When you retire, people assume you have all
the time in the world – and I for one do not deny it. How do you spend your
time is the constant refrain from people who know me well. Coming to think of
it, I have retired almost a year ago and much to the amusement of the
questioner, I tell them that I am practicing the fine art of doing nothing! It
is not all that hard provided you are mentally prepared. To shatter this
peaceful existential bliss, a colleague called me and asked me a rather simple
question – “How do you create a blog?” She presumably thought that I, having
worked in the IT industry, will do it in a jiffy. But alas, I was not one of
those nerds but one who had accidentally strayed on to the IT field. But I was
not one to be pinned down by such challenges. I enquired about it with a few
friends and then suddenly an idea (is it a good idea – only time will tell!)
struck me – why not write a blog myself? Like a five year old kid I ran to my
wife and said “I am going to write a blog!” She was quiet for a moment and
hurled a question that hit me like a yorker sent down by Malinga to an
unsuspecting batsman. It really hurt and the question was – “Who will read it!”
My wife being more pragmatic than I am had me there! While it was a valid one,
being a psychology student I consoled myself and rationalized – even if no one
reads I can write one if only to reinforce some ideas to myself! So was born
this wonderful blog.
The next key hurdle was – what do you write
about? Being a dreamer that I am, I thought of writing my first blog
about Freedom – here we go.
All of us want freedom. The key question is
from what? Some of us want freedom from boredom, from relationships, poverty,
politicians, insecurity, fear of old age and a zillion other things. If we
manage to free ourselves from one thing, then the next one crops up. Is there
no end to this? How would this be if we are to free ourselves from one thing
and the rest of the problems disappear? Sounds very interesting and tempting,
is it not? Well here is a story first.
A shepherd was taking a cow belonging to a
Swami for grazing daily. He used to untie the cow and spend the whole day,
return in the evening and tie the cow back in its place. This was happening
day-in and day-out. One fine evening when he returned to the shed, he did not
find the rope to tie the cow. He was worried that the cow might run away if he
did not tie it. He went to the Swami and sought his opinion. The Swami said the
cow being a cow will not really know if it is really tied or not. He asked him
to go through the motions as if to put the rope around the cow’s neck. Now our
friend was very skeptical and was almost sure that the cow would run away at
night.
The next morning the shepherd returned and
found the cow in its place. He happily went near the cow and tried to drive it
away for grazing. The cow did not budge. Now the poor shepherd thought that the
Swami must have performed some magic to tie the cow down – why else would she
not move without the rope tied around her neck, he thought. He went to the
Swami and told him of his experience. The Swami told him to untie the rope that
he had tied the previous day. When the shepherd remonstrated that he did not
tie the rope the previous evening, the Swami reminded him that he had pretended
to tie the rope. Now he requested him to pretend as if he was untying the rope.
The shepherd did as he was told – and presto the cow started walking!
Now all of us are like this cow (don’t take
umbrage that we are being compared to a cow a-la Modi and the Puppy – this is
only a story). We think we are bound to this world and its attendant
sorrows but the truth is we are not bound. Like the cow, we are already free
but we don’t know this. How do you get out of this illusion – only by
knowledge, dear friends, knowledge. And how does one get this knowledge. Well
some other time….
