Freedom...there is not !!!!

Overstepping my frontiers one day, I put forward a question in one of my classes and solicited some very interesting replies. My controversial and interesting question was, “what do you believe freedom to be?”. I was over whelmed to find the majority of students more than willing to outpour their convictions, ideas and assumptions on this ubiquitously discussed subject. 

Some believed it to be the power to have their will done. Others thought it to be the state of being liberated from all external controls and constrains. Few, I felt, equated it with national independence. Freedom is the right to be who you are, expressed some. To say whatever one felt was what few others assumed freedom to be. And there were some who remained tight-lipped and declared that they   had no words to express on the idea under reflection, and that the subject was still very inchoate in their minds to be translated using the medium of language.

However, all agreed that this precious luxury should be doled out only as much as is necessary, as doing the contrary they believed would set loose anarchy and violence which in no way can be the objective.

As I mull over these wondrous answers, my mind feels inundated with thoughts which I reckon, should be put down for order to reign again.

All this talk about Freedom, freedom of expression, of choice, religious liberty, liberty of the mind , body and soul, has been with us since time immemorial; constantly wriggling out of nowhere and plunging itself comfortably into the musings, writings, artistic endeavors and conversations of the intelligentsia.

What then is the reality of this perplexing concept regarding which Philosophers, thinkers, scholars, poets have poured out volumes! There was a time when the love for freedom was such that any obstacle in its path was abhorred with the stringent repugnance possible. And when state came to clamp down on the unfettered wings of the liberty-obssessed, it was called the coldest of the cold monsters by Nietzsche. Till the deadly signs of Anarchy, the very first outcome of absolute freedom were felt, absorbed and comprehended, freedom in all domains cried out its distinction loud enough for the world to turn around and gape.

How ridiculously farcical and paradoxical is the case of this most convicted, often shackled, seldom acquitted and much celebrated, Freedom!

Observation and analysis of our environs reveal that freedom is never absolute and can be best understood in relation alone. Not untrue is the realization that this sine qua non concept, stitched into our selves as we step onto this earth, is no where to be found in its true sense. In fact, it always appears in ways and versions inferior to its pristine form. 

Then, what on earth is free and to what extent!! The poor soul is itself helplessly encased in a cage, the BODY, where it silently broods over the ugly tidings of the tangible world. The body is compelled to function, for its well-being and longevity, in conformity with the divine and man-made laws. Even the mind, the defiant rebel, is forbidden to pursue certain no-go regions by the clever counsels of the conscience and the heavens. How free is man then whose very own limbs cannot operate outside their pre-designated bends and twists!

They say the soul is free to discover new lands, soar the skies, scale the Everest, but the truth is that it is the most fettered of all, silently waiting for death to grant it its freedom, partial though.

There is no gainsaying that freedom if granted in any ways other than the present pseudo forms arranged by nature, would undoubtedly wreak havoc on the world and its inmates.

No matter how much we prolong this discussion, it always ends up on just one realization, Freedom there is not, and freedom there can never be, in absolute terms. But in this there is nothing to despair and nothing to wail about, for in reality, it is a SUPREME WILL we are all submitting to, knowingly or unknowingly, willingly or reluctantly. We and all other creations are destined by a supernatural decree, to function within the ambit of certain natural and earthly laws and in this lies our salvation, peace and fulfillment…. whether we like it or not!!