Be Free - By Swami Vivekananda

Learn to feel yourself in other bodies, to know that we are all one.
Throw all other nonsense to the winds. Spit out your actions, good or
bad, never think of them again. What is done is done. Throw off
superstition. Have no weakness even in the face of death. Do not
repent, do not brood over past deed, and do not remember your good
deeds; be azad (free). The weak, the fearful, the ignorant will never
reach Atman. You cannot undo, the effect must come, face it, but be
careful never to do the same thing again. Give up the burden of all
deeds to the Lord; give all, both good and bad. Do not keep the good
and give only the bad. God helps those who do not help themselves.

When you have acquired the feeling of non-attachement, there will
then be neither good nor evil for you. It is only selfishness that
causes the difference between good and evil. It is a very hard thing
to understand but you will come to learn in time that nothing in the
universe has power over you until you allow it to exercise such a
power. Nothing has power over the Self of man, until the Self becomes
a fool and loses independence. So, by non-attachement you overcome and
deny the power of anything to act upon you. It is very easy to say
that nothing has the right to act upon you until you allow it to do
so; but what is the true sign of the man who...is neither happy nor
unhappy when acted upon by the external world? The sign is that good
or ill fortune causes no change in his mind: in all conditions he
continues to remain the same.

All these things which we call causes of misery and evil, we shall
laugh at when we arrive at that wonderful state of equality, that
sameness. This is what is called in Vedanta attaining to freedom. The
sign of approaching that freedom is more and more of this sameness and
equality. In misery and happiness the same, in success and defeat the
same--such a mind is nearing that state of freedom.

He who has succeeded in attaching or detaching his mind to or from
the centres at will has succeeded in Pratyahara, which
means,"gathering towards," checking the outgoing powers of the mind,
freeing it from the thraldom of the senses. When we can do this, we
shall have taken a long step towards freedom; before that we are mere
machines.

The sage wants liberty; he finds that sense-objects are all vain and
that there is no end of pleasures and pains. How many rich people in
the world want to find fresh pleasures? All pleasures are old, and
they want new ones. Do you not see how many foolish things they are
inventing every day, just to titillate the nerves for a moment, and
that done, how there comes a reaction? The majority of people are just
like a flock of sheep. If the leading sheep falls into a ditch, all
the rest follow and break their necks. In the same way, what one
leading member of a society does, all the others do, without thinking
what they are doing. When a man begins to see the vanity of worldly
things, he will feel he ought not to be thus played upon or borne
along by nature. That is slavery. If a man has a few kind words said
to him, he begins to smile, and when he hears a few harsh words, he
begins to weep. He is a slave to dress, a slave to patriotism, to
country, to name, and to fame. He is thus in the midst of slavery and
the real man has become buried within, through his bondage. What you
call man is a slave. When one realises all this slavery, then comes
the desire to be free; an intense desire comes. If a piece of burning
charcoal be placed on a man's head, see how he struggles to throw it
off. Similar will be the struggle for freedom of a man who really
understands that he is a slave of nature.

Be free, and then have any number of personalities you like. Then we
will play like the actor who comes upon the stage and plays the part
of a beggar. Contrast him with the actual beggar walking in the
streets. The scene is, perhaps, the same in both cases, the words are,
perhaps, the same, but yet what difference! The one enjoys his beggary
while the other is suffering misery from it. And what makes this
difference, the one is free and the other is bound. The actor knows
his beggary is not true, but that he has assumed it for play, while
the real beggar thinks that it is his too familiar state and that he
has to bear it whether he wills it or not. This is the law. So long as
we have no knowledge of our real nature, we are beggars, jostled about
by every force in nature; and made slaves of by everything in nature;
we cry all over the world for help, but help never comes to us; we cry
to imaginary beings, and yet it never comes. But still we hope help
will come, and thus in weeping, wailing, and hoping, one life is
passed, and the same play goes on and on.