer beauty, she has inner beauty too. She is soft and gentle, sensitive and caring, totally the opposite of his domineering, quarrelling wife. And the pain in her eyes arouses all his tender feelings. The inevitable happens and soon they are sharing their marital problems with each other. He finds in her all that he wants from a wife but is missing in his own wife, she finds in him all that she wants from a husband but is missing in her own husband. Thoughts of divorcing their respective spouses and marrying each other flood through their minds and they soon start discussing that possibility. What they "want to do" certainly is to "divorce their respective spouses and get married to each other." But societal pressure and the pressure from their religious upbringing also makes its mark and they feel that what they "have to do" is the exact opposite of what they "want to do." People around them come to know about their situation, and advice starts flowing in freely. The advice falls basically into two categories: One group of people advising them to do it, to divorce their respective spouses, and get married to each other. The other group of people advising them not to do it, to hold on to their respective positions, since "marriage is for life." They themselves are tossed around by alternating thoughts and they lose all peace of mind. What are they to do? What is the "right" thing to do? Are they to divorce their spouses, get married to each other, and live happily, or are they to live in misery all their lives?

After struggling with his thoughts and emotions for a few months, he comes to the conclusion that he would rather go for the "divorce" option. Being a "man of the modern world", he starts seeing the "marriage is for life" belief as a leftover from past religious dogmas, destined to pass away with time. The west, which was supposed to be ahead of the east, had already come to that conclusion and had acted on it for years. He was aware that more than 50% of the marriages in the west end up in divorce. Yes, he was also aware of another fact, but he decided to ignore that. That was the fact that more than 70% of second marriages and more than 85% of third marriages too end up in divorce. "Ours would be different" he reasoned and decided in his mind that he would divorce his wife, and marry "her."

And then he heard it. The still, small voice that came from deep within him said, "That would be defeat."

He knew it. He had heard it only a few times before in life, but he knew exactly what it was. It was still and small and came as if from a person fully at inner peace and rest, yet with a firmness and authority that he didn’t know in anyone else’s voice. And it was so sharp and so clear and so powerful that it cut through everything. It even cut through all his own thoughts and emotions, slicing through them as a sharp knife slices through warm butter, tossing them aside as if they were of no consequence (they weren’t). And it cut through all the nonsense that the world was throwing at him, from both camps.

But this time he decided to question it back. If it could speak to him, he could speak to it back too and ask questions of it.

"Then what would be victory?" he asked.

"Having your cake and eating it too," came the immediate answer.

"What?" he asked, surprised at the totally unexpected nature of the answer. "What do you mean?"

"Live with your wedded wife for the rest of your life and live happily also. No divorce, No misery."

He was too stunned at the answer. Such a possibility had never entered his mind. It seemed so simple and so obvious. Yet not only to him, it seemed not to have occurred to most others also. There were obviously great difficulties in achieving it. Practically, how was that to be achieved?

"How is that possible?" he asked.

"Find out for yourself," the inner voice answered.

"Why don’t you tell me?"

No answer. He waited for some time. More silence.

He knew that that was it. He also knew that it was not his own voice. When whoever this voice belonged to said something, he meant it. So when he said, "Find out for yourself," he would have meant it too.

He also knew something else. He knew that obeying this voice was the only thing that ultimately mattered. He had heard it a few times in his life before. He went back to some of those experiences. Generally his first response was to ignore it because what it had said to him seemed to go so much against the world and against his own thoughts and emotions. The pressures of the world and the pressures of his own thoughts and emotions were loud enough to drown the still small voice after it was gone. But when he had ignored it, after some time, he always became more frustrated and despairing, and life had seemed more meaningless and futile and worthless. Only when he did what this voice had told him to do did he regain his peace and a sense of meaningfulness of life. And only after seeing the results of obeying this voice over the long term, had he come to see the wisdom of doing what this voice said. This wisdom was extraordinary, quite unlike the wisdom of the world.

