Arvindus

Contemplations

Freedom (and Love)

  • Title: Contemplations, Freedom (and Love).
  • Author: Arvindus.
  • Publisher: Arvindus.
  • Copyright: Arvindus, 2021, all rights reserved.
  • Index: 202102021.
  • Edition: html, first edition.

Content

§

The English word 'freedom' stems from the English 'free' which in general refers to a state of being unbound, unrestricted and unfixed.1, 2 For instance in abstract freedom may refer to the state of being unbound and unfixed to necessity.

Here it must be understood that necessity binds from within, while its opposite contingence binds from without. From within a rose seed is determined to develop into a rose in full bloom, however whether the seed will receive enough water and nutrients is determined from without. Necessity is related to subjectivity while contingence is related to objectivity.

In the ageless wisdom subjectivity is referred to as 'spirit' while objectivity is referred to as 'matter'.3 And it was contemplated before that spirit (or the monad on the human level) is related to fate (or destiny) while matter (or the body on the human level) is related to accidence.4, 5 It is the fate of the rose seed to come to flowering as a rose while it will be accidental whether it will receive enough water and nutrients.

Now each of the aforementioned dualities knows a third given that relates the dual givens to each other. Subjectivity and objectivity are related by conjectivity,6 fate and accidence by choice, spirit and matter by consciousness, and the monad and the body by the soul.7 So with necessity and its opposite contingence coming in our sight through contemplating freedom etymosophically it may to complete the threefold structure be assumed that freedom relates necessity to contingence.

We thus get an overview as below.

Necessity Freedom Contingence
Subjectivity Conjectivity Objectivity
Fate Choice Accidence
Spirit Consciousness Matter
Monad Soul Body

Figure 1.

Now the soul in the ageless wisdom is considered in its prime aspect of love.8 And freedom as related to the soul then also must be related to love. This is etymosophically acknowledged. The English word 'free' stems like its Dutch and German counterparts 'vrij' and 'frei' from the Indo-European 'prijos', which is thought to be the root also of the Sanskrit 'priyas', meaning 'dear' (or 'beloved').9 And in Dutch the word 'vrij' is the root of the verb 'vrijen' with which is referred to love making.10

Now an English synonym for 'freedom' is 'liberty',11 which is thought to stem from the Latin word 'līber',12 referring also to freedom.13 Interestingly 'līber', or 'liber' if we take the English root, is phonetically very close to the German word for 'love', being 'liebe'. This German 'liebe' shares its etymologically root with the English 'love' and the Dutch 'liefde' in the Sanskrit 'lubh',14 referring to desire or longing.15 Now those who fairly object that it is exactly desire that binds16 should take in consideration that desire does play the same role as love in a lower cycle. For where love as the prime soul faculty relates spirit to matter there does desire as the prime emotion faculty relate the mind to the physical body.17 Both fall under the occult law of attraction.18 Besides that it must also be noted that desire is not only an obstruction to liberation but also to love, and that if 'love' and 'liebe' can be the sprouts of 'lubh', then so can 'liberty'.

So freedom and love go together. When a person has all the possible options for action in the world but his eventual action is not accompanied by love then he will not experience freedom. And when a person has only one possible option for action but his eventual action is accompanied by love then he will experience freedom.19

This is acknowledged in a further consideration of subjective necessity and objective contingence. The course of the life of a rose is on the one hand destined from within and on the other hand circumstanced from without. A single rose however has no individual consciousness, no love, no choice and thus no freedom. This goes for all sub-human life forms. They cannot singularly relate their destinies to their circumstances. A human however does have all of the aforementioned, to a certain extent. A human has, in certain measures, individual consciousness, love, choice and freedom. Man has the potency to individually relate his inner destiny to his outer circumstances. And this is his freedom. It is his freedom to lay his inner destiny through conscious and loving choice into his outer circumstances.

May we thus through love attain liberation.

