Outline:
- Slaves in the prison house of feelings
- Refusal to be swayed by feelings
- Craving for pleasure is the worst bondage
- Wise man never envies
- Work, the grand cure for all maladies
- Two men capable of honour
So long as an individual is in bondage to self he can neither know nor experience the joy of liberty. A man is in bondage to self when he is under the sway of his feelings. A man is in bondage when he does not bring reason to bear upon his actions. How often one hears it said, “Oh, I do not feel like doing that just now”, or “I do not feel like going.” Such are the expressions of slaves and ‘not of free men and women. They are the slaves in the prison house of their own feelings.
The soul that gives way to likes and dislikes is a stranger to liberty. Prejudices and partialities, selfish desiring and the craving for pleasure, fretting and sorrowing, grumbling, worrying, envying, discontent, repenting and regretting all these are bondage and so long as one gives way to even one of them, liberty will remain unknown.
Do you desire liberty? Then you must conquer those things that in the past have conquered you. You must burst open the door of your self made prison house, and no longer remain a slave and bondman. Refuse to be swayed by feelings. Bring calm and deliberate reason to bear on all things. Say to yourself. “This is a matter of right and wrong, and my feelings have a nothing whatever to do with it. It is not how do feel? But what must I do? Children may like city. “I do not like this” or “I do not like that,” but such words will become ill on the lips of men and women. If your life and conduct are ordered by your likes and dislikes, then you are a weakling and a slave.[the_ad id=”17141”]
Prejudices and partialities blind the eyes to realities. He who comes under them is unable to judge righteous judgment. Prejudice and partiality are byways for the feet of slaves. Wise men walk by Principle, and judge by righteous. So the wise man takes pleasure in doing his duty. He believes that it is a responsibility that enkindles man to act. He marries power with faith and idea with act.
There is nothing but “act”
The sign of life
Not “idea” that can’t
Even dare face strife
Graving for pleasure is perhaps
Craving for pleasure is perhaps the worst and of bondage. It leads men and women into the deepest slavery. He who ceases to crave for pleasure will find more than pleasure, even happiness and blessedness. To fret and complain are sure signs of ignorance and spiritual darkness. The liberated man considers calmly his positions. His chief aim in life is to fulfill the claims of today. He neither frets nor complains but with judgment and reason he weights pros and cons.
A wise man never envies another. He is never discontented with his share of things. He knows that envy is a blighting and withering is poison. He rejoices with great joy in the happiness and good fortune of another. He knows, no good can come to him but what he earns and deserves. He stands in his own place. He calls all his will and strength to his aid. He works day and night till his eyes become dim and heavy. Without a sense of responsibility, one cannot know one’s own self.
It is the life of Effort the troubadour of Islam
It is the Responsible man alone the crusader of Islam
To Muhammad all Effort the harbinger of life
For, the jewel of life is enshrined in strife
[the_ad id=”17142″]The slave to feelings and passions is ever sinning and ever repenting. He acts today and repents tomorrow. He who sins and repents, acts and regrets, is not a wise man or free but is held in bondage. The wise and free acting from reason, thought and judgment, knowing that their actions were according to their highest judgment and after their holiest convictions.
The man who does his duties is a liberated man. He is strong, calm and just. He does everything by the light of Reason. He thinks no evil. He speaks no evil.
The free works and wins
The slave shirks and fails.
No man can be free and happy who does not work. Without work, life is empty, useless and unhappy. “Labour is ever lasting noble and holy,” says Carlyle “It is the source of all perfection. No man can become accomplished without work”.
Work is the grand cure for all maladies and miseries. Work is the strongest of moral tonics. It is the most vigorous of mental medicines. Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day. Being forced to work and force to do your best will breed in you self-control, diligence, strength of will, content and a hundred other virtues, which the idle never know.
What but our hard habit of work, generation after generation, has given stability and meaning to our national life. It has been the salvation of our poorer classes. It has saved thousands from premature deaths especially by suicide.
Two men I honor, and no third. First the toil-worn craftsman, that with earth-made implement laboriously conquers the earth and makes her man’s. Venerable to me is the hard hand. A second man I honor is the man who is toiling for the spiritually indispensable. A keen sense of responsibilities is born in him. He gains victory over Nature and provides the young man work to do. It is the who have freedom and immortality. These two in all their degrees I honour all else is chaff and dust.
There is no bondage in Heavenly life. There is perfect freedom. This is its great glory. This supreme freedom is gained only by obedience. He who gives loose reins to inclinations is a slave to his passions. He cannot control his emotions and passions. That is why he avoids accepting responsibility. It is the responsibility that enkindles man’s power to act, through it he achieves his ideals perfect
