freedom

We say an object is there because we can see it or feel it. We know of its existence because of certain properties we perceive they have on the basis of which we say the object exists. We ,with our superior intellect which we pride ourselves so much with, have given certain units that give the object its existence - like length , breadth,shape color etc. But are these units absolute to make them real so that we can depend on them to prove the existence of any object?

Take distance (length, breadth etc.) for example. We say a table is two meters long. But to an ant at one end of the table , it may be not so. It will say the table is one Km long or half a day long. Who is right? Both perhaps.Similar is the case with breadth and all units of distance. A man travelling by air from London to Ny will say it took him nine hrs . But another man travelling the same distance by sea would say it took him several days. Both are right . So the unit of distance which is the basis of existence of an object is not absolute - only relative and hence unreal. Now take the shape of the object which you say is real and existing before your eyes. The shape of the object depends entirely on the nature of your optic lens and attendant optic paraphernalia. If another animal has an optic lens different from man's what is round or square to us may be some other shape to that animal. Or if one has a lens of a different type than the rest of us what he sees and feels will be different from what others see. I mean he may see a round object as some other shape. Color and smell also depend entirely on the property of our respective sense organs. These vary from species to species and even person to person at times. Therefore it is clear from all this that every property or attribute that gave an object physical existence is only relative and not absolute and hence unreal. In short all this goes to show that what we see is/are not really what we think we see. This is quite unsettling. It gives man's cocksuredness a full body blow. Suddenly the real becomes unreal.

The airline industry seems to have strange ways.Its practices are even stanger, sometimes bordering on the bizarre. British Mediterranean Airlines is operating a flight from Heathrow to Cardiff without a single passenger . It flies an empty Airbus round the trip of 240 miles emitting ten tons of carbondioxide into the atmosphere.This is the equivalent of carbon gases emission per day of a town of 2000 inhabitants. The ostensible reason given out by the airline officials is that they are forced to resort to this in order to retain their landing slot at Heathrow which once lost can be got back only at a huge cost. The going rate now is around ten million pounds. All the grand talk about strict measures taken by the airline industry in the direction of cutting down GH gas emissions is just talk when it comes aginst hard cash.

Now we come to the bizarre part. A British Airways flight from Delhi to London strapped the corpse of a passenger who died in midflight to a seat in the first class right next to another passenger. The passenger later said he had a harrowing time sitting next to a dead body that slippd down every now and then and had to be hoisted back and strapped again by the cabin crew. All through the flight the passenger was in mortal fear that the body might decompose. When later he complained to the officials he was advised that he would recover from the experience. He is lucky that they had not pointed out how thankful he should be for getting such a quite and least troublesome copassenger next to him !

Two friends were going on a bike. It was a very windy day. The

pillion rider decided to wear his windcheater back to front to

protect his chest more effectively. After a while the rider

felt something amiss and looking back found to his horror the pillion

rider missing. Flustered, he turned around and raced back to look for

the friend. After  a couple of kilometers he saw a crowd of

people gathered around an inert body. To his dismay he found that it

was his friend lying quite still and dead to the world. He dismounted

and asked what had happened. A man who seemed to be in charge

said  , " The poor bastard had fallen off a bike . He

seemed to be allright when we got to him . But his head was

turned completely the wrong way. We turned it round and he had been

like this ever since".

Great suffering finally leads an individual to resignation and this is mistaken by many as acceptance. Acceptance in turn is regarded as the cure for all suffering - the eternal balm. But this kind of acceptance or resignation is seen by those who see that all events are in their efficient and unerring control,as meek submission to the vagaries of chance. To them Prostheus fighting a battle he knows he has no hope of survivung is a symbol of unflagging spirit.And Jesus hanging on a wooden cross pleading for forgiveness for his tormentors is a pitiable picture of abject surrender.

Well, this is only one point of view. Consider Promeheus chained to a rock and quite helpless against the vulture that descends on him to peck at his open heart. He struggles against the chains and tries to free himself to fight off his adversary.This is considered by many as the last word in courage and steadfastness. But in reality this is due to his ignorance which has resulted in a sad failure to appreciate his situation. His fight is only an animal instinct to survive.
On the other hand Jesus did not struggle against his detractors not because he was resigned to his fate. If it were so , he also would have struggled and shouted obscenities and curses at the Roman soldiers.Instead he only said that the Centurions who had nailed him to the cross and denied him water be forgiven for they know not what they were doing.
How was he able to behave in such an extraordinary manner that defies human understanding? Because here was a man who accepted his situation and this was not resignation to the inevitable. He accepted the inevitable with open eyes and the awareness that the real "he" was something other than the gross body gave him the courage to ask for the forgiveness of his enemies. How was this possible? Jesus was a fully evolved man who realised that he was not just body, mind and intellect. The real "he" was something apart from these three confining entities and once a person gets that awareness he is really free because he knows that whatever is being done to his physical body can not harm his real self which is eternal and unperishable.That is why he said that his tormentors do not know what they were doing. They did not know that the real self of any man can not be crucified and what happens to the physical entity comprising of body ,mind and intellect does not affect the Self. Only such a man who has attained that awareness could have said those words in those moments of extreme physical agony. For such a man has elevated himself to be not the son of God but God Himself.Now you see the difference between Prometheus and Jesus , I hope.

Today Gabriel Garcia Marquez turns 80. Marquez is by far the greatest living writer of his genre. His novels written in his own style of magical realism are a heady mixture of fantasy and reality. The reader gets the feeling of having woken up from a world of dream into something he can't exactly place where. His autobiography , "Living to tell the tale" is a vivid and graphic account of the world he knew and a world we all ought to know. Most of his novels carry large fragments from his own life with reality and fantasy interwoven in the most exotic way. I had been an avid reader of his books which have given me days and days of pure pleasure. Happy birth day Gabo ! May you go on and on and on giving us books that enrich our lives.

I have many friends , successful in their respective spheres of activity such as the professions, business, services etc. All of them , when asked what they enjoy most in life , invariably replied , "The struggle for existence ". They say this in all sincerity and honestly believe that without what they perceive as struggle for existence , life will be pretty dull and not really worth living. But is this struggle for existence they say is essential to their lives the same strugle a person has to put in to save himself from the depths of poverty ? The answer is no. A daily wage earner or a peddler of small articles has to struggle so hard that a moment of relaxation will not bring food on his table. The successful businessman or the company executive when he says he has to struggle for existence, he is actually struggling for success or at worst to keep himself from what he fears is ruin. (loss of a contract or the inability to buy the latest car or to get into a swanky club).
But the other man who really has to struggle would not have known what financial ruin is because he never had any money to lose in the first place. When an affluent , well placed person says he loves struggle for existence, he is simply trying to give some dignity or even sanctity to the various gimmicks he has to perform to go on being successful.

God appeared before a little boy and asked him what he wanted for He could give him anything.

" You can do anything "? the boy wanted to know.

" Sure,I AM God".

" Then please create a rock which you can not lift " , said the boy.

Caught in a catch- 22 situation , the Lord was floored and disappeared.