He knew that the only thing to do was what this voice told him to do. "Find out for yourself," was what the voice had said he should do, and find out for himself what he was going to do. Find out for himself how it was possible to live with a quarrelsome, bossy, domineering and unreasonably demanding wife and yet be happy. Not a put-on happiness for the sake of the world, but genuinely happy by himself. Not a make-believe happiness of the "believe you are happy and you will be happy" kind of stupid superficiality, but a genuine happiness which flowed from the inside-out. He was determined to find out how to be in that state, and if he needed to put everything else aside, he would put everything else aside. Doing what the inner voice said he should do, was the most important thing in his life now.

Within a week, he noticed a strange thing. When he was in his home with his wife and his wife was grumbling and complaining and being unreasonable, he found that he was strangely at peace. His wife’s behavior was no longer affecting him as it used to before. And he found two reasons for that. Firstly, his own emotions were no longer getting as agitated by his wife’s behavior as before. Sure they were affected but to a lesser extent. Secondly, he himself was no longer affected by his own emotions! This was very strange. He had always thought that his emotions were a part of himself. But now, he could almost see his emotions separately! It was as if he was a separate observer, and he was observing his emotions getting agitated. It was as if he was separate from his own emotions. He could remain unaffected because he was "detached" from his emotions, so to say. And suddenly he saw what the true meaning of "detachment" was, the "detachment" that he had heard so much from the preachers of the Bhagvad Geeta. "Detachment" did not mean being detached from your wife, it meant the detachment between you and your own emotions. And he saw clearly what the real problem was. The real problem was not his wife, the real problem was the attachment, the close bondage between him and his own thoughts and emotions, and also the bondage between his own thoughts and emotions and what was happening around him. It was these two bondages which bound him to the events of the world, and which gave him a feeling of being "trapped" and "helpless." He also saw clearly that true freedom meant freedom from this feeling of being "trapped" and "helpless." When that voice had cut through his own thoughts and emotions, it had also broken the link between "himself" and "his emotions."

And he also noticed another strange thing when he was with "her," his lady-love at the office. He no longer felt as attracted towards her! And he found a similar kind of strange freedom with her also. He sensed the same detachment with her as he felt with his wife. And he realized that it was because with her too, he saw his emotions as separate from himself. And he also sensed the same two bondages had been broken – the bondage between her and his own emotions, and the bondage between his own emotions and himself. She no longer affected his emotions as before, and his emotions no longer affected him as before. It almost seemed that it was earlier that he was "bound" and it is now that he was truly "free," just the opposite of what he had thought! He saw clearly that it was earlier, that he was "bound" or "attached" by his emotions of love and tenderness towards her, now he was "free" to help her appropriately without feeling helplessly "having to" marry her to solve his own and her problems. It was the same story in another garb – it was his own thoughts and emotions which had "attached" and "bound" him!

And then a thought came to him – was this "freedom" that he felt the real meaning of "moksha" or "mukti" that the Geeta spoke about? He gave a knowing smile. "Moksha" was not for some future life or for some future time. It was for the here and now! "He whose mind is in yoga gets rid in this life itself, of the results of good and wrong actions" (2:50). And this freedom was to be achieved right in the middle of day-to-day life. "Yogasthah kuru karmani," had said Krishna to Arjuna in Geeta 2:48, meaning "Established in yoga, perform actions having abandoned attachment," right in the middle of the battlefield. How much time did Arjuna have to become "yogasthah," to be "established in yoga?" There he was standing between the two armies. The bugles had already sounded. Both the armies were eager for war. They were just waiting for their leaders to give directions. And Krishna was telling Arjuna, "Established in yoga, perform actions having abandoned attachment!" How much time did Arjuna have to get "established in yoga" and "abandon attachment" and then perform action? A few minutes at the most! Real yoga does not take months or years to achieve as was believed, but just a moment of realization! "Being equanimous in success and failure is called yoga," Krishna had added in the same verse.

