In Search of Freedom (or So We Think)
In pursuit of freedom and self-expression, people move from state to state, country to country — that’s practically the story of America, a land of immigrants. Some even dream of settling on another planet.
But wherever we go, we carry our conditioned mind along for the ride — and with it, the usual travel companions: greed, fear, envy, anger. None of them make great neighbors.
When astronauts go to space, they wear a suit to shield them from the elements (or their absence).
Here on Earth, though, there’s no protective barrier between us — the soul — and the conditioned mind.
When the mind becomes too restless, psychiatrists prescribe pills to slow it down. Some people take drugs to hallucinate or escape. None of that, of course, is a natural or lasting solution.
The Real Itch Behind All Movement
All this restless motion — across jobs, places, even worlds — is really a search for ānanda: happiness, fulfillment.
Ānanda is the soul’s natural state, and until the soul becomes free and experiences it again, it will keep searching.
But through the conditioned mind, we keep getting offered substitutes:
“Okay, maybe you don’t know what real ānanda is… but you can own this car. Remember how great that drive felt?”
And so, the soul gets absorbed in the temporary play of duality, mistaking it for reality.
It begins to worry:
“I need more money.”
“Will I get that job?”
“What if someone in my family falls ill?”
We often describe duality as “good vs. bad,” “right vs. wrong,” but perhaps the most practical way to see it is this:
in this world, everything seems to have to be earned.
We’d love to be on vacation all year, but most of us end up working most of the time just to afford a few short breaks.
It’s universally accepted as normal — but is it really necessary? Or is it just another perception shaped by the mind?
Two questions naturally arise:
- Why do I always feel like I’m chasing it — never quite satisfied, much less blissful?
- And while chasing, why does it almost always feel like hard work?
Krishna’s Radical Proposal
Krishna offers a completely different approach in the Bhagavad-gītā (18.66):
“Abandon all varieties of duties and just surrender unto Me.
I will protect you from all sinful reactions — do not fear.”
The words śaraṇaṁ vraja literally mean “take shelter” or “seek refuge,” yet they are often rendered as “surrender.”
The nuance is important: the conditioned soul hesitates to take shelter — almost fights back — clinging to false promises of worldly fulfillment. We keep polishing the golden cage while neglecting to feed the bird within.
When we finally understand this, it feels like the right time to take true shelter.
That’s what Krishna offers — but actually, He offers much more.
Say you’ve found real shelter: all your worries gone, all your problems solved. Then what? What do you do with your time?
If your mind no longer torments you, if weather, mosquitoes, even money no longer disturb you — where will you find ānanda?
Do you have a reliable source?
Worldly pleasures — drugs, sex, sensory thrills — don’t last. Most are harmful or fleeting. Even the joys of material life grow stale quickly.
The honest answer? No — we don’t have a reliable source of ānanda.
Krishna offers both:
an eternal, inexhaustible source of ānanda and the freedom to pursue it fully.
He says, “Take shelter in Me.”
The bhakti of Krishna is full of ānanda — and He assures us that as we immerse ourselves in it, He personally takes care of everything else.
A rendering closer to the verse’s spirit might be:
“Forget all self-imposed, social, and cultural obligations that keep you spinning in circles.
Trust Me — I will make you whole and deeply, completely happy.”
The truths (tattvas) to understand here:
- Krishna is the Supreme Controller. He creates and governs all laws, including those of material nature. Māyā, the illusory energy, works under His direction — so yes, He can make exceptions whenever He chooses.
- Krishna is the source of real ānanda. Our relationship with Him — expressed through loving service — is the soul’s original fulfillment. While we’re running on the hamster wheel of worldly pursuit, it’s easy to miss, but that experience can be revived through bhakti. Once awakened, it never fades.
Material pleasures lose freshness quickly.
But love — genuine love — never grows old.
When two people are truly in love, they don’t calculate logistics:
“How will we pay the bills?”
That would kill the mood.
Love carries its own faith — that somehow, everything will be fine.
If even worldly love has such liberating power, what about divine love — devotion to Krishna, backed by the most powerful, benevolent Being? Can it not free us in the most practical sense?
Krishna already maintains every living being.
Drop a tiny crumb during a picnic, and soon an ant finds it — that’s his meal.
A poor person invests a hundred dollars in a coin that unexpectedly turns into a fortune.
Meanwhile, a confident earner’s life is overturned by a sudden illness or lawsuit.
How much control do we really have?
Krishna sustains the entire universe, and He promises to personally care for those who take shelter in Him.
Stop Worries, Not Actions
When Krishna says, “Abandon all other dharmas and surrender unto Me,”
He doesn’t mean “stop acting.”
He means: rise above small, self-centered anxieties — and express yourself freely, with faith, knowledge, and alignment.
The shift is internal: from anxiety to trust, from struggle to love.
When that shift happens, worries and fears naturally dissolve.
After all, if you suddenly learned you’ve inherited immense wealth — more than you could ever spend — relief would come instantly.
If it doesn’t, it only means you don’t yet believe it.
And that’s the only vacation that never ends —
the only wealth that comes without the fear of losing it.