and

“Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live”

“Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another”

We may preach that we need to learn to live. We may preach that it is wise to never fight nature. But often we are deprived of the strength it requires to abstain. Perhaps the way we live , is the way we feel life needs to be lived. Perhaps we may think that nature shall never be able to overtake our wisdom, if we thought that both of them were equally balanced.

We live our own lives each one of us. Our compulsions to society and family may rob us of independent thought and act. What could be the way of life for one could be entirely different for the other. Then how does one generalize or equate or balance. We do so in a manner which we feel is the way it needs to be addressed. We set our own codes and conduct. And remain within them. But who is to decipher what is right or wrong.

When we talk of the compulsions of society and family, we are already losing ground to another. Then what happens to our originality. Do we compromise with others, with family, with society in order to bring a semblance of sanity in our lives or do we allow the institution to perish because we are too stubborn to believe that there can be any other, worth entertaining. What does this do to our balance.

These questions enter every one in their thinking and in their operation and I am unable to say with any amount of finality, that the compromise made, does not effect the existence of us in nature and does not effect our wisdom.

I could decide in my freedom to live a life that I prescribe to myself. This may not necessarily be what nature would have prescribed for me, but because it keeps the balance in order, it may look to be the best option. But options do not coincide with freedom. Options make me sound weak. If I live a life of freedom I should not be allowing any weakness to perturb me.

Would this not then be the beauty of life lived ; that we compromised to maintain balance and harmony.

Freedom should mean the freedom to express and think independently. To act independently. But the irony is that the very act may not justify our means. And the complications will continue. So long as there are complications to resolve, life will breathe normally. That is why life is so exciting - it challenges the very belief of the balance of nature with wisdom.

And many such thoughts occupy a vast amount of time in the day. It makes me silent in observation. It is difficult to find one that shall put themselves, as nature wished, in compromise, because sometimes their ego and stubbornness and sometimes their sense of balance may not allow it. Where does one go in this deadlock. And that is the dilemma. You either join them or become aloof. Many choose one or the other. But the wisest chooses both.

This dichotomy, this dilemma exists. It exists in many walks of our daily and professional life.

We may sit in the comfort of our solitude and debate this inside us, but when it comes to public existence, far too many factors vie with each other to get in and disturb it. And we, we as individuals, are foolish enough to knowingly fall into this trap. Because eventually life is indeed a trap !!

Love from a trapped soul ..

Amitabh Bachchan