Are we still "Ruled"…?

“He came, he saw, he conquered…”
…If this seems like a thing of past to you, think again! Also, you may try replacing ‘He’ in the above statement to ‘she’…Does something click?

Every single soul, in this whole wide world, at some point of time, is either ‘ruled’ by some person or takes charge as a ‘ruler’. The only difference is neither the ‘ruling’ nor the ‘ruled-over’ symptoms are made explicitly apparent to others. Still, it does exist.

Take a simple case of someone in love – true love (?) – His/her world virtually revolves around a single person – most of the times. Right from the first instance when we miss a beat, to the last drop of tear (or a silent sob) – everything is triggered by a single person; who rules us! If you are in love, or had been in love; you might’ve experienced this by now in some or the other form. If not, you probably belong to the ruling partyJ which by the way is not a permanent state!

So, is the probability of we getting ruled by someone limited to ‘Lovey-Dovey’ phase of our lives? Well, I won’t suggest that. Even as kids, we are controlled, if not ruled, by our parents. Now, okay, that is something which takes care of us until we grow; and thus, may sound a ‘must-have’. But in western countries, isn’t the degree of ‘parental control’ much milder than what we see in India? India – where some kids refuse to grow up, even at 20-something; and their parent’s tag this behavior as ‘Obedience/Respect’ etc! In such cases, marital knot brings in yet another ‘soul-to-be-controlled’ for the ruling parents! And guess what? – The ‘kid’ in question serves his/her entire life as an eye-witness with hardly any say or intention to improve the situation.

If you didn’t felt controlled during your childhood, welcome to college life! Esp. while doing professional courses, like Engineering/Medical/IIT/IIM, it’s the set of highly experienced rulers, named ‘Professors/Lecturers/Principals/Hostel Wardens/Lab assistants’ who rule us. This bunch is God-gifted with various creative techniques of torturing/controlling the sinful lot, named ‘The Students’! The smarter set of ‘students’ who manage to bypass the wrath of faculty, have higher chance of encountering it by their final exams and/or campus interviews.

Later and much larger stage of our lives – as professionals, how can one deny the highly controlling species called ‘The Boss’? If you have been lucky – throughout your childhood AND college days, you are bound to face the music in your professional lives! Of late, I heard one of my close friend (& a pretty successful manager) say, “It’s not a ‘Company’, nor it’s your ‘Team’; U work for your boss – whether you like it or not – that’s the fact!”. I must say, that statement irritated me to the core; but later I realized ‘every bitter truth sucks’! So, if you don’t want to surrender to a ‘Boss-cum-Ruler’, try being your own boss (And rule your employees) J Yeah, good idea, be an entrepreneur – just to discover a huge list of ‘Rulers’ like: Customer, Market Share, competition, Stability, Finances, Growth, labor laws, Brand building & the list goes on…

Even in a life of most simple, passive, subtle, submissive, laid-back person, there are a host of ‘rulers’ that controls their lives! Rulers like – Happiness, Sadness, Money, Solitude, Addictions, Phobias, Beauty, Health, Wealth, Poverty, Relationships, Dreams, Spirituality, Nirvana, Death, … still makes way to rule us!

Amidst of all these Worldly Rulers, sometimes, we rebel; sometimes, we fight; sometimes we loose; sometimes we win… And sometimes, we choose to surrender, for a long term benefit (for example: for being together forever with your loved ones, we tend to surrender!)…

So, is getting ‘RULED’ a part of our lives? OR is it practically possible to achieve a true sense of ‘Freedom’, or at least believe in some such thing while we are still ruled?

~ Rups~ 26th August 2007