“through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us. . ."

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Thus spake Balachandrananda





Thickness is the measure
Of  inter-dependence of  links.
The thinner the links, the easier the chain to break.

Said Balachandrananda –
So be it for us humans too
Dependence is the measure of our bondage
To each other.
*********** Balachandran V , Trivandrum, 15.05.2013

6 comments:

  1. No offense Balan Sir, but it is somewhat suffocating to think of dependency as huge links of an enormous iorn chain.may be it is the picture that scares me and not so much the words.

    But then Balachandrananda got to be right! :)

    So, how is retirement so far? May be you should consider a post on that...

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    Replies
    1. Dear H,

      i understand. But look at relationships; they exist because people are dependent on each other, either physically or emotionally. This dependence quite often weighs us down, doesn't it? I remember my mother, who had Alzheimer's Disease and was bed-ridden for her last four years. She was dependent on me and though I would have taken care of her even it were 40 years, the fact remains that I was chained to her. It curtailed my freedom; priorities had to be changed. i have a friend who was earning Rs.2.5 lacs p.m as a high profile management consultant in New Delhi about 2 years ago, now sitting at home here earning comparatively much less because of his aged and blind mother. Neither I nor he complain about it but - again, shift of priorities, see? Likewise for most of us, I think, and in most relations too.

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  2. Dependence the measure of our bondage....Sometimes the bond grows if you set it free isn't it Balan? Hows life treating you these days?

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    Replies
    1. Freedom? Hm. I am going through a phase which involves a paradigm shift in my life. This means that I have to look afresh at the definitions of many basic concepts of life. Freedom is one among them.

      Life is not bad. I am fully engaged - either cleaning up or helping P in the kitchen, working at the small project of our NGO, planning, looking for new avenues of activity. The shift from the mechanical 0900-2000 shift at the Bank is a bit unsettling now, because I didn't get any time to think. ( You know how it is). I would consider the ensuing months as my evolution period; many things are bound to turn up. The main change I note is that I have become more sharply aware - previously I used to be in a kind of daze - one works, one drinks, one sleeps, one wakes up - and the cycle went on... There is a marked difference now, planning what to do the next day. Yet I would admit that a slightly nagging apprehension remains... which is what I aim to get rid off, sooner or later...

      Bond might grow stronger if you let it free? Looks nice in words, but common that we are, I doubt if we can free ourselves from dependence... because it involves pain, the agony of snapping - CUT!

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  3. Replies
    1. :-) One has to have the Surgeon's detachment while looking at our innards!

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