IF YOU LOVE SOMETHING, SET IT FREE


 


“If you love something, set it free.

If it comes back, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was.”

Old Proverb

 

Many years ago, I had a poster displayed in my classroom with the above message. Young boys and girls, would get puzzled… “If you love ‘someone’,” they would understand it that way. So, the advice to set him or her – who they were madly in love with – free would not go down well with them… Detachment is for the old and the sick… This was their (Young ones’) age – the age of attachment. So, after some time, I stopped displaying this message… “Let them enjoy life… Detachment can wait,” I concluded.

Attachment mercifully comes in many forms: Attachment to wealth, people, beliefs, ideas, ideologies, opinions, places, creations and so on. I don’t think, it is possible – rather practical – to rid of our every attachment. Yes, as an ideal -  as a philosophy - detachment is very sublime. But, every one of us is a mortal here on earth; therefore, attached we remain to something or the other, in some measure or the other.

Another important thing, that I have observed about attachment and detachment, is this: It is not possible to let go of an attachment unless we recognize piercingly what that attachment does to us… The strain, the pain, the heaviness, the conflict and the suffering… Yes, these are the direct outcomes of our attachments. When they beset our lives, it’s easy to get in touch with the source – our attachments.

Letting go, thereafter, is simply a ‘choiceless awareness’… It simply comes about… Attachment gets dropped… That freedom is peace.

So, let’s read that old message from the poster, once again:

“If you love something, set it free.

If it comes back, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was.”

 

One of the most endearing fables about attachment and detachment is found in Ramakrisha Paramahamsa’s book – ‘Tales and Parables pf Sri Ramakrishna’:

 

THE KITE AND THE CROWS




Once, in a village, the fishermen had just returned after their daily catch. As they were sorting out the fishes, a Kite swooped down, picked a small fish by its beak, and shot up into the sky. Immediately, hundreds of crows appeared from nowhere and started chasing the Kite, making a crazy noise… To whichever direction the Kite flew, the crows followed it… It went on for a long time. Finally, the Kite became tired and decided to drop the fish… The moment the fish was dropped, the crows left the Kite alone and went after the fish…

The Kite quietly settled on the branch of a nearby tree. Sitting there, and looking at the crazy sight, it declared:

“There goes with that wretched fish all my misery.”

As I said, it becomes easy for most of us – the ordinary Kites of this world – to drop the ‘wretched fishes’ we cling on to – yes, once we realize piercingly what that clinging does to us…

Often, after my recounting of this fable, some little ones would ask me this question:

“Sir, how stupid these crows are… There is a boat full of fishes and they are after this one silly fish!”

Whereas, I would ask in my mind “Could this Kite avoid being chased, by dropping the fish right when the crows appeared?”




The chase, I think, was necessary – however stupid and silly it seems, at hindsight!

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic's.: pixabay

 

Video: Dare to Do Motivation

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MUTHU KODI KAWARI HADA

Image
Pic.; Ashwin Mohta M y Hindi was always bad. It still is. One reason for this was, that they introduced Hindi for us only in 6 th standard. Or, was it in 8 th ? I don’t remember… I only remember struggling to write and read… leave alone speak! But, I loved Hindi movies, and, strangely, I could understand the dialogues and the lyrics of the songs… I used to sing those songs (of course when no one was around me!) as if I was the lyricist… One of the songs was a very funny one. ‘Muthu Kodi Kawari Hada’. It was from Mehmood’s super-hit comedy – ‘Do Phool’. I was a 15-year-old high-school boy when I had heard that song (not watched the movie). I could grasp the meaning of two words – ‘Muthu Kodi’… which meant ‘Give kiss’… But, what ‘Kawari Hada’ meant, I have no clue till date! It was just like ‘Why this kolaveri di’... Yes, why ask? Simply enjoy the beats… And, the beats are great… The rest... Who cares? Really! So, whatever bit of Hi
Read more

"HAPPILY EVER AFTER IS NOT A FAIRY-TALE... IT IS A CHOICE"

Image
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone… It has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” – Ursula K. Le Guin,  The Lathe of Heaven T welve years ago, when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married, the world began to hail the couple as ‘Brangelina’. It became a fashion for couples around us to call themselves so… Norbert and Teresa renamed them as ‘Noresa’…  Amol and Vishaka baptized their relationship as ‘Amoshka’… and, Salman and Nargis became ‘Salgis’! I and my wife, too, got tempted to re-christian our matrimonial relationship as ‘Germa’... That is, Gerald and Anima, to be precise! B efore I proceed any further, let me make it very clear, here… that, I have no business to judge on the break-up of Brad Pitt and Angelina’ Jolie’s marriage. I have no inclination to go into why, how, what when etc behind it… The couple ‘chose’ to split. And, it’s their choice… Only they know how good or bad… how joyful or painful that
Read more

SELLING MIRRORS IN THE CITY OF THE BLIND

Image
“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God.” - Kabir T here is a universal human weakness – and it dates back to the days of fallen civilizations – and it is: to place people on pedestal and trying to be smothered by them, feel loved and protected in their company… worship them as mentors, heroes,  gurus, Mahagurus and Satgurus… Make these mortals larger-than-life cut-outs, worship them as flawless, pure and give one’s all… And, then, ‘take’ everything from them blindly as divine… Give everything to them blindly… Eventually, what happens is:  one more dangerous bondage… What was supposed to free you now becomes a new prison… It’s sad to see this happen! T his room, where I am writing this Post, has no image of any deity. I have no image of any Guru or Master around me… My question is: “Am I not able to feel close to Almighty God?  How does it matter
Read more
THE WILD, WAYSIDE FLOWERS
There is, always, something extra-ordinary in the wild, wayside flowers...