Editorial

How Much Freedom is Freedom?

While India is alarmed and shocked with the revelation of the horrible crimes perpetuated in the name of forced conversions, the question comes: How much liberty is liberty? Everyone wants to be free. Girls nowadays revolt if they are asked to be disciplined. And they end up ruining their lives. There are sharks all around, funded by evil, to convert, to take away and to harm girls. Yet they will not listen. “He is not like that. He is a liberal,”  they argue. And all liberality ends after just a few days. By the time they wake up, their lives are shattered.

Fortunately there seems to be a little awakening now.

Western psychology and laws make it difficult even for parents to discipline children. Even if a little scolding is done, it is considered child abuse. Thus children don’t get properly trained. Of course there is the other method of rewarding if a child does any good thing. But most of the time, with both parents busy, children grow without care and guidance. School and college guidance is just to make machines out of children. All society or governments want is to run nations and for that, workers are needed. The task force is trained like machines but not as humans.

Vedanta or Hindu Dharma has passed through countless stages of development. So at the young age of 7 or 8, the child is invested with responsibility. Responsibility in the form of the sacred thread. And the most powerful Gayatri Mantra is taught. This is the beginning of the life of discipline. In the past, girls and boys, both received the sacred thread. Girls too are trained in prayer, housetasks and various disciplines. This is the ideal, though nowadays things are not as they should have been.

Train children. Discipline is needed. Otherwise, you can see what’s happening in USA and other places. Wokeism etc are swallowing innocence and maturity. There is deep danger ahead. To save society in general and your family in particular, curtail freedom.

Freedom comes with tremendous responsibility. Freedom given to irresponsible people makes for lunacy. It’s a fashion now to speak about “freedom of expression”, “freedom of press” etc. They want freedom to insult and harm. Democracy is not about freedom but about responsibility. Mature individuals alone can handle freedom safely.

Swami Sunirmalananda