Perhaps April is the month of freedom. It certainly is for at least some major swaths of the population: Jews celebrated Passover during April, commemorating their deliverance from slavery in Egypt at the hand of God. Republicans like me hoped for the freedom to pay fewer taxes on April 15. Even stoners thought about freedom on 420, at least until their buzz hit.

Freedom is generally defined as the right to do something without anybody interfering in it. The Jews wanted the freedom to work, live, move, and worship as they pleased. Tea Party protesters wanted the freedom to spend their money as they pleased. Stoners want the freedom to get stoned as they please. The U.S. Constitution generally defines freedom this way: you have the right to say whatever you want, carry guns without anybody stopping you, and keep your personal belongings out of the sight of others.

For a religious person, though, is freedom really all about doing whatever you want? In a world with meaning, governed by a moral order, can freedom be a simple indifference about things?

This definition seems problematic. While freedom of speech, for instance, seems appealing to us, our religious sensibilities generally tell us that spreading hurtful rumors, being sexually explicit, and lying are all wrong, detrimental to ourselves and to the community. The same goes for the free choices we make as consumers: without wanting anyone to sign-off on our book purchases, we still rightly feel disappointment and even anger when people squander money on the new KFC Double Down (two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken fillets Original Recipe or Grilled, two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel’s Sauce) in a world where people are starving. Freedom is fine, but we still believe very much that it can be abused.

Is it a useless concept, then? Gandhi was once asked to contribute to a campaign to establish a world charter of human rights, in the days before the UN created one. According to Eknath Easwaran, his response was, “In my experience, it is far more important to have a charter for human duties.” Gandhi’s quote is useful for considering what the real basis for freedom is.

Freedom must be understood in the context of responsibility, and our duties as human beings. As religious people, we believe that we have a duty to love one another, and to live in a manner befitting human dignity. We believe that we have to support one another’s spiritual flourishing, and ensure that everyone, especially the poor, has the ability to live the life that God wants us to live. Those responsibilities begin at home, among our families and neighbors, and extend out to the world.

Freedom has to be the freedom to do our duties, not simply a blind relativism towards our actions and those of others. Freedom of speech is most alive when it is used to defend the vulnerable, as seen in the lives of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Archbishop Oscar Romero. They gave their lives and their voices for the sake of the downtrodden, so that the latter might live in a world where they could flourish and love as they are meant to. Freedom of assembly is most alive when it is used to bring together people for the common good, as seen by the amazing charitable work done by free groups of people, like the Grameen Bank and Lions Club International, groups that take an active concern in the welfare of humanity. Freedom of business is most alive when it is used to find innovative ways to help people get the things they need in the highest quality at the lowest prices, thereby meeting people’s material needs and freeing them up for higher pursuits.

Every freedom has to be oriented towards the good, and towards the well-being of the vulnerable. So many of our debates about rights could be conducted quite differently if we paid attention to what is really human and good. Of course people have the right to criticize the government, because criticism keeps government accountable and communicates the needs that people have. Of course no one has the right to advocate violence; the right to speak is dependent on not causing harm to the good of others, and it is founded in the duty of doing good.

Duties play an important role in figuring out what freedom is ultimately ordered towards, and it is religion and moral philosophy that teach us our natural duties. Learning how to bring our religious understanding of human responsibility into dialogue with politics is one of the great tasks that lies ahead for religious people in the next several years; the world is very thoroughly confused about freedom, and very ready to listen once more to the insights religion can offer.

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Now for the post:

Compared to our fellow animals, as human beings we are blessed with the unique intellectual capacity to observe, learn, ponder, and change our behavior. Having observed the suffering and trivialities of the ephemeral world of everyday life, we recognize that there must be something more to life than the illusion of maya we encounter all around us. Hindu doctrine asserts that the only way to break free from maya and worldly suffering is through self-realization.

Although I believe that householders can make significant spiritual progress through seva, meditation, and mantra/japa, I have always generally associated self-realization with swamis and sadhus. While many of us may desperately want to break free from the seemingly endless cycle of karma and worldly suffering, most of us here at Harvard have no immediate intention of embarking on a life of self-renunciation and could never see ourselves as future sanyasins.

All of us are extremely busy with schoolwork, clubs, and friends.  We don’t recite mantras/japa all day, do seva all day, or ponder the Gita all day — if at all. While we may regularly think of God during times time of reflection or right before our midterms, our minds are not singularly focused on the divine.

I personally have tried to justify this reality by rationalizing that I’m a student and that my highest obligation lies in studying (so I can one day do God’s work) and enjoying the people around me. But in reality, very soon I’ll be consumed working, raising a family, and will one day ultimately die.  Our lives will very soon flash before our eyes and everything we think we have to show for will be nothing more than the trappings of maya.

Put simply, if we don’t get around to making spiritual progress in our current life, in the grand scheme of multiple reincarnations our current lives will literally have been wasted. So then, are we to abandon our problem sets and spend hours meditating in the cozy Dharma prayer space? Or are we to be typical Harvard students and go on to run hedge-funds or develop new cancer drugs, and leave the self-realization for another lifetime?  Perhaps, there is some ideal happy medium between the two -– but what does it look like?

Clearly we must somehow incorporate spiritual practice/values into our everyday lives. But, how do we go about doing this? And once we have this internal awareness, how can we stay aware of our actions and live a selfless life? How do we make time for God, so we can incrementally make substantial spiritual progress while still staying busy fulfilling all our other duties?

Take care, everyone. See you all on Friday!

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श्रेयान् स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात् स्वनुष्टितात् स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः परधर्मो भयावहः

Roughly translated, this says that performing one’s prescribed duty (svadharma) imperfectly is better than performing another’s perfectly. Krishna tells Arjuna this in the context of Arjuna’s concerns about war. He tells Arjuna that it is his duty to fight the war, and that he cannot achieve freedom by renouncing his duties and activities; the path of action also leads to realizing God. Thus, this verse says that Arjuna should carry out his own duty of fighting, instead of becoming a renunciate like Krishna.

It’s one thing to say that I should perform my duty, but how am I supposed to know what is my duty? Even Arjuna is unclear as to what his duty is, and he requires God to guide him properly. This verse doesn’t answer the question directly, and nor do the following verses in Chapter 3.

In a world where we have so many choices for everything ranging from where we live, to what brand of juice we drink, to what profession we choose, determining one’s duty is not always straightforward. I have duties towards my family, towards my friends, towards my schoolwork, and towards my employer. And then there are duties in a much grander sense. Are these duties related to finding one’s calling in life? And in the context it’s used in this verse, what does duty mean? Is it your role as a father or mother, sister or brother, and son or daughter? Is it your profession, or role in society? Is one’s duty spiritual or worldly in nature? Does your duty change over the course of your life? Or is it merely the means you use to fulfill that duty that change?

When I’m at a crossroads in life, and need to make a tough decision, like Arjuna did, what principles should I use to guide that decision? How can I find out what my duty is?

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