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….
..Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let
my country awake…
Rabindranath Tagore’s
poetry almost became a national anthem for those who were part of freedom movement.It was
perhaps the most powerful expression that exemplified freedom. The word
‘freedom’ itself has connotations that can run into pages.
But what
really is freedom? It means so many things to so many people. From the freedom
of speech,to act, thin,live,express,there is much
that the words stands for. To free the mind would perhaps be the basis of good
living. For only when the mind is free of all negativity and channelizes its
energies towards creativity and positive thoughts can it lead to a satiating
life? The freedom to study, to follow any religion, to marry in any caste, to
deliver a child, to move around freely at any time of the day or night, to make
choices and take decisions, the freedom to live and let live shall be the
greatest boon to our country.For though
rights exist, they necessarily do not give freedom.‘At the
stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and
freedom. A moment comes, which comes rarely in history, when we step out from
the old to the new, then an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long
suppressed, finds utterance……’ was Jawaharlal Nehru’s speech on the eve of
independence. It was full of hope and dreams for a new India. But did we
actually awake to ‘life and freedom’?
Did we find a new path? Did our soul find utterance?The country, so steped into corruption, barely comes across as a nation that understands the real worth of freedom. It’s been 62yrs and we have still not learnt what independence could have actually meant to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment