The Three Robbers and the Path to True Freedom

Lex Enrico Santí, LCSW, MFA

Ramakrishna, the great Indian saint, often told the story of the three robbers as a metaphor for the different forces that shape our lives. As a social worker at Cornell, I see parallels between this story and the challenges students face in understanding themselves, navigating external expectations, and ultimately striving toward personal freedom.

Sri Ramakrishna

The Story of the Three Robbers

A traveler is making his way through the forest when he is suddenly ambushed by three robbers. The first robber is cruel and violent, saying, "What use do we have for this man? Let’s kill him!" The second robber is a bit more moderate, suggesting, "No, let’s not kill him—let’s just bind him and leave him here." The third robber, however, comes back. He returns all of the traveler's possessions, takes pity on him, unties him, and even leads him toward the edge of the forest. He apologizes and says, "Let me take you home." As they walk along the path, they see the traveler’s home in the far distance. But before the traveler can truly leave, the robber stops, saying, "I can go no further. Beyond this point is a place I cannot enter."

The traveler, now free, must walk the final stretch alone.

The Meaning of the Three Robbers

Ramakrishna’s story reveals the deeper significance of the three robbers. The first represents tamas—darkness, inertia, and destruction, the force that seeks to halt our progress entirely. The second embodies rajas—activity, desire, and ambition, which keeps us bound to the pursuit of success and identity. The third, sattva, represents wisdom, virtue, and clarity, yet even this is still within the confines of the world—it can guide us to the edge, but we alone must take the final step toward true liberation.

The Three Robbers Parable

The three gunas are always present in our lives. We move through them constantly, experiencing their pull in different ways. But just as the traveler in the story ultimately must walk alone beyond the edge of the forest, we too must recognize that true liberation does not come from perfecting ourselves or mastering the game—it comes from stepping beyond the game entirely.

The Guna of Rule-Following and the Student Experience

In my work with students, I see these three robbers at play in their lives. One appears as stagnation, self-doubt, and the paralyzing fear that prevents them from engaging fully with their potential. Another manifests as the relentless drive to succeed, the need to accumulate accolades, and the exhausting cycle of external validation. The third, while closer to wisdom, still exists within the system—it can be the voice of balance and insight but remains tied to the ego’s need for self-improvement and structured identity.

Many students come to me questioning the rules they have been given: What does it mean to be successful? Am I following the right path? Should I be doing what others expect of me? The process of becoming someone—of building a career, a reputation, and an identity—can be both a necessary and limiting experience. The world often demands we operate within certain frameworks, but true freedom asks us to step beyond them.

The Ego, Becoming, and the Illusion of Control

Ram Dass, a disciple of Neem Karoli Baba, spoke about how the ego clings to identity—how it believes it must become something in order to be whole. But as he often reminded us, "You are already free, you just don’t know it." The struggle to become is, in many ways, the struggle of the second robber—the one who ties us up and leaves us in the forest. It is not the cruelty of the first robber but the seductive pull of the second that keeps us striving, climbing, accumulating.

Yet, true freedom—moksha—requires us to go further than even the third robber allows. It requires us to step beyond even the most enlightened version of ourselves and into the vast unknown.

Walking Students Toward Freedom

As a social worker, my role is not to dictate what freedom should look like for my students but to walk with them to the edge of the forest, to the threshold where their own insight must take over. The greatest support I can offer is not in providing all the answers but in creating a space where they can ask the right questions: Who am I beyond my achievements? What happens if I stop chasing? What is left when I no longer define myself by what I do?

Krishnamurti once said, "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." In guiding students, I often remind them that the path to true freedom is not necessarily found in meeting expectations, following the rules, or even in perfecting themselves within the structures that exist—it is found in the courage to step beyond them.

As Ram Dass said, "The heart surrenders everything to the moment. The mind judges and holds back."

So perhaps the question is not, "How do I become free?" but "What am I still holding onto that keeps me from realizing I already am?"