He read through his copy of the Geeta. And he noticed that Dnyana-Yoga (having the right knowledge), Karma-Yoga (doing the right actions leaving the results to God) and Bhakti-Yoga (living your life devoted to God) were given far more importance than the kind of yoga taught in the Yoga-classes he knew. The Yoga-classes taught mainly breathing and physical exercises, with no mention of living your life devoted to God or doing the right actions leaving the results to God. Just sitting in some particular position with closed eyes and doing some breathing exercises, as was taught in many yoga classes was not real yoga. That was only for the sake of making money. You can do that kind of "yoga" all your life, but if you don’t obey The Voice, you will never make any progress. The kind of "yoga" taught in most Yoga-classes was easy to teach and unknowing foreigners (and many unknowing Indians too) easily dished out big bucks for it. Real yoga was free and achievable right in the middle of day-to-day life. And only God could bring anyone into a state of real yoga. You had to only co-operate with him by doing what he said. In fact "yoga" itself meant "union" – union with God. The "equanimity," the "sameness" that he knew, was real yoga. "Samatvam Yoga Uchyate" (equanimity is yoga) so ends 2:48. "When you remain unmoved by all that you hear, when your mind is steady and satisfied, at that time you will have attained to yoga" says 2:53. He gave another knowing smile.

But it was when he read 5:19 that a shiver ran up his spine. "Even in this life, it is they who are victorious who are situated in equanimity." His mind went back to the conversation he had had with The Voice about what true victory meant.

"Then what would be victory?" he had asked.

"Having your cake and eating it too," had come the immediate answer, with an explanation that it meant, living with his wedded wife for the rest of his life and live happily also. No divorce, No misery. "How is that possible?" he had asked, knowing the difficulties. "Find out for yourself," the voice had answered and gone silent. Here was the answer: "It is they who are victorious who are situated in equanimity"

In fact he now felt an "equanimity", a "sameness," while being with his wife as well as his girlfriend, his lady-love! He was unaffected by both. Externally the two situations (being with wife and being with girlfriend) were vastly different of course, but inwardly, he was the "same" in both. "Equal to an enemy and to a friend, and also in honor and dishonor, in cold and hot (= favorable and unfavorable circumstances), in happiness and in sorrows, free from attachment, equal in defamation and praise…" Krishna had said (12:18-19). "And equal with both wife and madamoiselle!" he added to himself and burst out into a guffaw. This was hilarious! Equanimous between a grumbling, quarrelsome, domineering wife and a loving, sensitive, understanding, gentle lady-love! Yet he had achieved it! He was now laughing to himself!

And then he saw another thing very clearly. He saw clearly that divorcing his wife and marrying "her" would not solve any problem! It would not solve any problem at all! Because his wife was never the real problem, and marrying the other woman was never the real solution! The real problem was the bondage to those thoughts and emotions. And that problem was going to remain even if he divorced his wife and married his new love. It would simply manifest itself in another way, in another area, sooner or later. If there was any problem to be tackled, it was this bondage. Once this bondage was fully broken, he would be truly free. Just now it was only slightly broken and he had already experienced tremendous freedom. How terrific it would be if it was completely broken? And once he was truly free, he could live life with his wife without being affected by her behavior. And hopefully, as others said, her behavior might change over time and she would again become as gentle as she once was. That would be heaven on earth!

He thought some more. But what if it didn’t? What if she remained like this all her life? What if she became worse?

"So what?" he suddenly said to himself. "What would it matter? What does it matter if I have to live with such a wife all my life provided I am able to maintain my inner happiness? If the real source of my distress is that bondage, then the real solution is to break that bondage. If she doesn’t change or becomes worse maybe it will prove to be a stronger tool to break that bondage even more powerfully!" He was already feeling even more free! When he said, "So what?" he had also given his own ego a big kick and crushed his own self-importance. Why do you think you are so special that life owes you a happy, contented, gentle, sensitive wife all your life? Once his own ego and his own self-importance stopped demanding, "I deserve a better life," (or is it "I deserve a better wife"?) he was free!

Now that he had identified the real problem, he started thinking furiously. How was the bondage to be broken fully? It had only been slightly broken and he had already seen the wonderful benefits of this slight breakage. If this bondage was broken more and more, how great would be the freedom he operated in? He thought hard. How had it been slightly broken in the first place to give me a glimpse of what true freedom meant? Answer: It had done so when the voice had sliced through his own thoughts and emotions and he realized that what ultimately mattered was obedience to that voice. The voice had rendered everything else irrelevant, including his own thoughts and emotions, and his own ego, which were no longer as important as they were before. In fact his own thoughts and emotions seemed so stupid and foolish as compared to that voice!

