Absolute FREEDOM.

Today I feel like jumping up and down and screaming, "I'm free, I'm free!" (Emily, pictured above, kindly agreed to do this for me). I am celebrating two years of soberness and celibacy. For this, I am completely indebted to a handful of good friends who encouraged and supported me to pursue a life of virtue. However, I am also in anxiety because so many friends of mine are still struggling to put their lives together or struggling to live their lives apart, stuck in the same old patterns of intoxication, ambition, attachment, and aversion.

In the Bhagavad Gita (3.27), Krishna says, "The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature." The three modes are described as goodness, passion and ignorance. Those in the mode of goodness seek out intelligence and virtue. Those driven by ambition are highly influenced by passion. Excessive sleep and intoxication are characteristics of the mode of ignorance. The three modes of nature effect everything we do or "think" we do. Our thoughts, beliefs, goals in life, actions, questions, the people we are attracted to, the food we eat, even the religions we believe in or choose not to believe in, are determined by the influence of the three modes which manipulate, pollute, and smoother our minds and intelligence.

The path of self-realization begins by understanding and observing the workings of the three modes in our daily activities. The goal is to become aware and learn how to transcend the modes all together. Everyone talks about the political agenda this, the corporate agenda that, but who actually realizes that the participants in these agendas are also unconsciously enslaved by the three modes. So if we really want to be free, we've got to learn who is actually pulling the strings of those who pull the strings.

Free your mind, for what? To take more intoxication and become further entangled in the web of unrequited sense enjoyment? It's more like, observe your mind by using your intelligence, control your mind by controlling your senses. And then the most amazing thing happens. You can actually live in peace with the satisfaction of knowing that this new found mental clarity will enable you to make the right decisions to guide you wherever you need to go to become the best possible person you can be and live the best possible life there is to live.

So this is dedicated to all my beautiful friends out there who are feeling stuck or overwhelmed and needing direction. I'll give you the advice that was given me from a dear friend who sat me down and said, "For now, just try to live your life purely, then you'll understand why later."