Where the mind is without fear

"None  are  more  hopelessly  enslaved  than  those,  who  falsely  believe  they  are  free"                                  

~ Johan  Wolfgang  Von  Goethe. 

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

 Where knowledge is free;

 Where the world has not been broken  up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

 Where words come out from the depth of truth;

 Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

 Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

 Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action -

 Into that heaven of freedom, My Father, let my country awake"

  Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore

       (1861 - 1941)

                                                    ___________________________

Come one and all, my fellow countrymen and women, let us celebrate our freedom. 

Why do you not celebrate with us on this Republic anniversary day of ours?

Let us sing and dance like all happy and free people.

Oh I see! You do not feel too happy or so optimistic.  

Freedom, what freedom you ask? 
Maybe you are right.  

We have traded in imperialistic rulers to replace them with self serving dynastic and often criminal rulers.  We lived in bondage under the Kings, Princes, Nawabs, British, Portuguese and French, now they have gone we like to believe we are  free.  But are we free? I think not. 

The enslavement of the mind and spirit is greatly more reprehensible and sad than physical slavery.  The physical slave is aware of his or her plight and either accepts or fights it. 

The tragedy of the people whose minds and spirit are enslaved is that they are not aware that they have been enslaved. They take great pride in their slavery and even preach the same dogma of their former and current masters.

This tragedy the great Rabindranath Tagore ji foresaw and prayed to God that  " …into that heaven of freedom, My father let my country awake" 

A great future beckons us, all we have to do is believe in it.  India can once again become a beacon of hope, health, prosperity and happiness for the entire world.

________________________

"The Bard of Bengal",  Rabindranath Tagore ji (1861 – 1941)  reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art.

Author of 'Gitanjali'  he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. Tagore's poetry was viewed as spiritual and mercurial; his "elegant prose and magical poetry" had a profound impact not only on Bengalis but on the world.

His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: India's Jana Gana Mana and Bangladesh's Amar Shonar Bangla. The Sri Lanka's National Anthem was inspired by his work.

Mind or Heart ?

Mind or Heart

I got some interesting feedback to my earlier article "I am richer because I follow my heart."

Some people think me impractical.
Could it be that matters of the heart always appear impractical?

Reproduced are some of the comments.

1. "I think one should be rich if he/she follows his brain not heart."
2. "Wake up man! You live in a real world not in wonderland"
3. "Thanks I can relate to this”
4. "Touching and inspiring. I am a changed person"
5. "Thanks for sharing this with us."
6. "I fully agree with the contents and have personally experienced the fulfilment when you give without any expectation in return."

Good or bad, pleasant or otherwise, all feedback is appreciated. After all the idea is to share experiences and hopefully enrich the quality of our lives. Passion makes things happen. It would be disappointing if this blog were a monologue. Osho once asked "What can be the sound of one hand clapping?"

The comments are interesting and stimulating, but I wish those who respond would post their comments on the blog rather than mailing them to me.

Here is an important question to ask ourselves.
What is the difference between success and happiness?
Success is getting what you want, and happiness is wanting what you have got.
It is easy to confuse the two.

Let me share some additional thoughts;
My childhood teacher, friend, and role model was my Uncle, Sardar Manohar Singh ji. Growing up, he taught me to be totally independent. He warned me "never ever put yourself in the position that you need someone else so badly that you have to allow them to mess with you. The moment people realise they have power over you they begin to toy with you." "To be enslaved, dominated or toyed with, is a terrible feeling, and you will feel stifled and resent yourself" he added.

So in the material and professional world I sought to be totally self sufficient.
I achieved a lot materialistically but spiritually I was hollow. Emotionally I was all bottled up. I would not love, or even trust. My friends found me happy and jovial but little did they realise how superficial I really was.

The first five years of our career were filled with exceptional progress. Progress achieved by sheer hard work, amazing luck and fair share of exploiting others.

Every morning we would rise and shine, and then charge out to do business battle.
We had everything we needed to live a good life, but yet I felt an emptiness. Getting married made me realise how emotionally bankrupt I was. Yet obstinately I remain unchanged.

There was the constant questioning on the meaning on the quality of my life. Then our children came into our lives. I could be a child and uninhibited once again. I began to feel release from my hard boiled shell. In giving, sharing and playing there was a joy that cannot be described, only experienced.
Once the butterfly takes flight it can never be the ugly caterpillar again.

Aware I was but directionless I remained.
However the mind and heart had been rendered fertile for receiving good things and that is what happened.
As my friend Anil Pillai says, "good things come to you only when you need them or when you are ready."

Many people came in my life. Some gave me a leg up, some showed me the way, and some cautioned me from pitfalls. Some like Nana simply adored me, but all of them like the old man to whom I gave a ride awakened me. Each encounter peels away a myth, prejudice, and negativity. A layer at a time you reach ever deeper into yourself. Question is what do I and others like me do with these lessons and experiences?

I am compelled to quote Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister during Second World War); "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened."

Once awakened everything looks and feels different. Greater depth and finer hues can more readily be discerned. Sure I was more aware but a lot of what I saw in myself did not appeal to me. We had to lead a life that made a difference.

Unfortunately we have learnt to measure life with a single dimension, that of money. What will you do with more power and money beyond a point? Seek more money and power in a never ending cycle? Rather than working to live, we were living to work.

Slowly, not only I, but my brothers changed.
Why fell people and clamber over them, when you can stand on their shoulders, lift them and rise with them to dizzying heights. It was pretty scary, and very dangerous belief because we brothers risked everything for it. The results came slowly but in greater steps with each passing day.

The dream of building a world class Indian organisation where a sense of pride, excitement and inclusive development was addicting and became our goal.

The mosaic of life with all the joy and sadness, good and bad has to be experienced and this posting on the blog is but a feeble attempt at conveying this experience.

"The unexplored life is not worth living and the unlived life is not worth exploring... so said Plato or Socrates (doesn't matter who said it, the message is more important)