He was getting even more closer to "finding out for himself how he could have his cake and eat it too, how it was possible to live with a quarrelsome, bossy, domineering and unreasonably demanding wife and yet be happy." He was beginning to also understand a little of what the Geeta meant when it used words like "attachment" and "detachment," "bondage" and "moksha (=freedom or liberation)" etc. True bondage meant bondage to the control of your own thoughts and emotions, not bondage to relationships. True detachment meant detachment from your own thoughts and emotions, not with relationships. And true freedom meant freedom to live in this world righteously and happily without being entangled by its wiles. It was not the freedom offered by the "commune" made famous by its sexual freedom. That "freedom" was just bondage in another garb, the bondage to your own sexual and emotional desires. The freedom that he experienced now was true freedom. Things were so much clearer and simpler and so straightforward.

Then, another thought came to him – how is it that many of those who know the Geeta well, who can even quote from it off hand, how is it that many of them themselves seemed to be living in much bondage and attachment?

He gave a knowing smile.

You become free not by just knowing the Bhagvad Geeta, but by obeying the inner voice.

Was this inner voice, the voice of "God?"

He gave another knowing smile.

We leave him now to return back to our first example – that of a man feeling "trapped" in his job, who leaves home every morning at about 7:20 and who finds hardly any time for his family and what he wants to do. One evening while travelling home, he is feeling particularly depressed at his situation, at how "trapped" he is in his job and in this world. His whole life seems to be a trap!

And suddenly he hears that still, small voice from inside him clearly and sharply say, "Leave your job."

"Leave my job?" he says almost audibly. "And do what?"

"Paint. Study the Bible. Spend time with your children." The voice was sharp and clear, firm and strong, yet full of love and understanding, and cut through everything, even his own thoughts and emotions.

He could not sleep that night. He was thinking.

Paint. His thoughts went back to his childhood. He had loved to paint, he had enjoyed every moment of it. He could get totally lost while painting. Mom had to pull him away from his brushes and papers. When he was in college, he had still continued to paint, but at a smaller level as other activities arising out of peer pressure occupied more of his time. And when he had taken up his job, he had left painting altogether. Many a times he had longed to paint again and had even made attempts on a couple of Sundays. But these attempts had always ended up only as short jabs as Monday morning took over. There had never been any time to see those attempts through.

Study the Bible. He had been born and brought up in a Christian home, but neither he nor his wife were religious people. They believed in moral values, but rarely attended church. The only times they attended church meetings was when somebody they knew was getting married, or when somebody they knew had died or lost a close relative! Far more than attending church meetings, he had always wanted to study the Bible. As a child, when mum and grandma had read those stories from the Bible, he had been fascinated by how God had directly spoken to so many people – Noah, Abraham, Moses, David. As a child he had always wanted God to speak to him. And suddenly a thought flashed through his mind – when he had heard those words "Leave your job," so sharply and clearly cutting through everything to reach him, was it God speaking to him? Was it similar to the situation where God had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you?" (Genesis 12:1)

A shiver ran up his spine and goose pimples broke out all over his body. He could contain himself no longer and got up from his bed. He went to the front room and switched on the light. He pulled out the old Bible from the bookshelf and dusted it. He started reading those stories. He read through the stories of Noah and Abraham. And then he looked up at the watch. It was 4 a.m. Two hours had passed by and he didn’t even know! Those stories had suddenly come so alive! Reluctantly he put the Bible back. He needed to catch at least a couple of hours sleep before getting ready for office.

He put off the light and went to his bedroom. But he still couldn’t sleep. He lay in bed, thinking about it all. Finally he dozed off as the birds started chirping.

When he woke up, it was 9 a.m.! He had not had such a deep, wonderful sleep for a long time. He lay in bed for a few minutes. There was no point in going to the office now. He would be reaching only at 11:30, and there was no point in doing that. But far more important, he realized that something important, something very, very important was happening to him, and he needed to go with it fully. He decided to just call up the office and let them know that he couldn’t come today.

