Born Free, Scripted Forever

“Men are born free and everywhere he is in chains.”

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Discovering Rousseau

My previous blog was about history. When I wanted to know the correct spelling of Jean-Jacques Rousseau there, I found this line. I didn’t know much about him — only one line that he was a philosopher in the Italian Revolution Chapter I believe. A few days ago, I came to know that he had to spend his life on some island because of his ideas.

But does this line which I wrote above really hold some meaning, or is it nothing more than a punchline for shorts or motivational quotes?

Life in Indian Culture

I grew up in Indian culture, and in my culture almost everything is pre-decided for how you are going to live your life. Even in the Vedic era, life was divided into 4 stages:

• First (0–25): Brahmacharya — where you spend your life in ashrams and get educated.
• Second (25–50): Grihastha — where you marry and start a family.
• Third (50–75): Vanaprastha — where you leave your family and live in the jungle.
• Fourth (after 75): Sannyasa — where you spend your life detaching yourself from the world and only chant God’s name.

Maybe it was their way of living during that time where your life was fixed based on that.

The Modern Era

Then we come to the modern era, the time I grew up seeing other people’s lives and journeys, and what I observe: their life is almost still the same but only practicing 2 stages — 1st and 2nd. And currently the situation and complex system has shackled ourselves so hard that we are in constant pressure to follow these.

The moment you are born, almost all your career planning starts by your parents — what you will do when you grow up. Most of the time they want you to become something they couldn’t, achieve something that they couldn’t in their life; they are still bound to that prize that they could get; now they are betting on you.

Another thing in which we are bound is our journey which is almost pre-decided — once you learn to speak they send you to school, then whole day school, after that tutions and homework, same routine till you continue your study. And the moment you leave your study it is expected from you to get a job; otherwise it is said within the society that you are doing nothing!

Somehow you end up getting a job and start supporting your family and have some money. OK, so now you can live your life freely! NO! Now you are getting old, You have to marry and get a partner? Otherwise after your mother-father passes, who will take care of you, be with you, support you. But you said no, then they torture you emotionally and society will also help them. And you get manipulated to that extent where you will also realize that this is a common thing, everybody is doing it, so you should also — after all it’s just an extra step forward in life and it also comes with purpose, which most people don’t have.

After that once you have a partner — they come with responsibility, what you have now towards them, family and society. And if you make the extra step — parenting — then your whole life just fast-forwards and you realize it either when you grow old or you are in your bed laying, waiting for death.

What Does Freedom Mean?

I am not against anything here. It’s a good structure and why it is — because everyone is following it and those who didn’t, well their genes died with them, which their ancestors were preserving and passing through generations.

But should we live just for passing genes? And what does it mean to be free even? Is it to oppose every idea that our society has or do anything you like regardless of whether it’s ethical or non-ethical?

I think that to be free means to be with you, understanding yourself emotionally, listening to that kid who maybe is still somewhere within you, innocent, free from everything, happy and who is just curious about everything, enjoys every moment and wants to know all that it can. To be free means your mind has peace, no worry. You can feel the weightlessness within your heart — it’s like “empty but full.” That is what I found last year and since then I am doing everything just to have that feeling.

To be free means feeling satisfied.