Liberty: A Blessing That Must Be Earned

 Liberty: A Blessing That Must Be Earned

Liberty is one of the greatest ideals of human civilization. Every person desires the freedom to think, speak, work, dream, and live with dignity. Yet liberty is not a gift that simply falls from the sky or arrives automatically with the passing of time. The statement, “Liberty will not descend to people; people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed,” expresses a powerful truth. Real freedom demands awareness, courage, responsibility, sacrifice, and continuous effort from the people who wish to enjoy it.

History shows that freedom has rarely been handed willingly from the powerful to the powerless. People across generations have struggled against oppression, injustice, discrimination, and exploitation. They have raised their voices, organized movements, faced punishment, and sometimes sacrificed their lives so that future generations could live more freely. The freedom enjoyed by a society today is often the result of struggles fought yesterday. Therefore, liberty should never be treated as something cheap or permanent by nature. It survives only when people understand its value and remain prepared to protect it.

However, liberty does not mean the freedom to do anything without considering the consequences. True liberty is closely connected with responsibility. A person cannot demand freedom of speech while denying others the right to express a different opinion. One cannot claim personal freedom while harming the safety, dignity, or rights of fellow citizens. Liberty becomes meaningful when individuals learn self-discipline and respect the boundaries necessary for peaceful coexistence. Without responsibility, freedom can turn into disorder; with responsibility, it becomes the foundation of a civilized society.

People must also educate themselves to rise to the level of liberty. An uninformed population can easily be manipulated by fear, rumours, prejudice, or false promises. Education develops the ability to question, reason, and distinguish truth from deception. A free society needs citizens who think independently rather than blindly following powerful voices. The strength of liberty lies not only in constitutions, laws, courts, or elections, but also in the character and awareness of ordinary citizens. Institutions can defend freedom only when people understand why those institutions matter.

Another important requirement of liberty is courage. Freedom can slowly disappear when people remain silent in the face of injustice. The loss may not always happen suddenly; sometimes rights are weakened gradually while society remains distracted or indifferent. Protecting liberty therefore requires people to speak against unfairness, defend the rights of minorities, demand accountability from those in authority, and participate peacefully in public life. A society truly deserves freedom when its people care not only about their own rights but also about the rights of others.

Liberty must also be renewed from generation to generation. The sacrifices of ancestors can win freedom, but they cannot guarantee its survival forever. Every new generation must learn democratic values, practise tolerance, reject hatred, and preserve justice. Technology and social change may create new opportunities, but they also create new challenges to privacy, truth, equality, and individual choice. The meaning of liberty may expand with time, yet its essential requirement remains unchanged: people must remain alert, informed, responsible, and willing to defend human dignity.

Therefore, liberty is both a blessing and a duty. It cannot simply descend upon passive people, because freedom without preparation, responsibility, and courage cannot endure. People must rise intellectually through education, morally through respect for others, and socially through participation in the common good. When citizens understand that rights and duties support each other, liberty becomes more than a political slogan; it becomes a way of life. Freedom is truly enjoyed only by those who value it enough to earn it, practise it responsibly, and preserve it for those who come after them.

Yog: The Breath That Unites Humanity

Yog is the union of body with breath, breath with mind, and the human being with the Source from which we came and to which we return. The world embraced yog seeking relief from pain and calm for restless minds, and yog gave these gifts generously.

Science now confirms what the rishis understood in silence: steady the breath, and you steady the heart. Yet yog was never merely about health or exercise. It is a way of life—a daily covenant of moderation, awareness, gratitude and service. It tells a weary world: slow down, breathe, return to yourself, and discover the Divine within.

The journey of yog across cultures is remarkable. From the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait to Saudi Arabia, thousands practise it under trained teachers. Nouf Marwaai, a pioneering Saudi yoga teacher and founder of the Arab Yoga Foundation, received the Padma Shri in 2018—proof that yog can build bridges between civilisations.

Yog conflicts with no faith because it demands no change of belief, only sincerity of practice. A Muslim who breathes consciously may deepen remembrance, a Christian who enters stillness may pray more deeply, and a Hindu who serves with awareness may draw closer to the Divine.

Long before the word “interfaith” became common, Sufis and Nath yogis met as seekers rather than strangers. Traditions of pranayam, posture and stillness encountered Sufi practices of zikr, muraqaba and mindful remembrance. Different paths discovered a shared longing for inner peace and closeness to the Beloved.

This is our civilisational inheritance: unity without uniformity and oneness that honours difference. Beneath humanity’s many names for the Divine, the heart carries one longing. The mat and the prayer rug, asan and sajda, Aum and zikr—all express, in different languages, the soul’s desire to return to its Source.

This is yog for interfaith harmony—not the dilution of any tradition, but the discovery of the still point where traditions can meet in mutual respect. In a world divided by borders and conflict, yog offers a peace that needs no translation. When we breathe together in awareness, hatred loses its hold. May every breath we draw become a prayer for peace.

IF HE EXIST

I drive joy there was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting 7 precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting 7 minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste 7 minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 7minutes joy that I derive 4m.-

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