He got up and asked his wife, "Why didn’t you wake me up?"

"You hadn’t slept all night dear. I saw you reading the Bible in the night," she answered. "You need some rest, darling. I am going out to the market and will be back only by lunch. Please take some good rest while I am away."

They exchanged a hug and she left. He was now alone and had at least three hours on his hands, all alone in the house. He ate his breakfast, and on finishing, continued sitting on his chair, intrigued by what had happened. After ten minutes he got up thinking of what "God" had told him to do.

"Leave your job," is what "God" had said first.

If I leave my job, how will I support myself and my family? He asked himself. He could always sell off his city house and live a peaceful life in a cheaper home in the countryside, and support himself on the return on his investments. The idea had crossed his mind a few times when he had thought about the kind of slavish life he was leading, but the pressure of "what would others say?" had taken over and crushed it. Now he started thinking about it seriously. It would certainly give him a lot more time to pursue the two things he wanted to – paint and study the Bible. Plus it would also give him a lot more time with his wife and children, something he wanted to do and knew he was not doing. Anyway, Jesus had said not to worry about provisions for his own needs.

He got up, took out the Bible again, and turned to one of the passages where Jesus had spoken about these things. Matthew chapter 6, verses 25 to 34.

"Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Those words ran through his mind over and over and over again. His eyes fell on the words just above what he had read.

And he suddenly saw it all very clearly: All that he was working for, all that he was slogging for, all that he was giving his life for, would yield only temporary benefits! Either they would go, or he would go leaving them behind. There was something that could yield permanent benefits, and he was ignoring that completely! How foolish of him!

He put the Bible down and went back to the bedroom and lay down on the bed again. He was now struggling in himself, being tossed this way once, the other side next. He knew that "God" was right and that he should be chucking his job away, but somehow, he could not bring himself to decide on it. And his thoughts turned to the last thing that "God" had said: "Spend time with your children."

When was the last time that he had really spent time with his children? His children were growing up fast. His son was ten and his daughter was eight. When was the last time that he had really spent time with them? Maybe two years back when they had gone on a five-day holiday. Even when he was at home, so many times his children themselves had come to him wanting him to play with them or asking him to help them in their studies, and he had sent them away saying he had some work to do or he was too tired and he needed rest. Time had raced away so fast. Very soon he will be retiring. He was just 36, but the way time was flying, it would be "very soon" that he would be retiring. His mind went to an article he had read once, in which 500 of the most "successful" managers, executives, and businessmen, who had retired in the last few years, were interviewed and asked "What is the one thing you regret doing in your life, which you would do differently if given another chance to live your life all over again?" Each and every one of them, without exception, had said, "I would have spent more time with my family." No one, not one of them, not one single one of them, said, "More time at the office" or "More time building up my business."

But he still could not make up his mind. Societal pressure would be too much against the crazy idea of chucking away a good job, moving to the countryside, and spending time painting, studying the Bible, and spending time with his wife and children. It was just not done!

And then his mind went to a poem he had read once, and which had brought tears to his eyes when he had read it, as it had brought tears to many people’s eyes. He knew he had a copy of it somewhere in one of his books. He got up and started searching through his books. After a few minutes, he found it and started reading. It was titled "Cats in the Cradle" and went like this:

He broke down and started weeping uncontrollably. He wept and wept. For maybe half an hour. Then he got up and coldly started writing his resignation letter, cutting through all the nonsense that the world had thrown at him. He was no longer going to sacrifice what was truly precious, at the altar of an ungodly world system, with its stupid "standard of livings."

Five years later, he was a very happy man. His wife had fully supported him in his "mad" decision. He was now spending more time painting, studying the Bible, and being with his wife and children. He was also now playing a more useful role in society.

And no, they did not have to move to the countryside. They had decided not to take a hasty decision about moving home, since they had enough savings to tide them over for more than two years. They decided to wait and see what happens. What happened was that his paintings themselves started selling. No, he didn’t make any efforts to sell them. People by themselves, wanted to buy his paintings. The money was not as good as he was earning when he was in the job, but it was okay since his expenses had gone down too. Also, his needs had gone down too. He felt he needed far fewer things than he did before. His life had become much simpler too. So he didn’t mind the lesser money. In fact, he didn’t care.

