Four more days to go before independence day (August 15), and it got me thinking… What is independence? Was it just political freedom from the colonists? Or does it mean something else? The freedom to do whatever I want? What about constraints? If I jump off a cliff in order to fly, without the proper gear, I will soon but very briefly learn about a constraint called gravity.

Who really takes away our freedom? I revisited one of my favourites, the Uttarpara speech by Aurobindo. It never ceases to inspire me how he found freedom inside a jail.

If the idea of inner freedom appeals to you, I would suggest my course, Siddhartha ( www.walkright.in ) as a good starting point.

Read the Uttarpara Speech here. https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Uttarpara_Speech