Control

“Is it a-Madurai or a-Chidambaram, at your home?”

It is a very polite way of asking a very blunt-question, to ask somebody who is close enough..
The answer decides the level of freedom the asker has, as a possible-guest... (These towns-names used to at once remind others, of the deities of the famous temples which made the towns famous for it... and the stories around the deities seemed to talk more about 'control' on people and things around, and therefore the 'natural-choice' of using these names ! Now, 'nature' is obviously not under anyone's control :)...)

“Try to have some control over your life!” , is another piece of advice, which seems to leave the choice of how-to-do-it, to the listener.. ...

Controller of examinations (even senior students might find it difficult to explain this concept, except that they might give details of the functional aspect, which is too-visible, not the underlying theme!)

Chief controller of trains... (I had a 'distant' relative of mine, who retired even before I got to meet him as a kid, and hence never did I discover as to how he managed this-control!... But he never seemed like a person who like to control even his own kids!)

I keep wondering about the 'need to control' anything at all!

If everybody decides to adhere to 'nature', why would there be a need to control at all?... Only humans look at this aspect of controlling... The vast universe works so-flawlessly on its own!

We exercise a 'choice' in a particular way, and then we find that choice to be flawed, needing a control. When the flaw takes too long a time to be discovered, the control gains its urgency, and now a control-over-control finds its birth place! The 'control' over the Judiciary is sought to be retained into the hands of erstwhile judges themselves, while the executive seeks to take over the controls (obviously, the control is effective only with the control over appointment of Judges themselves!... The net result would be an effective control over judgements, and therefore the 'Justice' sought to be dispensed .... with or thereof, ..... we don't know !).

The control over gadgets, vehicles etc gets complicated as these things get sophisticated, and remote-controlled!

Whichever way, the people try to group themselves, by whatever name, its concept, purpose etc... control becomes inevitable. (Media controls the minds, its way of thinking, while media is controlled by financial giants... countries which control their economy well, prosper, and then find their well-being controlled by poor countries, whose poverty becomes a threat to the prosperous ones, and therefore the doles, not out of any sympathy, kindness etc!.. At places of rampant corruption, like offices of government departments, police, road transport, etc... which are 'given the controls over people's freedom... the controller is bribe power, and only courageous ones manage to declare their honesty... ). And while 'grouping' together(trade unions, consumer associations, tax-payers associations, pensioner's associations... etc) seems to offer a solace from individual controls by vested-authorities, .... over a period of time, they find themselves ending up into yet another form of control...

The modern man finds himself surrounded by 'controls' of several kinds, and now the innocent traffic signal when it turns red, seems to 'control' his freedom-of-movement, instead of that reassurance of a safe travel on the road, for which it was supposed to be installed! Obviously the absence of a policeman in-sight, tempts him to regain his lost-freedom, and he jumps-signals! A jump, even when it is figurative, leads into a leap... and a leap is usually something out-of-control... from a frying pan into the fire!... CCTV's are in place to control the situation, when the pair of eyes of a policeman cannot manage to record jumps too-well :)

The mind, when it is surrounded by so many controls from all around, skips the 'possibility-even', about a control on itself!... And thus, we find psychosomatic disorders to be 'quite-natural', now-a-days!

That leaves me to wonder and also to figure out, how the ancients managed to control the urge for a technological-advancement, despite having evolved intellectually to amazing/stupefying/whatever levels! Probably they understood better, about what “choices-really-are”... not bothering about what are-the-choices!... Their sense of choosing started with good-controls, and that must/might be clue about minimum controls around them, their society etc... Even the “religion” did not find a 'need', when individuals found their controls into safe hands of their very source of being!

That, reminded me of ... what I was asked to take control over ... by my teacher with-whom/into-whom, I had entrusted my controls... He had asked me to attempt a control over my praana (the “life” itself, ticking 'live' within me!)... and therefore my Praanayams! And what was amazing about it was, all other controls do not control me thereafter... it is just my mind and the body, that can be controlled, if at all...

Mind being a little subtler, doesn't yield to controls, once the 'life' , or the 'being' takes over! That meant to be 'freedom'... not the laws that controls others, in the name of offering 'freedoms', nor the constitution, its draft... which binds-together, a free-democracy through its control over freedom!(I met a girl of about 13 yrs of age, who found herself controlled by the need to inject herself with insulin, at least twice a day!... Her parents could not find a way to offer any consolation, when other kids were not controlled-thus... I told her, “Imagine, a girl from a distant planet visiting us, and commenting, 'oh! You earthlings need to breath some few times every minute?... So, the air, its oxygen controls your life?... Poor things... your freedom is only-a-dream'... That idea cheered her... she smiled... the parents experienced their girl-child,s freedom ! I felt rather controlled that, I could not find her 'grown-up' enough to grasp those spiritual tools where the unique secretion from pituitary glands would end the control of oxygen-via-air that we breathe to live!... That's where I felt the 'remote' control to be still with air!... Yes it was 'still' too!)

Freely yours,

psn(18th October, 2015)