On Khalil Gibran: Free from the clutches of the world, you remember God

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.

— Khalil Gibran

Acharya Prashant (AP): The Heart stands for Freedom. The Centre, the Core stands for Freedom. The Truth stands for Freedom. And because the Truth is Truth, it cannot go away or disappear. Then why do we feel un-free? If Truth stands for Freedom and Truth cannot go away, why do we often feel that our freedom has gone away? If Truth and Freedom are synonymous, and Truth is everlasting and omnipresent, then why does man appear to lose his freedom so often?

The Truth is there and the Truth does not lose its freedom. Then who loses freedom? The mind loses freedom. The mind has no freedom of its own; the mind has freedom only by virtue of its intimacy with the Truth. Truth is freedom and when the mind will be close to Truth, the mind too will be free. The mind’s freedom is available to it only when it is close to the Truth.

Truth is freedom and if the mind is away from Truth, then it will also be away from freedom. Now, what is meant by being away from Truth? What is meant by this statement — ‘The mind may be away from Truth’? The Truth is and the Truth need…