Freedom At Last....

The other day, I was taking an evening stroll. I walked past the tree lined houses and in the distance could spot a brightly lit establishment. To avoid it, I crossed over to the other side of the street and started walking fast. I had crossed that establishment almost, when suddenly someone gripped me and started dragging me towards that place. I tried my best, broke free and started running. But soon that person gripped me again and started taking me into the place. Realizing there was no point resisting, I just followed that person inside. I saw several people sitting and talking. I was made to sit on a chair and this person patted me and said, " Why are you afraid? You have come here often. Calm down." He then called another person and told me to tell him what I wanted. As I hesitated, he encouraged me and finally I said, " Get me a Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky." After several drinks, when I woke up, I was in my bed having no idea how I got there.

Before people jump to conclusions, let me make it clear, I am a teetotaler. The above is a dramatic start to explain a concept of bondage that we all experience.  I can hear people suddenly wake up and say that they are all totally free to do whatever they wish and that they are not bound to anybody or anything. Well, in the above example of a drunkard who had given up drinking, what is it that dragged him back to a bar in spite of his best intentions? I will let people guess for a minute as to what this enormously powerful force could be. 

It is the force of habit.

In the American Journal of Psychology (1903) it is defined in this way: "A habit, from the standpoint of psychology, is a more or less fixed way of thinking, willing, or feeling acquired through previous repetition of a mental experience."^[4] Habitual behavior often goes unnoticed in persons exhibiting it, because a person does not need to engage in self-analysis when undertaking routine tasks. Habits are sometimes compulsory.^[3][5] The process by which new behaviors become automatic is habit formation. 

I am not writing about psychology, but would like to talk about habits because they are a hindrance to our spiritual growth into that all powerful infinite Self that we truly are. It is very obvious that habits are a powerful force and make us do things which we do not even intend to do. The above example of drinking was an extreme example. Bu if we are honest with ourselves, we can relate to many such situations, where we do something which we did not want to do. We know we are a prisoners of habits. But how do habits form? Why is it that drinking or smoking is not a habit for me, but is a powerful force for someone? Habits form due to some action. Maybe someone took the first action of drinking once, gradually liked it and became prisoners of drinking habit. It is not that I have not tried to smoke or drink. I have tried, but never felt the need to continue and hence it never became a habit. Why is that some people fall a prey to these and it becomes a habit and some do not.

Now, we come to an interesting part of each of us. Each of us consists of a gross body with the 5 sense organs and five action organs and other body parts; a subtle body consisting of the emotional always moving mind and the thinking intellect and finally the causal body, which creates us in the first place. The causal body is the storehouse of vasanas or desires and a set of desires gives us a body and a particular life form for one birth. Vasanas are associated with the individual ego and the ego takes birth in different forms depending on the set of desires to be met. Based on the birth, we do actions which create impressions for the ego and get added to the vasanas. So let us see the cycle again. We take birth with a particular life form based on a set of vasanas. To accomplish the desires, we take actions. The actions become habits and are ingrained deep in our psyche at the ego level. As we take birth after birth, the memories in the form of habits drive our desires and actions and we are stuck in this cycle forever. Why should do we break from this cycle and how?

Our basic character is Peace, Infinite happiness or bliss. Because of massive ignorance, we forget our true character and are chained to a cycle of birth and death with resultant pleasure and suffering, all under the impact of vasanas. So the key to getting away from this cycle is to break free of desires. Am I telling something profound? Obviously not. It is easy to say, break free of desires. If it was so simple, the world would not have had so many de-addiction centers.  As we try to give up desires, something sinister starts happening if it is not replaced by a higher level desire either consciously or unconsciously. As discussed earlier, desires and the related fulfillment of same leave marks on the mind in the form of habits. Even though I wish to give up desires, the thoughts flow in the groove created by habits. So, if I have been a drunkard or a smoker, even if i wish to give up, thoughts flow in that direction by habit. Thoughts create uneasiness in the mind leading to acquiring that drink or smoking that cigarette to calm the mind. But this calm is only temporary till the next thought again comes in the same direction. Imagine a river water flowing. Suppose we dig a canal in a different direction, water starts flowing in that direction. Just as water seeks the path of least resistance, the mind seeks the path of least resistance

This is what I meant when I said, we are creatures of habit and are bound by it. . A desire can never be curbed, but can only be replaced by a different desire. I did not have to struggle to forget my desire of toy cars that I had in childhood. Once i started desiring for a bicycle, the desire to play with toy cars fell off automatically. Once I desired for a car, my desire for a bicycle fell off. So as a higher level desire takes root, the lower level desires fall off. Though some desires die away gradually due to progression of desires, some desires stick with us due to the force of habit. 

We need to break free from these habits to become free to realize our full potential. Awareness of a problem is the first step in curing it. Being aware that habits are actually causing us to lose freedom helps us to find a cure for the bondage.  The solution is to become aware of our true Self and the insidious impact of habits. Just as darkness can be dispelled with a single beam of light, the ignorance of our true self can be removed by a study of the Absolute using the intellect. As the intellect dwells on the True reality within, it becomes aware of the dangerous power that habits have on us. As the intellect further continues on the path of gaining awareness of Truth through spiritual understanding, the realization that I am complete in myself starts gaining intellectually. But then, if i start gaining intellectually, the ego starts dying and the ego in a desperate move, calls upon habits to awaken the desires. If habit succeeds in awakening desires, the ego is strengthened and my journey on the path of Divinity is halted. This is now the moment of truth. Have I got sufficient intellect in me to realize that habits are delaying my progress or will  I let my mind be driven by habit and run to fulfill the desires? If my intellect wins, it is a first battle victory over my habits. But the war is still to be won. 

More such battles need to be won and the intellect given greater strength through deeper spiritual study under guidance of a master, satsangs or meeting with similar spiritual people and other means. Once the intellect is given power, it starts a positive cycle of enriching itself and becoming stronger till it can realize the futility of desires and then will not be bound by habits. Once desires do not hound us, the intellect is further free to pursue its journey towards realizing that we are not the small insignificant ego bound by insignificant worldly matters. In the final stage, the intellect takes us to that point where we can almost realize we are Divinity itself. At this point, just like a pole vaulter throws off the pole and jumps across the bar, we need to discard all the tools that brought us to this peak moment and take the jump towards infinite freedom.

Conclusion

We are the infinite Truth with no constraints. However, through force of habit, we are bound to desires which feed the ego and make us feel incomplete always. Through a proper strengthening of the intellect, it is possible to break free from the grip of habits and realize our full potential as liberated souls.