Freedom is a state of consciousness - Bhagavad Gita ch5:3

What is the most valuable thing in the world? The answer is... Freedom.
Having free time and space makes you richer than those without it. Freedom means being able to do whatever you wish with your time every day, with only the minimal constraints or obligations. If you can decide what to do with your time every day, then you are truly wealthy and free... in the material sense.

On a higher or subtle level, real freedom implies liberation from the chains of disease, old age and death. This level of freedom is rarer.

Freedom is, primarily, a state of consciousness, something one feels internally and subjectively. It's not outwardly visible necessarily to the independant observer. One person may be rich, yet feel trapped. Another may be relatively poor, yet free as a bird.

The truly free person is one who is not obliged to anyone else, nor are they dependant on anyone for their daily survival or sense of wellbeing. They do what they want, when they want and where they want.

I know the feeling because I personally need freedom more than anything in my world, besides air, food, sleep and shelter of course. Other than that my default condition drives me to claim my freedom as if my sanity depended on it.
And so I easily found it. When you know what you want, and you know what you hate, then it's easy to remain focused on your goal.

When I was a child my motto was "Strive for peace" yet as I entered adulthood it became "strive for freedom" because freedom brings peace.

Having every day free to choose how you spend your time, when you work, what work you do, as your own boss, that is freedom. And it feels peaceful because there is no desperation, no lack, no FOMO (fear of missing out).

Primarily it requires that there is no longing or hankering or lamenting. It requires a degree of mastery because without mastery, the senses will still dictate and the mind will remain trapped by desire for something more. Chained thus by lust or greed, even the richest person remains trapped and not free, like an addict dependant on something.

When you're not attached to the results of your actions, you are free. If results accrue from your investment of time and energy, or whether they evaporate like the overvalued price of some digital vaporware, either way a sense of freedom remains. That is also self-sufficiency, a quantity owned by one who has their more important needs already met; who already feels free, not dependant on the outcome of their daily work.

It's easy to feel free when the external world does not tie you down. Some are tied down by their surroundings, like the demands of their climate. If it's going to snow every winter, then you're dependant on finding heat to survive. Or you can simply move to a gentler climate.

Others are tired down by relationships. Yet even if you were born in a tough climate that limits your freedom, you simply leave and go somewhere that allows you the freedom you desire.

Similarly, if you're trapped in a relationship that robs you of your freedom..... well that was your choice to tie yourself to that partner or boss. You're always free to take control of your destiny, unless you're under a tyrant of course.

Freedom is more valuable to me than the bondage of spouse, children or mortgage. That's why I never married, had kids or went into any debt whatsoever. And therfore I am truly free and have been for most of my life. That's why I'm so happy. I have what I want and need.... freedom.

I'm not advising renunciation for everyone, only for those who, like me, desire freedom more than wife, family and household. For most people those things are more valuable to them than freedom, so they bear those chains of family and debt for a lifetime. They find their freedom in other ways presumably. Or do they?

After all, freedom is a state of consciousness. If you're still hankering, regardless of your situation, then you're still bound by that desire. If you feel complete and whole as you are, then you're already free and perhaps liberated.

In such a state one works merely out of duty to set an example, or to engage the creative mind and senses, but more to pass the time and leave a legacy, not because you're desperate for a specific result. The result is secondary, while the process in the moment is the actual focus. If there's praise or profit as a result, it's the same as if there's slander or loss. Wholeness is already obtained. Freedom is already achieved.

This state of liberated consciousness is generally possible when one realizes their true nature and identity as something other than the body and mind, as part and parcel of the compete whole. Feeling a sense of wholeness as a person implies not needing anything to make one feel compete.

You're already perfectly whole and complete. There's no need of the other, a mate. There's no need of a distant god because you already have that. God never left you. You're a part and parcel of that same God eternally.

That is the realization that brings with it a sense of freedom. That is the insight of the liberated soul. There is no more hankering or separation or longing.

There is only freedom.

Bhagavad Gita ch5:3

ज्ञेय: स नित्यसन्न्यासी यो न द्वेष्टि न काङ्‍क्षति ।
निर्द्वन्द्वो हि महाबाहो सुखं बन्धात्प्रमुच्यते ॥ ३ ॥

jñeyaḥ sa nitya-sannyāsī
yo na dveṣṭi na kāṅkṣati
nirdvandvo hi mahā-bāho
sukhaṁ bandhāt pramucyate

SYNONYMS
jñeyaḥ—should be known; saḥ—he; nitya—always; sannyāsī—renouncer; yaḥ—who; na—never; dveṣṭi—abhors; na—nor; kāṅkṣati—desires; nirdvandvaḥ—free from all dualities; hi—certainly; mahā-bāho—O mighty-armed one; sukham—happily; bandhāt—from bondage; pramucyate—completely liberated.

TRANSLATION
One who neither hates nor desires the fruits of his activities is known to be always renounced. Such a person, liberated from all dualities, easily overcomes material bondage and is completely liberated, O mighty-armed Arjuna.

PURPORT
One who is fully in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is always a renouncer because he feels neither hatred nor desire for the results of his actions. Such a renouncer, dedicated to the transcendental loving service of the Lord, is fully qualified in knowledge because he knows his constitutional position in his relationship with Kṛṣṇa. He knows fully well that Kṛṣṇa is the whole and that he is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Such knowledge is perfect because it is qualitatively and quantitatively correct. The concept of oneness with Kṛṣṇa is incorrect because the part cannot be equal to the whole. Knowledge that one is one in quality yet different in quantity is correct transcendental knowledge leading one to become full in himself, having nothing to aspire to nor lament over. There is no duality in his mind because whatever he does, he does for Kṛṣṇa. Being thus freed from the platform of dualities, he is liberated—even in this material world.

Reference: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, translation and commentary by Swami A C Bhaktivedanta, original MacMillan 1972 edition.

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