His understanding of the Bible too had increased. He found that Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David were not the only ones to whom God spoke directly. There were plenty of others too – Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, Solomon, Nehemiah, Ezekiel, Daniel to name just a few. The Bible was full of them. Real people in real-life situations, all achieving victory over their external circumstances as well as their own thoughts and emotions with God’s active help. God speaking to people seemed to be a very "normal" thing, unlike what he had been taught to believe! And Jesus was the ultimate. God was "always" with him because he "always" did what pleased God, and hence God "always" heard him (John 8:29 and 11:42). And as he read the real life "case studies" of these people, he drew inspiration and got guidance in the one area that mattered – his relationship with God. He also found that the way he had experienced it was not the only way. Generally God spoke through inward impressions and a strong "sixth sense" and He spoke to everyone without partiality. He also found that the more he obeyed God, the happier and more contented he became, the more was the freedom he felt, and the more righteously he lived. And the more he obeyed God, the more God spoke to him, and the closer he came to God. Because God was a true capitalist. Jesus words, "To everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away" (Luke 19:26) were applicable in the spiritual realm as much as were applicable in the material realm.

He found that real prayer was nothing but communicating with God in a meaningful way, tearing away even his own thoughts and emotions to connect with God. And he himself could take the initiative. And he found that he did not have to go to church to have real communication with God. The real purpose of going to church was to be with like-minded people, who were in similar relationship with God. Earlier, he did not like to go to church because he was not like-minded, and he could not relate with what was being said. Now that he knew and could understand what was being said, the very place that had earlier been so boring, became so interesting. And he found that the best way to communicate with God was to go into his room, close the door and put off the lights, sit (or even lie down comfortably), close his eyes, and simply talk. Jesus' words in Matthew 6:5-7 were so true: "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words." Even one sentence, meaningfully said, was more than enough to establish real communication with the real God.

He also replaced a picture of Jesus they had on the wall with the following poem:

Not only was this poem a far better reminder of what he had to do when he lost touch from time to time, but also, it was in line with the Bible's injunctions against idols, not only for worshipping, but even for just making and putting up on the wall: "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them" (Exodus 20:4-5)

A thought had come to him – how is it that many of those who know the Bible well, who could even quote from it off hand, how is it that many of them themselves hardly seemed to know God? And he gave a knowing smile. You don’t know God by simply knowing the Bible, but by obeying the inner voice. It was very much possible to be an expert in the Bible and still not obey the voice. Why else should the Bible say again and again, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts" (Hebrews 3:7-8, 3:15, 4:7 repeating Psalm 95:7-8)? Disobedience leads to a "falling" or a moving away from God (Hebrews 4:11) "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." (Hebrews 4:12-13)

They had also sold off their car. Not because they had to, but because they wanted to – they found they no longer needed it and it took more time, effort, and money to maintain it! It had become more of a burden! When they had to go out, the rickshaws were cheaper and more convenient and they didn’t face parking problems! The world thought that their "standard of living" had gone down. Whereas they felt that their standard of living had gone up! Because the world measured their "standard of living" by their possessions. Whereas they measured their standard of living by how happy they were.

--

It was uncanny to see the following report in the newspapers, the very next day I finished writing the above. I went through a final reading of the above, giving finishing touches to it on the evening of Tuesday, the 28^th of July 2009, and the very next morning, I read this under a report titled "India happier, healthier nation":

