Happy Slaves
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The greatest challenge we all face in our life is our inability and dislike to live with ourselves.
We persistently seek various things to avoid living with ourselves. Five minutes of alone time seems so challenging and boring.
All the pleasures of this world are sought to escape the reality of man living with himself. The issue arises when the avenues that you seek to feed yourself pleasure takes you away from yourself, ultimately destroying your originality and identity, forming you into a fake and a slave to them.
The moment we lose control of ourselves, is exactly when we start understanding that what we once assumed and defined as ‘happiness’ has taken authority over our identity, that we are now labeled after them. We have lost our shares in the company that we owned originally.
I was a very decent and talented student of St. Joseph’s College for nine years, until grade 9. I excelled in my studies as well as in the extra-curricular activities. I never robbed a single cent from anyone even though I hailed from a very poor family. At a certain age I permitted a few people into my life whose way of thinkingwas contradictory to mine, yet they told me that they had things that can bring happiness to me.
They were easily able to establish a relationship with me, as I was in much need of finding happiness at that very moment.
I also had the weakness of hesitating to say ‘no’ to people. Therefore, those friends entered my life easily through that loophole. Nothing harmful can touch you unless you approve it and leave the doors open to it. Can a thief enter your house if you have locked all the gates, doors and windows properly? Of Course not, but if there is an insecure area in the house, then a thief can enter through that area. Likewise, the thief of sorrow came into my life wearing an appealing costume.
As I would have definitely rejected it if it had come in a sorrowful attire.It appeared before me in a joyfulcostume. The first sip of alcohol that I consumed close to the Viharamahadevi Park, planted a corruptible seed in my mind. Each time I met my friends and fed my flesh with drugs, I had no idea that I was feeding an enemy that was within me. Yet, that enemy was slowly and systematically growing inside me. This enemy whom I fed and groomed, took control over me. Since then, my identity of freedom was under the influence of the identity of slavery.
The more I fed myself with slavery the more it grew with mastery. I was certainly content with my involvement in drugs as it was temporarily satisfying, when things started changing slowly, I knew that I had sold myself for some dangerous desires that have ultimately taken control over me.
My parents and teachers used to shed tears whenever they saw me, as I was completely destroying myself by using drugs and they used to say, “Putha, this is not the Philip we knew”.
I responded with tears in my eyes “I don’t know what has happened to me, I want to get over these disastrous habits but it’s difficult to do it. I feel like I am heavily controlled, and I can’t act on the decisions I take”. If you do not disconnect your relationship with slavery and master the relationships of freedom then slavery will take hold of the mastership of your life. Who is the master of your life? This is a powerful question that you must ask yourself. If you cannot control your five senses, that is a signal that you are under slavery.
You may think, you don’t take drugs unknowing that you have already sold yourself to procrastination, isolation, lethargy, over eating, gaming, addiction to music and films, pornography, sexual immorality and many more detrimental aspects. Whatever sets you apart from being happy with your natural self are of no value to yourself as there will come a time you cannot reject them as they have already taken over the ownership of yourself.
People commit suicide simply because they cannot be with themselves as their happiness solely depends on someone else and something else. You need to understand that everything as well as each and every person is prone to leave you at some point in life. Therefore, if you train your mind to be happy with yourself then you do not need alternatives to make yourself happy.
The pandemic has taught us many lessons. People are struggling to live with themselves because they have happily become slaves to someone or something.
Even though many people proudly shout out about freedom, they are under slavery. Even your stomach is not yours. Your stomach demands what it wants to eat as you have given it the authority to do so. Even your eyes are under your slavery, they run madly at beautiful yet unclean things seen in the computer screen. Your mouth is not under your control, when you open the refrigerator, your mouth cannot take the best decision it ought to take as you have pawned your mouth to the slavery of junk and sugary food.
Think honestly with me for a few minutes, which part of your body do you think is experiencing freedom at this moment?
The sad truth is that you are not living in freedom. You have become a slave. You cannot control your eyes, ears, flesh, tongue or even your nose. Once when I was travelling overseas, the perfume of the air hostess who was close by, smelled really appealing.
I was quick to command myself to stop breathing for a second and I told myself ‘look here, you are to smell only your wife’s aroma’. I did not think in that manner during the disastrous chapter in my life. Though I was dirty and filthy in my younger days, the day I turned back I started feeding my good thoughts until they overtook the authority from slavery which was in control until the point I turned around. You cannot change things overnight, but you must fight courageously until the enemy surrenders to the new government of thoughts.
Always be cautious, do not allow the destruction of this world to enter into you even in its slightest form. Once a corrupt seed enters into you, and you start feeding it, then it will overgrow within you and take control over you. Even excessively reading can take you away from you.
Reading is a brilliant habit, yet too much of it can make you a slave of it and push you away from yourself. Can you sit on a chair with yourself alone and do nothing for an hour?
The more dependent and entangled you are to anything in this world, the more sorrow you are going to reap. You cannot disconnect yourself from the world, but you should not allow the world to take control over you. When you do so, you are no longer yourself, the things of this world have become you.
It is all about the mastership of your body and mind. If you have the mastership over your eyes, ears, flesh, tongue, nose and your mind then you are in control of your resources of happiness. If it is in contrary, the resources of happiness will take control over you.
In case of the resources being destructive, then you will lose yourself the day you harvest. You will become like the farmer who sold his land to a foreigner only to become a labourer at the same farm that he once owned.
There are instances in history where the tenants have taken ownership from the original landlords. Also, we have heard of sad stories where we see the owners of certain establishments later becoming employees under those who were once that particular person’s employee, and have gained the ownership.
This is a result of selling your long term ownership for your short term pleasures. Therefore, save yourself from the Happy Slavery.
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philipnehri@chandanalepa.lk /
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