BORDERS & FENCES..... A cursory look may show that the humanbeings aspire for unlimited freedom. But a close and careful analysis would confirm the fact to be otherwise. Why this visual aberration ? No doubt we crave for unlimited freedom ; but at the same time, we hesitate to step into unknown areas and do anything revolutionary for fear of social disapproval and ostracism. The fear of getting rejected and ostracised by the society always looms large in our mind when it tempts us to try unconventional things. We are all gregarious by nature and so to live in isolation is a severe punishment even if we have every facility to self-survive. We dont prefer to get estranged and so, even if our mind wants to hold on to some lofty ideals in life, it just remains at a concept level, seldom taking an action level. To live in abject poverty is even not a dreadful thing, but to suffer excommunication is something that we dread most. It is said the most successful person is one who grooms number of friends during his life-span ;so great emphasis is always laid on our ability to coexist with rest of the society. The desire for absolute freedom & the fear of possible rejection by the society wage a continual war in us till our demise.We swing between the freedom state and conformity state never knowing in certain to which state we belong to, or in which state we like to rest. Only a very few gather the mental courage to pursue the line of path they dream to follow braving any verdict the society is ready to hand out ! A divided mind is always problematic ; it sucks our mental peace ,leads to hypocrisy,and pushes us even into depression, self-pity and self-aversion. We are aware of all these,but still feel helpless in discarding that part of divided mind which longs for social approval & hinder us from what we want to do .We succumb every time to the fear of estrangement. You cant be a friend of you alone in life and alien to all others in the society; if situations warrant, we often even prefer to go unfriendly to our mind, but be a friend to all the rest . In daily life, an exiled state of living within the society creates severe tensions and unimaginably crippling discomforts to us. So,living as per ones own free-will can only be an utopian wish to many of us. Even if the stream of life you opt for has ethics and morals as bunds on either side, still there is no guarantee that the society would approve of it. Societys codes and conventions not always go in perfect tune with the ethical codes, nor with the laws of the land.The courts and other legal forums fail to have any jurisdiction in certain social practices&faiths. Helpless so,we recognise the borders and fences created by the society inwhich we are an inseparable part . The compulsions originate from the civic, religious, cultural, regional and ever so many factors .Propelled by a burning desire to expose our true desire, we often attempt to atleast cry out but even that fails due to fear. The voice of truth goes mute ,so mute it is inaudible even to our inner soul ! No one would want to hold on to any principle, how much laudable it may be, at the cost his losing mental peace and social recognition. So,we always prefer to tread a golden mid- path, carrying our principles only upto where the society would allow ,and not an inch beyond , lest we may invite the wrath and disapproval of the society. Is it not a suicidal act since we willfully murder our self ? Ideally it is yes ; but in a practical sense, if our day to day survival is going to be at stake, and our very sustenance is going to take a severe beating for clinging on to our wish ,is it not in a way again a suicidal proposal to remain stubborn ? It sounds therefore sensible and inevitable to act within the borders defined by the society. When the going is good ,one may not feel the importance of the society, but in hours of crisis its importance would become evident. Do we alone have fences and borders ? How about the animals and the plants ? Again on a casual observation it may appear that they enjoy unbriddled freedom.But it is untrue. Even a street dog has borders which it respects ; it strides in its zone with ease & confidence, but when it encroaches into areas alien to it , it moves with caution and a sense of insecurity.It is aware of its limitations and so only it never freely steps into any house, even if it finds the inmates a little hospitable towards it . The plants and trees in a grove or wild too follow certain rules to ensure that all receive their own share of sunlight ,space and other needs for survival.Unrestricted growth any-time, anywhere is a problem and deleterious to overall sustained development. The feteus in the womb too has to respect the borders imposed by the biological design of mothers womb ; imagine what would be the disaster to the mother and to itself if it over-grows attempting to break the barriers pre-term ? Even in a microscopic level , unrestricted and unprogrammed growth of living cells is one thing which everyone dreads. Each cell has to repect its borders with its neighbours, as otherwise it is cancerous and malignant growth. Too much restraint also impedes growth and so it is also suicidal .Subjugating to too much control makes one to lose ones identity .So the rule for healthy growth is that at every stage or phase of development, it is essential to have non-choking borders ; onto the next phase, new borders have to be defined to ensure fresh free space to grow. This would show that the term freedom needs a careful definition to include all above said. Freedom does not & shall not mean a free-for-all situation in which no one would respect anyone ;it is a riotous condition where no growth is feasible but there would only be destruction and chaoes. Freedom means the flexibility in a system inwhich all members get equal chances to operate or function with no mutual interference or bitterness. It ensures independant action within an overall defined framework. Over-stepping of limits is allowed but only when it is absolutely warranted that too not without the consent of all concerned. Hence, obeying borders is not slavery or subjugation ;it is a civilised form of living and ethical too. In a truest sense Freedom refers to the freedom of mind or freedom of thoughts and obvious borders and fences have no relevance there. They have,as seen above, have applicability and relevance only in respect of freedom of action. Even the five elements of nature--water, fire, air etc -- have to function within limits as otherwise they would mean disaster. Though they are supreme and all powerful, we try to subjugate them by imposing boundaries. In the overall interest of all her creations nature too seems to obey willingly these borders ; rarely they over-step, perhaps in an attempt to demonstrate what could be the destructive effect of disobedience to genuine boundaries. Our notion that more freedom of action brings more joy is basically wrong and it stems out of our mistaken belief that one gets joy from outside. But , Joy remains within us ,and to seek and secure it there can be no restrictions ; question of trespassing into others area has no relevance in such an internal search .Our foolish dependance on external sources for happiness makes us to clamour for freedom (freedom of action ), as invariably in such searches over-stepping of borders is something which is inevitable. The day we realise that joy lies within us & we can secure it as much as we want thro an inward search, we would stop worrying about the external boundaries around us since the existence of such restrictions would in no way hinder our journey to secure joy. To sum up, if at all any barrier to be dismantled first, it is only the barrier in our mind to be removed , to enable the entry of the wisdom that joy lies in plenty within us, and so no restraint force operating external to us does really matter in our securing it to our content. Checks and controls to define one his permitted area of action are must in any society to thwart any reckless acts of a few who might imagine they are taller than the rest.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 16:36:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015