"Independence Day"

I'm writing today from a hotel just outside of Chicago where i'm visiting relatives. Yesterday was a day of travel from UK to the States. If anyone thinks this material world is nice, they should have seen all the police with machine guns standing around Heathrow Airport yesterday. I was lucky to fly out. All flights from Terminal 4 were cancelled for 6-24 hours due to a scare. While i was waiting for my flight on Air India in Terminal 3, all the unlucky passengers in Terminal 4 (BA, KLM) had to evacuate the terminal in a rainstorm and lose their flight connections. Many had to spend overnite in London because of a "suspicious" package that turned out to be harmless. Nice place, indeed, this material world.

Today is the 4th of July, celebrated as Independence Day in the USA. This so-called misconception of "independence" is not freedom, but is ironically, the cause of our bondage. How's that? Because we are never independent of nature's laws, which are God's laws. Everyone is under their rule. But due to our desire to compete with God, we imitate our "independence" in various ways. This is another good example of how imitation has no real value.
As defined, our independence is only an imitation of reality. Real independence means to take shelter and surrender to God, Lord Sri Krishna. That will free us from all our existential fears and karmic reactions. aham tvam sarva papebhyo moksayisyami ma sucah
(Bhagavad gita 18.66)

How can we be "independent" when we are tied to the certainty of death which comes with the material body? No science, no ideology, no political system and no so-called progress can free us. Only Krishna, the giver of liberation to his devotees, can. But we don't want to pay the price for his mercy, which is to accept Him as the Master and Enjoyer, and accept ourselves as humble servant of his servant. Better to rein in hell, than serve in heaven. That's our independence.