A man comes to a master to ask how much man is independent, free. Is he totally free, or is there a limitation? Is there something like fate, kismet, destiny, a God who makes a limitation beyond which you cannot be free?

The mystic answered in his own way -- not logically but existentially. He said, "Stand up."

The man must have felt this was a stupid kind of answer, "I am asking a simple question and he is asking me to stand up." But he said, "Let us see what happens."

He stood.

And the mystic said, "Now, raise one of your legs up."

The man, by this time, must have been thinking he had come to a mad man; what has this to do with freedom, independence? But now that he has come...and there must have been a crowd of the disciples...and the mystic was so respected; not to follow him would be disrespectful, and there was no harm.

So he took away one of his legs from the earth, so one foot was in the air and he was standing on one foot.

And then the master said, "That's perfectly good. Just one thing more. Now take the other foot up also."

That is impossible.

The man said, "You are asking something impossible. I have taken my right foot up. Now I cannot take my left foot up."

The master said, "But you were free. In the beginning you could have taken the left foot up. There was no binding. You were completely free to choose whether to take the left foot up or the right foot up. I had not said anything. You decided. You took the right foot up. In your very decision you made it impossible for the left foot to be lifted up. Don't bother about fate, kismet, God. Just think of simple things."
Any act that you do prevents you from doing some other act that goes against it.

So every act is a limitation.

In the story it is so clear. In life it is not so clear because you can't see one foot on the earth and one foot in the air. But each act, each decision is a limitation.

You are totally free before deciding, but once you have decided, your very decision, your very choice brings in a limitation. Nobody else is imposing the decision; it is the nature of things -- you cannot do contradictory things together simultaneously. And it is good you cannot; otherwise...you are already in chaos...you would be in greater chaos if you were allowed to do contradictory things together. You would go mad.

This is simply an existential safety measure.

Basically you are totally free to choose, but once you choose, your very choice brings a limitation.

If you want to remain totally free, then don't choose. That's where the teaching of choiceless awareness comes in. Why the insistence of the great masters just to be aware and not to choose? Because the moment you choose, you have lost your total freedom, you are left with only a part. But if you remain choiceless, your freedom remains total..
by
k.jagadeesh 
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