Man is born free but he doesn't die a free man. When we come to this world we are quite light because we are not bound with restrictions. We can do whatever we want & it is primarily because people think we cannot do much & slowly we begin to crawl. People around us feel delighted as we take our first steps. They even clap, take snaps, capture the steps in video & show it to others with a glow of pride. Then we venture out & mix in society, learn new things & make friends. By & by, we learn to adapt ourselves to different environment. We also develop different behavioral patterns suiting different circles. We are different when we are with our friends but behave differently when we are with our parents or teachers. We think we have learned the tricks of the trade & our parents assume we have become worldly-wise. They in fact encourage us to behave differently. The point they miss is that by doing so we are becoming slaves of our circumstances. We are taught to respond in a certain manner in a particular situation, & the next time similar situation arises, we behave similarly. Our mind starts thinking & behaving in a particular manner. If someone else behaves differently in similar situation we call him idiosyncratic. We pick patterns, respond & pass our whole life like that. But, by behaving so we also become prisoners of some limiting beliefs & we don't even realize so. We divide our life into two sections- things that can be done & things that can't be.
The question arises- Why don't we break these beliefs & patterns & be free?
This situation reminds me of an interesting story of a chained elephant. When a person saw an elephant tied to a pole with a very weak leash, he asked the mahout the reason of elephant not breaking free even though it can do so in single effort as the leash is too weak to offer any resistance. Mahout replied that he tied the elephant with that leash when it was a baby. It tried to break free many times when it was a child but failed as the elephant was not strong enough at that age. And now the elephant doesn't even try because it has developed a pattern in its mind that it cannot break free howsoever hard it may try. So, I open the chain whenever I need the elephant & make it work as per my needs. Once the work is finished, I bring it back here & chain it again. We are more or less like that elephant.
Just like the elephant we remain a prisoner all our life to our limiting belief patterns, to circumstances, to our routine, to similar job & to many such things. Most of our patterns are difficult to go because we think they are made for us. We don't behave any other way because we don't know any other way. We come to this world a free man but die like a prisoner. What a waste of a life!
"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will."
- Charlotte Bronte.
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