Fortified Souls

And once there was a child who like any other child was made to believe that we are ‘free’, because once upon a time we were under the British rule, but now we rule ourselves. And the child was naturally satisfied with the explanation because it all seemed legit to his nascent understanding. But the time passes and it leads to evolution of ideas. The circumstances of the child strayed him into the realm of self-doubt. Apparently this could have led to a disastrous outcome but due to various other happenings, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Now the child had acquired the ‘maturity’ to doubt his very existence. The event may be an incident or an accident as you might call it.

Now it wasn’t an enlightenment overnight but rather a slow evolution of ideas catalysed by a curiosity for a keen observer and susceptible to his ‘existence’(LOL). The changes were slow and the child was not a child anymore. (But as they say there is a man in every child, so let us refer him as a child.) The child was now ‘free’ or more accurately he had adopted ways which gave him a false impression that he was ‘free’. He was ‘happy’ because he had acquired the ‘Art of Happiness’. But as we know that alteration is the ultimate law of the universe, his ideas were never still. And while new ideas developed, a rift was created with the former ones.

The ever busy mind now wasn’t in sync with prior ideas of ‘freedom’. The child now identified the constraints that tied him, thus preventing him from achieving his freedom. The situation became frustrating and it had an adverse effect on his ideologies. His ideas were free, his imaginations kissed infinities, but could not experience them in reality. A feeling of constraint again gripped him.

Time is the best leveller and the child had again learnt to be happy limiting himself to the freedom of his imagination. He now had multiple personalities, of which just one was visible to the external world. The beauty of his ‘free’ world was that he could experience anything, hate someone or love someone by his choice. But the child was mature enough not to apply utopian conditions to his free world.

And while a feeling of desperation was increasing (because the ideas were constantly evolving), a change inevitably took place and the previous ‘constraints’ were removed from his life. Now the child (not a child anymore) was as much free as he could imagine. He has acquired the freedom to choose, free to roam, free to affect himself etc. And he enjoyed and exploited his newly found freedom. But being never of a calm thought-process, he could have never settled at this position. He started to experience the constraints that were earlier hidden or rather were not ‘essential-enough’ to be considered a restriction. And the idea of “Fortified Soul” germinated somewhere in his conscience. He didn’t like his voice, but he was bound to use it. He never had any freedom to choose it.

And like this child, we never had real choices in many of our ‘free’ decisions. We did not choose our world, our setting, our bodily features, our parents, our religion and most important our decision to exist (or not). We are constrained by our own physical existence. We have our own worldly limitations. We have a voice which cannot change, we don’t have wigs to fly and many others. Our decisions are never ours. We are intoxicated with certain influence.

And thus the concept of “Fortified Soul” is enforced. Your soul can, up to an extent, contemplate freedom but you have your physical attributes to be restricted by. Even utopian ideas are not safe from these constraints. Suppose you try to imagine a ‘world of your will’. But isn’t the world influenced by the negatives (or positives) you do not want to see in life? ……. But we still have a strong feeling of freedom which prevents us from straying into territories of pessimism.

“Choice or more specifically freedom in choice is but a necessary illusion”.

If I come across a point where I have to make a decision with multiple possibilities, then I should feel that I make my choice ‘freely’. Though my decision may have been predetermined owing to some factors, but this illusion works right and perhaps prevents the “creature with higher consciousness” from depressing down. A rich kid might never have the option of pursuing begging as a profession, but he should feel a sense of liberty in choice of his/her path. If we feel free to be ruled or administered by an individual or a group of individuals, then be it. Such a feeling is vital for the existence of societies.

The child while sitting in the lap of nature observed mundane things around and realised that every creation of nature is governed by the rule to be bonded by restrictions. A bird looks beautiful against the backdrop of sunset. But what if the bird demands to be able to run of land? What if a tree demands the power of locomotion? What if a fish wishes to have lungs like that of a terrestrial animal? What if a river desires to be salty? It would most probably lead to a chaotic situation unable to sustain life (let us avoid the definition of life for now).

Now there were no reasons for the child to be saddened by those restrictions, but rather to enjoy the worldly restrictions he had conquered(mostly).

We are “Fortified Souls” because we are meant to be.

Freedom in real sense is said to be attained when an action is taken or a choice is made devoid of unnecessary or malefic worldly influence, and constrained only by natural limitations of the individuals and other harmless worldly factors (such as involuntary human emotions).