‘Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high’ – Rabindranath Tagore
This is freedom perhaps – where you live with dignity and you harbor no doubts: you are fearless. Freedom gives you expression, freedom gives you wings, freedom gives you courage, freedom gives you compassion, and freedom fills your heart with admiration. You love the way you are and enjoy the world around you.
But freedom also means order, a sense of responsibility. It does not simply mean to do what you like, where you like and how you like, totally unmindful of the others. You need to be considerate and concerned about others and that stems from love.
So freedom and love go together. To love does not mean that you ask for something, nor does it make you feel that you are giving. This love is freedom. Uninhibited, ever-flowing. This makes us considerate, this makes us treasure and value everything – it allows us to grow, to blossom, to appreciate, it makes us sensitive to everything around us – this is freedom. Without love, freedom would only be an idea with no value at all.
Freedom in simpler terms is liberation from oppression, of the weak from being dominated and ridiculed by the strong, a sense of national pride and a desire to bring humanity closer in the true sense of the word. When people’s hearts are aligned together, when we rid ourselves of greed, anger, and foolishness, we will be truly free.
To break away from anything that binds us is freedom
But what binds you the most – you yourself; so when I can break free from my own inhibitions, my own negativities or fundamental darkness, when I experience joy and happiness within and without, I will be free.
Ms. Madhulika Kothari
Faculty of English
