15.SING WITH SHAKESPEARE-9
Man is born free?
"Man is born free but he is everywhere in chains" said Rousseau. If you really think about it, a more nonsensical statement has never been made upon this wide earth.
No man is born free. A child is born to particular parents, living in particular society, at a historical moment, following a particular religion (or even no religion), speaking a particular language, etc. These are the chains with which the child is born. Some chains may be of gold, some of iron, but chains nevertheless. All these are comforts or constraints with which the child has to live, and which the child has to outgrow! Rousseau was speaking in the context of modern states suppressing our physical and civic freedoms. But the very notion that a man is born free is silly to the extreme.
Philosophically , both our external environment and our internal equipment ( sense organs and mind with its innate tendencies ) are fixed when we are born. Hindus believe this is how karma works.
No man is born free. But everyone can attain freedom: this is the message of Hindu and Buddhist dharmas ! This is the spiritual hope for humanity.
We are not free to choose our parents or siblings! We cannot change our mother tongue, though we may disown it, and learn any number of other languages. Just imagine what it means to be born a Tamilian in Karnataka, or a Hindi or Telugu speaking person in Tamil Nadu in the linguistically divided India! You are branded for life as non-local, even if you may live there all your life! Non-Hindi speaking people are born second-class citizens in free India!
In India, one cannot shed or even change one's caste, though the State claims to work for casteless society.
Similarly we cannot choose our siblings! Nor can we choose the time of our birth- which century, era, decade, etc! One may say these are gifts of the gods or decrees of fate! But surely, these are not signs of freedom.
Friendship
One area where we do seem to have freedom is to choose our friends. In reality, our choice is limited to the immediate circle in which we move. Not many of us can choose, fix or change that circle! People used to speak of pen pals; now many avenues of available through the Internet. But do they lead to lasting friendships?
We have many acquaintances. Even in cities where we live in close proximity to others, we can hardly call them friends or neighbours! We have too many contacts, too little of real friendship. Something is lacking in modern life.
For most of us, our real friends are those of our school days. The classic example we have is of Krishna and Sudama! However, we are reminded in the Mahabharata that true friendship cannot flourish between an aristocrat and a man of poor circumstances, though learned, in the story of King Drupada and the Brahmin Drona. In working life, we have many associates but few of them emerge as real friends.
Benjamin Franklin said:
Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.We can consider ourselves lucky if we have a single true friend in life. Tiruvalluvar wondered what is there in life so difficult as to acquire friendship!
செயற்கரிய யாவுள நட்பின் ? 781
He wrote 10 couplets on the nature of friendship, and 20 more warning us against wrong or unworthy friends!
There are many passages in Shakespeare which celebrate friendship.
The Winter's Tale
Here we have Hermione, the Queen of Sicily asking King Leontes's friend Polixenes, King of Bohemia, of their boyhood days.
Come, I'll question you
We were, fair Queen.
Hermione
Was not my Lord
130Polixenes
We were as twinned lambs that did frisk i'th' sun
135And our weak spirits ne'er been higher reared
This shows how associations formed in younger days can turn into lasting friendship. Yet, there is a hint that even such friendships may suffer when they marry! But here the queen is showing good humour and joining in the fun and banter!
Sonnet 29
In the Sonnets, we have heavier stuff. Here in Sonnet 29, the poet thinks of his friend when his luck has deserted him!
When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon my self and curse my fate,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon my self and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least,
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate,
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
We are reminded of the lines
"Dear George: Remember no man is a failure who has friends."
{ Incidentally, Capra was a different kind of movie maker. He said:
My films must let every man, woman, and child know that God loves them, that I love them, and that peace and salvation will become a reality only when they all learn to love each other. }In the Tirukkural we have the comparable line:
அழிவின்கண் அல்லல் உழப்பதாம் நட்பு. 787
Friend is he who keeps you company in misfortune
Sonnet 35
We have some heavier stuff in Sonnet 35 where the poet talks of forgiveness among friends.
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done,
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud,
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud,
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authorizing thy trespass with compare,
My self corrupting salving thy amiss,
Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are:
Authorizing thy trespass with compare,
My self corrupting salving thy amiss,
Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are:
For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense,
Thy adverse party is thy advocate,
And 'gainst my self a lawful plea commence:
Such civil war is in my love and hate,
Thy adverse party is thy advocate,
And 'gainst my self a lawful plea commence:
Such civil war is in my love and hate,
That I an accessary needs must be,
To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.
To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.
Forgiveness or mutual give and take for offences committed without thinking!
It is one of life's great pleasures to be blessed with a true friend. Hindu scripture goes to the extent of praying that one should not be in the state of friendlessness!
ऽनमि॒त्रं च॒ मे
Anamitram cha mae
(Sri Rudram- Chamakam, 3)
So, let us vote for lasting friendship!
Note:
Though Cinema can become a creative art form with great possibilities, the industry has descended into infernal depths. Frank Capra noted in his 1971 autobiography:
The winds of change blew through the dream factories of make-believe, tore at its crinoline tatters.... The hedonists, the homosexuals, the hemophiliac bleeding hearts, the God-haters, the quick-buck artists who substituted shock for talent, all cried: "Shake 'em! Rattle 'em! God is dead. Long live pleasure! Nudity? Yea! Wife-swapping? Yea! Liberate the world from prudery. Emancipate our films from morality!".... Kill for thrill – shock! Shock! To hell with the good in man, Dredge up his evil – shock! Shock!We have descended even lower since then.
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