FREEDOM

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….