Are We Free?

<b><i>‘Cogito ergo sum’</i>
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‘I am in total control’, ‘Life is beautiful and I am enjoying every moment of it! ’, ‘I am my own master’: These are some common clichés we often hear from the ‘young and the restless’ often claiming to have an absolute command over their lives!
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Sharp it may sound, but whenever I come across people who claim to be the masters of their destiny, I am simply not amused! Having said so, there is no malice on my part as incongruity lies in the very claim to rule one’s providence. I simply have no idea whether such hypotheses are deliberate or naïve, but the very thought of a mere mortal commanding fate is an imprudent claim coupled with a certain sense of derision.
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Well, one might hail from the upper classes, who love sporting a pricey Rolex, travelling in ritzy Mercedes and wearing nothing less than custom-made Armani tuxedo, yet, when it comes to mastering one’s own fate, one is as vulnerable as an impoverished labourer whose endless drudgery earns him/her nothing more than a few morsels of coarse bread!
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A hedonist may splurge huge sums for merriment in comparison to a languished poor soul; yet, I have reservations in accepting sheer purchasing power as the yardstick of absolute human freedom.
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You might ask if financial independence is not freedom, then what exactly does freedom mean. Okay, let us dwell upon human freedom a bit more. Commonly, for all of us, freedom is the autonomy of conduct. For instance, I am feeling hungry and immediately want to have something fulfilling or out of the blue I am in high spirits and want to pamper myself with something really cool and chic, perhaps a cool pair of shades or some new apparel. You might postulate that the above statement holds merit only when coupled with purchasing power; still, I won’t take your interjections simply because I have not done yet! (You see, that’s my freedom!)
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Hmm…freedom…one often believes is that by having your cake and eating it too is freedom, but this act of choice is hardly freedom because it is tied by an external stimulus – an outer check that habitually takes place due to interventions. For instance, my very desire to have something fulfilling has little to do with my purchasing power than with hunger. Again, my very thought of pampering myself without any rhyme or reason can be due to an undiagnosed neurotic disorder, which drives me crazy towards the phoney pursuits of happiness. When I have hardly any control over my body - a slave to my senses, how can I claim to be the master of my luck? There can be copious instances to substantiate such perspectives, yet what calls our attention is the very idea of independence as freedom under coercion is hardly any freedom!
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Real freedom is something where we have absolute control over our pickings. Such an assumption looks nice on paper, but when it comes to practicality, it may end up leaving us perplexed. I assume that no one would like to opt for such a freedom where one is a mere puppet, a meek subject of circumstances. Hitherto, the truth lies in the fact that we all are pawns with our fate commanded by the external stimuli. Our actions are performed under a collective duress which lies beyond the realm of human control. Man is a social animal, who is a constant subject of propriety, obligations and societal norms with little or no scope of absolute freedom sans anarchy.
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Real freedom is only possible if we do away with necessity. Certainly, neither the rich nor the poor can live with hunger. In that case, only madmen and ascetics are left, someone who lives beyond the sphere of a civilized society. Surely, no one would like to trade absolute freedom in the name of asceticism or madness – in any case I am happy to be the way I am as self-abnegation is hardly any freedom!
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When one has hardly any control over his/her birth or death, how can one claim to be the master of its providence? If we take refuge to religion, the divine concept of ‘Karma’ and pre-destination further adds to our confusion thereby leading us virtually doomed.
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Bemused, shell-shocked? So am I. I myself do not have anything substantial to delineate freedom. All I am doing is frantically trying to demystify the whole concept of human freedom, which has all of a sudden become a Gordon’s knot.
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Believe me; it is very difficult for lesser mortals like us to develop apathy against pleasure and pain in order to achieve absolute freedom. The only way to achieve human freedom is to attain control over one’s aspiration. The true ethos of human freedom lies in moderation. However, with existence preceding essence, eventually, we are what we make of ourselves - a life lived by our own value system. In reality, true human freedom lies within oneself rather than in any external source of inspiration. In order to be free, instead of living a life on a borrowed value system, it is crucial to forge one’s own set of values. Instead of adjudging joy and sorrow through external parameters, reviewing one’s life by one’s own value system is the fundamental nature of absolute freedom. In order to be free from the psychosomatic prison house, one needs to develop temperance. Yet, in doing so, one does not mean to become an ascetic, but develops a gritty will.
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Eventually, it’s our own existence which gives true sense to the outer world and herein lies the ‘mantra’ of absolute human freedom!