The greatest freedom man can have is the freedom to choose the response he gives to any person, incident, situation or circumstance. You will experience the taste of true freedom when you are able to give the response that you want to give. Else, you will end up doing something that you didn't want to do, and remain a slave of the habits of your mind. For example, you might have often heard yourself say: 'I didn't want to hurt him, but I did.' – 'I didn't want to get angry, but I couldn't control my temper.' – 'I had decided to eat the sweets tomorrow, but I couldn't control myself and I finished them off today.' – 'I wanted to shut off the TV immediately, but ended up watching it for hours together.' – etc. Man is weak because he doesn't have this freedom. If Independence Day is able to remind you of true freedom, you will celebrate it with the right understanding; else your slavery will go on. Now the question is: How and where do we find this kind of freedom? Is there such a place, standing on which, we can choose the best response? Yes – it is in our heart, our tejasthan. The decisions we take with our heart take us to the ultimate liberation. There are two things in every incident – the incident itself, and your response to it. Between these two, there is an interval – a gap, space, emptiness, blank.
This interval is the place from which you have to take a decision about the appropriate response. Focus on that interval. Be alert in that interval. If you are able to remain onto your tejasthan during that interval and give the right response, freedom will be yours. But if you move even slightly away from that place, you will lose your freedom, because your response will then be a reaction. And that reaction will be according to the hardened habits of your mind (patterns). So always be alert and aware in the interval.. It is a very short duration of time; be awake in that duration. Do not get glued to the incident during the interval. Do not get identified with the incident. Detach yourself from the moment of unconsciousness.