It’s high time Indians stopped blindly imitating the west in everything they do, and even considering the western nations as "more developed". But before the "Indian culture is superior" fellows start tom-tomming this, let’s be clear about certain things. Sure there is a lot of good about Indian culture and we need to nurture that. But there is plenty of bad too. Every culture, like every religion, has its good and bad parts. We need discrimination to see what is what, the humility to accept what is good and according to truth, even if it is from other cultures and religions; and the courage to reject what is bad and contrary to truth, even if it is from "our" own culture or religion. In every culture, there are the "culture-wallas," frogs in their respective wells, who think that everything about "their" culture is good, and everything about foreign culture is bad. In America, there are "American-culture-wallas" who think that everything about American culture is good (and the greatest thing that can happen to a person is to be "born in the USA"). In China, there are "Chinese-culture-wallas" who think that everything about Chinese culture is good (and the greatest thing that can happen to a person is to be "born in China"). And in India, there are the "Indian-culture-wallas" who think that everything about Indian culture is good (and the greatest thing that can happen to a person is to be "born in this great land of the great rishis who gave us this great Indian Sanskriti" etc. etc.). The truth is that every culture has got its good and bad aspects, and we need to be discriminating about what we accept and what we reject. The bad thing about western culture is its emphasis on material prosperity and its belief that material wealth brings happiness. How false this belief is, is evident from the above report. The result is the loss of what is truly precious – family values and relationships, friendships, and a sense of well-being.

Indians have a natural advantage here since they have been brought up in a culture that values these things. They have thousands of years of teaching that "true and lasting happiness is not to be found in anything outside yourself, but within you." But sadly, many Indians today are throwing away this advantage by blindly aping the west in the bad things about that culture.

But Indians have natural disadvantages too. Indians are by nature, a spiritual-minded people. That makes them prone to blindly accepting anything and everything taught by their religion and the plethora of self-appointed gurus. And so, all kinds of rubbish and all kinds of superstitions pass off under the garb of spirituality. Bizarre practices flourish under the name of spirituality. In Karur in Tamil Nadu, devotees submit themselves in an annual ritual, to the practice of breaking coconuts on the heads, a practice which can cause brain damage. In another annual ritual in Sholapur, infants are thrown from a four-storied building and caught in bed-sheets held by people below, in the belief that this strengthens them. In a village in Andhra Pradesh, in an annual festival, the priest dances on the prostrate bodies of women to 'bless' them. In Uttaranchal in an annual ritual, two groups throw stones at each other, with only a small shield for protection. Any injury (and many are quite serious) is considered a blessing from the goddess in whose honour the festival is held. In Gulbarga, mentally-retarded children and buried in the ground up to their necks during solar eclipses in the belief that this practice cures their mental retardation. These are obviously bizarre. But what about a belief such as "a dip in the Ganga can wash away your sins" which even many educated people hold? Is God so foolish? When are people with integrity going to stand up against such practices? While Indians need to rightly reject the materialism of the west, they need to imbibe and embrace the stringency of testing a claim as spiritual truth before accepting it.

Indians have another big natural disadvantage. It is a well-known fact that Indians are brilliant individually, but put them together in a team, and they only end up arguing and quarrelling with each other. Real progress in any area is made only by teamwork. Strange as it may seem to Indians, real progress in the spiritual realm too is made only by teamwork! We all need each other to make progress in this area too. God has not given any one person, any one group, any one nation, any one religion, the storehouse of wisdom and understanding of His ways and His nature, and the others nothing. There is a wrong individuality prevalent in India today. Perhaps the wrong understanding of "moksha," so prevalent in India today, has got something to do with the wrong individuality. Spirituality is seen more as an individual attaining "freedom" from the ties of family and work, maybe by cutting himself off from the world, going off to the Himalayas and spending his time in meditation and contemplation! But God has not put us in the middle of society so that we can run away from it. If God wanted people to do such things, He could have easily put everyone of us on different planets on our own. There is a very good reason that God has put us in the middle of society, with other people, and Indians need to realize that. That very good reason is that many of the godly qualities that God wants to develop in us – righteousness, love, joy, peace, contentment, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, commitment, gentleness, self-control, selflessness, friendliness, fairness and justice, forgiveness, appropriate humility, truthfulness, courage, honesty, integrity, dependability, reliability, proper handling of authority, right submission to authority, sense of responsibility and accountability, ability to overcome adversity, etc., just cannot be developed without regular interaction with other people! And sadly, Indians generally score lower on many of these qualities than the western nations. Indians are especially poor on righteousness (look at the high corruption-levels), commitment (‘keeping your word’), self-control (‘they could not control themselves’ seems to have become a valid reason to justify any political vandalism), fairness and justice, appropriate humility and right submission to authority (Indians cango to extremes of ingratiation, obsequousness and sycophancy), courage, truthfulness and honesty (‘Tell him I am not in the office’), integrity, dependability and reliability, proper handling of authority (just look at our ministers at an airport), sense of responsibility and accountability (look at our politicians). No nation can become great without its people having these qualities.