Notes
  1. Oxford English Dictionary , Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0), Oxford University Press, 2009, freedom.
  2. Ibidem, free, a., n. and adv.
  3. Alice A. Bailey, Initiation, Humand and Solar, in: Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001, p. 11. "Wisdom is the science of the spirit, just as knowledge is the science of matter. Knowledge is separative and objective, whilst wisdom is synthetic and subjective. Knowledge divides; wisdom unites."
  4. 'Contemplations, Destiny, Choice and Accidence Contextualized in the Ageless Wisdom', Index: 201309091.
  5. 'Contemplations, Accidence, Choice and Destiny as a Ninefold', Index: 201510162.
  6. 'Contemplations, Subjectivity, Objectivity and Conjectivity', Index: 201507281.
  7. Note 5.
  8. Alice A. Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age, Volume I, in: Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001, p. 411. "Relax then and sink down into the soul consciousness which is love."
  9. John Ayto, Word Origins, The Hidden Histories of English Words from A to Z, A & C Black, London, 2005, p. 230.
  10. Van Dale Groot Woordenboek Engels-Nederands Nederlands-Engels, Zoeksoftware, versie 2.0, Van Dale lexicografie bv, Utrecht / Antwerpen, 2002, vrijen, 2.
  11. Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms, Merriam Webster, Springfield, 1984, p. 496.
  12. Oxford English Dictionary, liberty, n 1.
  13. Oxford Latin Dictionary, Oxford University Press, London, 1968, p. 1023.
  14. Oxford English Dictionary, love, n 1.
  15. Monier Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Etymologically and Philologically Arranged, With Special Reference to Greek, Latin, Gothic, German, Anglo-Saxon, and Other Cognate Indo-European Languages, The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1862, p. 870.
  16. Sri Ramakrishna in: Mahendranath Gupta, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Volume I, Swami Nikhilananda (translator), Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, p. 166. "It is 'woman and gold' [desire] that binds man and robs him of his freedom."
  17. 'Ageless Wisdom, Triplicities in Man', Index: 201308292.
  18. 'Contemplations, Sex, Romance and Love: Types of Attraction', Index: 201001181.
  19. Geert Crevits, Morya Kracht 7, Open komen voor de werkelijkheid, Mayil Publishing House, 2020, p. 19, translated. "Freedom must be bound to love, to goodness, to certain structures that recon with goodness and that know: 'in this way we can proceed, because this serves man, this serves the fellow man.' When you do that, then you can really speak of freedom."
Bibliography
  • 'Ageless Wisdom, Triplicities in Man', Index: 201308292.
  • 'Contemplations, Accidence, Choice and Destiny as a Ninefold', Index: 201510162
  • 'Contemplations, Destiny, Choice and Accidence Contextualized in the Ageless Wisdom', Index: 201309091
  • 'Contemplations, Sex, Romance and Love: Types of Attraction', Index: 201001181.
  • 'Contemplations, Subjectivity, Objectivity and Conjectivity', Index: 201507281.
  • John Ayto, Word Origins, The Hidden Histories of English Words from A to Z, A & C Black, London, 2005.
  • Alice A. Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age, Volume I, in: Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001.
  • Alice A. Bailey, Initiation, Humand and Solar, in: Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001.
  • Geert Crevits, Morya Kracht 7, Open komen voor de werkelijkheid, Mayil Publishing House, 2020.
  • Mahendranath Gupta, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Volume I, Swami Nikhilananda (translator), Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai.
  • Monier Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Etymologically and Philologically Arranged, With Special Reference to Greek, Latin, Gothic, German, Anglo-Saxon, and Other Cognate Indo-European Languages, The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1862.
  • Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0), Oxford University Press, 2009.
  • Oxford Latin Dictionary, Oxford University Press, London, 1968.
  • Van Dale Groot Woordenboek Engels-Nederands Nederlands-Engels, Zoeksoftware, versie 2.0, Van Dale lexicografie bv, Utrecht / Antwerpen, 2002.
  • Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms, Merriam Webster, Springfield, 1984.