SETTING IT FREE


















Pic.: Unnati Jiandani

One of my friends’ father fought a court-case against his tenant

for twelve long-years… and, finally, lost it.

The house went to the tenant…

My friend’s father couldn’t recover form the shock, till he died!



Some years ago, when our servant was doing the house work,

our TV fell off its stand and broke into pieces.

We not only got mad at our servant,

but we, also, kept worrying about ‘our loss’ for al long time!



Years ago, a neighbor of mine was fired by his boss.

He fought for his ‘job’ for full five years,

only to lose at the end.

He not only lost his job,

he also lost his precious time, money and peace of mind.

He hasn’t recovered from it, yet!



Why do we cling, so desperately, to our material possessions…

to our status, our positions?

Why is it so difficult to love these things,

yet, remain free from their bondage?

Does attachment to things –

excess dependence on the pleasure of owning them – breed worry?



While  I was haunted by these questions,

I had come across the following popular quote, somewhere:


If you love something,

Set it free;

If it comes back, it is yours;

If it doesn’t, it never was.



GERALD D’CUNHA




P.S.:

‘THE COBWEBS’ was one of the popular booklets I had written and published for THE DAWN CLUB in its early years. It was first published in 1991. Once again, what made this book connect with the readers was that it spoke in first person… The passages – some twelve of them - seemed straight from one’s own heart, they sounded like one’s own voice…

This passage – ‘SETTING IT FREE’ – is one of the popular passages from the book – ‘THE COBWEBS’.




Comments

Anonymous said…
Nice post. Thnx. Ravi
December 21, 2013 at 2:32 PM
Vinod Nair said…
Very insightful. Vinod Nair
December 21, 2013 at 4:27 PM
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