These qualities have to be developed right in the middle of the rough-and-tumble of life – e.g. righteousness right in the middle of an environment full of temptations, love in an environment full of unloving and unlovable people, joy in the middle of circumstances which are not naturally joyful, peace in circumstances which make us worried and anxious etc. That is real "moksha" – real freedom. Moving about in this world and remaining unaffected by it, living life with these characteristics while enjoying life as a game. How else, can you be tested and perfected? Life is to be seen as a game that God has set up for us – his children, and the purpose of this game is to develop these qualities in us through the various experiences of life with God’s help. Whether you win or lose this game by the standards of the world is irrelevant. What is important is that you win this game by God’s standards. God has not put us in the middle of the world so that we can run away from it. He has put us in the middle of the world so that we can develop these character traits right in here*. But, equally important, we are supposed to have fun doing it! Life is a game set up by God for us, his children (God’s "Leela") and we are also supposed to have fun playing it. "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" said Jesus in Matthew 18:3. Choose whom you will, both Krishna and Jesus were right about this. Children are supposed to have fun playing the games they are playing and if a child is not enjoying the game, he has got it wrong. Perhaps the first and most important test of whether a "guru" is truly spiritual or not is to ask the hard question of him, "Does this person give the impression of a person enjoying the game of life?" Or is he like some of those people on the financial channels with their straight and smile-less faces, who seem as if they are carrying the burden of running the entire universeon their shoulders?

(* There is of course an important place for cutting yourself off from the world from time to time, but that is only to sharpen yourself so that you become more effective in the world in the exercise of these characteristics. It is like taking time out periodically to sharpen an axe that gets blunt by the regular chopping of wood. Life has a naturally wearying quality about it and there is no point in wasting your time with a blunt axe. I personally spend 30% of my waking time alone - in study, prayer, or simply being with nature. It takes the pattern of two hours every day and one full day every week. This is "my time," alone with God, and no one (not even family members) has a right to it. If I don't do this, I find I get dull and ineffective in the world, losing the above character traits.)

We are now moving towards a "spiritual era" in which Indians can be world leaders if they so wish, because of the natural advantages they enjoy, provided they are able to see their own faults and overcome their natural disadvantages. There was an agricultural-era, then there was an industrial-era (started by the industrial revolution), then there was the information-era (started by the information revolution), which we are in now. The next era predicted is to be the spiritual-era, wherein people see the foolishness of their existing way of life and move towards more spiritual things and a healthier lifestyle, though maybe with lesser material prosperity. Material prosperity would have lost its value when more and more people started seeing that it doesn’t bring real happiness. GDPs and GNPs would have lost their relevance as the right measures of how "developed" a nation is, and maybe a "Gross National Happiness Product", something like the ‘Happy Home Index’ above, would have replaced it.

However it will also be an era of true spirituality and not the sham-spirituality that goes on under the name of much of religion today. Just as they (the people of the new era) will not be satisfied with material prosperity, they will also not be satisfied with superficial religion, nor with sham religion. They would not hesitate to call a spade a spade. They would want the real thing. They would want The Voice. The Real Voice. Mere rituals and externalism won’t do. Mere book-knowledge of the Bible or the Geeta won’t do, although book-knowledge would be necessary to keep people going off-tangent. Fantastic stories and myths of gods and goddesses and unreal beings with whom they can’t identify won’t do. Any kind of nonsense going on under the name of spiritualism won’t do. They would want the real thing. They would want The Voice. The Real Voice. Ripping through everything. Ripping through their own thoughts and emotions. Ripping through all the things of the world. Ripping through the world's foolishness and stupidity. Ripping through their own foolishness and stupidity. Even pontifications by "gurus" who speak without the experience of God, in programs and discourses based merely on human understanding, good as they are, won't do. Nothing less than the real God would satisfy them. Nothing else should. That’s how it’s supposed to be.