We all cherish freedom, but the reality is that we can never have absolute freedom. We can’t fly unaided like birds in the sky; we can’t resist the calls of nature; and we can’t avoid aging and dying.

Gita wisdom explains that we are controlled by our desires. Whatever we desire gains increasing control over us till it becomes the thing that just doesn’t cede its control over us. Indeed, it becomes the thing that defines us.

What people celebrate as free sex may well be alternatively seen as total control by lusty desires. We can see this phenomenon of bondage-masquerading-as-freedom more easily in addictions, wherein people become bound by their desires. Thus, what we desire determines our destiny.

The best choice, then, is not to crave for absolute freedom, but to select the control that brings out the best within us, thereby freeing us to strive and satisfy our longing for life and love and joy eternal.

Such is the control of spiritual love. When we learn to love Krishna, we become free to do that which is actually good for us, indeed best for us. We become free from our lower desires; and ultimately we become free from our obsession with matter, thereby going beyond the mortality that characterizes our material body to the immortality that characterizes our spiritual essence.

To nourish our love for Krishna, we need to willingly place ourselves in his control. We can’t cede control to him unresentfully and wholeheartedly as long as we hold on to the illusion that we can be absolutely free. Prompting us to reshape our aspiration for freedom, the Bhagavad-gita (07.14) assures that those who surrender to Krishna become free from the formidable shackles of illusion.

By choosing to let ourselves be controlled by Krishna, we attain the supreme freedom.

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