Freedom and independence are words well known to us. There was the great Indian freedom movement and every year we celebrate August 15 as our Independence Day. The Sanskrit word for freedom is swatantra. Swa means one’s own—by ourself. Tantra is the combination of two words, tanotu and trayate. Tanu means to thin out and trayate is to protect. In this Bharata Varsha that is called India, the goal of life, whether individual or collective, was only four-fold: dharma, artha, kama and moksha. Dharma is working for the welfare of one’s own and the collective existence, artha is to seek wealth in the form of Prana Shakti, Kama is to pursue desires that are in tune with dharma and moksha is to liberate the mind, or in other words, realise our true self as all in one and one in all.
When we understand liberation as a way to protect the mind by thinning out the individual desires of wealth or fame, then swatantra is a means by which our national store of individualities gets thinned out and we function as one strong collective force. A nation that thinks, speaks and functions as one whole is much stronger than a country that is strengthened by divided or scattered thinkers. The oneness of thought comes when through the means of self-dependence, the individual desires, anger, greed, delusion, arrogance and jealousies are weeded out from the mind. In the historical stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata, that was the repetitive theme of all great kings. They saw to it that the people in their kingdom were happy, well provided for and had their national goal as turned towards one god through the king.
Another meaning for the word swatantra is “by one’s own technology or means”. What needs to be done for the country, we have our own means and are not dependent on other individuals or nations. Paratantra means to depend on some outside factors for my well being and swatantra means self-dependent. This should not be confused with the international inter-dependence of nations that is needed for the welfare of the whole world. The independence here is the freedom to choose and live our day-to-day lives in the way we wish to and not dictated by a few group of nations.
Realisation of the self or that single factor called consciousness that is present in all of us is the only way to self-dependence, independence or freedom. As the Upanishads say—Naanyah Pantha Vidyate Ayanaya–there is no other way to the freedom of mind except by realising one’s own self. A country is here for this factor alone, to make all its people realise their true self. And of all countries in the world, Bharat has this goal alone—to practice and teach the path to freedom as the guru of the whole world.
(www.bamboowisdom.blogspot.in)