Strand that binds us together

Compassion is just flying without wings. It builds our inner world and the visible world. It is what it takes to accomplish something. It isn’t rage or war or cowardice that drove us, it has always been the derivatives of compassion that accomplished something. Compassion is a living force, when it takes hold of us it runs in our veins and sparks in our neurons, firing up our reservoir of infinite energy, taking us to the valleys of love, conquering our fears and opening up ways that we never could have imagined. We see world as a broken place and humans as tragic beings who are at once in the middle of rights and wrongs, who are cornered by the very ideal of duality within themselves. Rage might bring somebody to task, it might inspire somebody to greatness, but rage is not the conclusion of this conflict. We don’t see villains as heroes, it is always the ideals of compassion that inspire somebody above all else. The synthesis of duality must be the conclusion of this conflict which is abound in the depths of compassion.

Life is a choice we make and the foundations of those choices must be set on what the grandeur of compassion teaches us. We must love ourselves and love those around us no matter what.  They are the travelers of the same journey as we are, they have been or they will be across the same paths we treaded.  Be gentle and kind to everybody. Life can be a bed of roses if we choose to provide one in our grasp. Let us make use of what we have and don’t bother about what we don’t. Live in the moment and deliver what we have been here for. Search within ourselves and believe that we are not alone, we are here and we have a purpose, might it be grand or small it is something we were created for. Practice sentience, practice compassion.

We wouldn’t have to survive, if we make others fit. We are knitted together with a strand of humanity. If a single strand fails, nobody survives. This is the idea of all-encompassing compassion that we need to live our lives by.  We have to give not take, we have to be courageous enough to let go and not hold on to our grudges, we have to promote love and not rage. The doctrine of compassion does not differentiate between high and  low,  rich and poor,  white and black,  man and woman, elder and younger, it is not something geographical or something otherworldly, it is now and  here in all of our hearts.  Brains think but it is the hearts that see and hear. When love engulfs our being and we experience fearlessness, that is when we are truly free, the most pure form of bliss, we can ever imagine. These words might sound theoretical or utopian, but it is my faith that these are true and what else have we got besides faith to believe in. I don’t believe that one divided by zero is equal to infinity. 🙂

Conflict of the ages

We need freedom from the conflict between orthodoxy and modernism. We need freedom that resonates vitality in a society and an individual. One of the most visible barrier for this freedom is this conflict.

A slave’s heart is dead, frustrated and never sees the light of hope;
A free man’s heart is alive, full of zest and happiness.

A free man’s wealth, a shining heart and warm breath,
that of slave, only moist eyes.

[Source]

Modernity and orthodoxy have been in conflict over many ages. Still they go hand in hand. Both have many names and many forms. Freedom of choice, freedom of speech, rights of women, logical positivism, are some of the things that constitute modernity. While, tradition, cultural conformity, social conformity, caste conformity, moral code of conduct, are some of the common names that are given to conformism.

It is an observable fact in Pakistan that people who are modern, tend to be free from social conformism and are likely to adopt lifestyle of their own accord. These people however, do not have any regard for religion. To them religion is a chain that restricts their so called ‘freedom’, they will speak with fervor against all the negatives of mullaism (traditional Muslim scholars) and they will go to lengthy debates about how religion has restricted all the development. If they have any religious associations they tend to keep that to themselves. They are supporters of everything new and all the imports from the Western world are their benchmark of quality and culture. They are usually more educated than other classes of Pakistan and their education has been in English medium schools. It is amazing that they condemn the very culture they are a part of. Few of these people hold true to their claims as they themselves become enslaved by the cultural inferiority complex and are constantly looking to evade anything that belongs to their own culture. Morality for them is nothing except freedom from all tradition. They hold sacred every scientific theory and are prone to knowledge of prophets of modernity; Freud, Nietzsche , Marx, Darwin etc.

The orthodox have their own ways of thinking, although, they are in majority, they live in fears, fear of people, fear of society, fear of poverty, fear of non-conformity. They constantly endeavor to make their lives according to their social construct and they are always ahead of defining tradition and convention by which ancestors of their ancestors lived by. They have strong moral standards which they impose on their children forcefully. They will, many a times ignore the moral dis-integrity of the society but still hold on to what people are thinking about them. They are actually living the life of the society and not their own. These people have medium level education. They have utmost regard for molvis and they celebrate all the religious rites. In their regard for everything sacred they usually do not want to hear a word against it. They are strict in their following of their sect. They do not remain neutral in religious debates rather they will detach from those in family who change their religious associations. For them sacredness of tradition and convention is all the morality.

Iqbal says about freedom:

The juniper in the garden is free as well as chained to the soil
You should acquire freedom within these constraints!

[Source]

Truth lies somewhere in between, it is in the grey area. Humans are humans because they have control over their material urges. This control enables them to explore new possibilities. This controlled freedom or ‘growth of chained juniper’ is the freedom that can balance things out in this world. We need growth, we need freshness and innovation, but all this has to be achieved within the moral boundaries that ensure social development and growth. Truth cannot be utter freedom from all that is old, and it cannot be complete following of the old. True freedom is holding on to the fervor of growth while remembering moralities of the society. I would love to have your comments on this.