Freedom and Obedience

Utter confusion.
That is what it seems to me when we try to go deep into the implications of these two terms! I agree, even a kid would not find anything confusing about these two terms. That is simply because we are so much used to complicating things, terms and lives, that, we are at once ‘at home’ with anything that ought to be confusing. And when it is too simple, it is never going to be easy on us!

Taking care of a baby child is just about curbing its freedom, and we find the child quite ‘amenable’, when it does not struggle or wriggle out of our arms, when carrying the child in our arms and going out for a stroll through a park. What about that ‘freedom-struggle’ for the country? A cheerful wriggle in chains, perhaps it was. (Fortunately for us, the child is yet uninitiated about the constitutional provisions about ‘freedom of movement’ & remedies for infringement of the same).

The kid grows, and at school, right from day one, ‘obedience’ is taught, inculcated, habituated, and what not. I am reminded of my own innocence when I did not ‘voice’ my doubt to seek clarification about the difference between ‘Obey the teacher’ and ‘Obey the rules’! (We were ‘ruled’ by the ruler of the teacher more often, leaving less scope for obedience, to the rules or the teacher. The ruler was prominently placed on teachers table, seldom used for the purpose of its manufacture!)

For instance, we find the bus ‘convenient’ when it is the ‘hassles’ (of maneuvering through traffic bottle necks) that we wanted to avoid. Where as we visit a place of public ‘Convenience’ when actually we are dying to ‘relieve’ or ‘ease’ ourselves! But, we plead to be ‘relieved’ not waiting for that ‘reliever’ when that transfer order is to our convenience and the place of new posting is easy on us.

Coming a bit closer to the confusion between these two words….

At work place, is that ‘not-so-amenable’ person in fact ‘disobedient’?
A person is called ‘cooperative’ when in custody of police authorities, and obeys to tell the ‘truth’ as ‘expected’ by the investigating officer, and can be now turned an approver, and given small concessions!

About freedom, we love to see animals with some ‘freedom’ to move while in captivity in a Zoo, that is why ‘good’ zoo’s are larger than smaller ones with small cages? The very same animal is considered good and obedient only under chains when domesticated!
There was a 2-in-1, when we loved to watch that ‘Tarzan of the Jungles’ let out a shriek “Oeeeooooeeeeooo’ and the animals in utter freedom in that vast forest obeyed to his call to come in herds like an army ready to fight! It was a win-win situation for Tarzan, since he had the advantage of ‘domesticated-like’ animals at zero-cost!

Religious freedom is ‘Tolerance’ for other religions. But does our own religion demand obedience or not?
‘Hindu way of life’, it was……. , till bribery became the ‘way of life’ for us, and Hinduism became a religion(our fights, for or against, can be about religions, not about ‘way of our life’, and not in the least, ‘our way of life’!).

Bribe buys us freedom from hassles of harassment threatened by powerful people at high places! And that vigilance ‘observance’ week is imposed on us as if, we, the ‘cattle-class’, are grossly ignorant, and the ‘pledge’ brings in some awareness about it.

At work place, perhaps, obedience is just ‘compromise’ in a camouflage.

At home, obedience is just ‘adherence’ in a camouflage. (Adherence to social norms, customs, traditions. Blind adherence. That is why, the revolt started off well, when that memorable song sequence so well choreographed, remains unchallenged even today, marked a beginning of movie heroines playing new roles. The docile wife in the Hindi movie ‘Guide’ sang her divorce through the song ‘Aaj phir jeeney ka iraadaa hai….’ But where as, that legendary devotee ‘Meera Bai’ found her freedom even in the cup of poison she obeyed to drink cheerfully!)

When they forget to ‘switch’ the signals to yellow blinkers, that adherence, obedience, compliance with those traffic signal lights at mid-night when there is no traffic (may be because the night riders are busy ‘trafficking’ something else, elsewhere), is more of a ‘freedom-struggle’ from policemen rather than ensuring liberty to life through accident-free-drive.

Who knows, if the ‘dawn’ of clarity about ‘liberty’ waits for the transition between “Freedom from Obedience” to “Freedom in Obedience”
(Then, when only ‘the rest of it’ is confusion for us, Confusion rests).
Psn(1st August, 2010)