The notion of freedom

We were on a trip to raigad. This is probably 3 years back. We had a stop over and the entire group was having vada pav. I don't eat potatoes and green chillies. Now having known me for so many years, one of them asked me "tereko mann nahee hota khane ka". I said "No".
After so many years, I realized that the incidence in some way is connected to "notion of freedom". Freedom does not mean freedom to do anything and everything. If it was, militants and not monks would be more free ;)
Freedom means ability to choose. For e.g. We all love pani puri (i mean 95% of us do). We probably also know that pani puri is not healthy. Now how many of us choose to not eat it willingly (I am not saying to restrict, thats why willingly).
This ability to choose with awareness is one of the aspects of "being free".
While I say this, at times, I may choose to eat something unhealthy. It is the choice I have made but most of us in all honesty know that we just ate because we cannot resist or we just followed the crowd or that is the only thing which was available.
Mind is free when it is watchful. You got to watch your mind. Everyone gets angry. It's okay to be angry as long as you know you are angry. As soon as you know, it drops ;)
Now you can choose to be angry, this anger will have it's purpose and only you will know it.
Rising of conciousness means to be aware and watchful. You just have to go beyond your mind otherwise you are trapped.
You are aware of your state of mind when your conciousness rises.
A simple way to understand the whole thing is -
" You choose to eat the pizza or pizza chose that you eat it".