The Two Cages
In my father’s garden there are
two cages. In one is a lion, which my father’s slaves brought from the desert
of Ninavah; in the other is a songless sparrow. Every day at dawn the sparrow
calls to the lion, “Good morrow to thee, brother prisoner.” ... Khalil Gibran
Zoo though I don’t despise is not a
favourite place for me to visit for I firmly believe in freedom. It is as
essential as breathing. We all aspire for freedom but strangely we don’t appreciate
it when get it easily but if we lose and realize what we have lost our body and
soul unleash a struggle unique in its own character against the known-unknown power
that sealed the freedom. It is an instinct, untaught, so natural in character
that if we try curbing the freedom of a baby who is unmindful of his place in
the society reacts spontaneously, resists the attack on freedom. In the zoo such
a beautiful gift is denied to royal beauties like lions, tigers. They might
roar in zoo but it is a roar muffled by lost freedom. But I still visit
occasionally if opportunity comes when in a city that resides a zoo. For where
else I would be able to watch the grandeur of King Cobra. The beautiful bio
diversity of the world can only be showcased in zoo but still cage irritates
me. There are great attempts to provide limited freedom but truth is the cage
remains. All the necessities and justifications apart the poignant truth is the
cage remains.
Lions, tigers, leopards, baboons,
King cobras in fact have everything easy food, better protection from humans whose
greed has driven them to extinction, prompt medical treatment which otherwise
is missing in their natural habitat. All this and more … name, fame and
attention of visitors but at what cost?... Freedom. For some it’s just the cost of
survival. Do they know what humans’ have done to them? They may not but do we
ever realize it. They are driven to extinction and protected at the cost of
freedom to showcase natures’ brilliance in a concrete jungle. We destroy their
natural habitat and create artificial look alike to display their beauty. Once
in they hardly have any choice, unfortunately some are born prisoners.
It is a beautiful place, an
artificial one but safe. What this has done to them? To mighty lion,
magnificent tiger, beautiful leopard and those innocent deer and other small
little creatures … what this zoo has done? It has given them the unwanted common
platform to live the rest of their lives. They are all prisoners. As in the few
lines story by Khalil Gibran lion may
still be mighty, tiger may still have retained wild beauty but they are
prisoners just as poor little songless sparrow. Tiny little love birds adorning
wonderful colours have a thread in common with lions and tigers … they all are
prisoners. The might of lion expressed through terrifying jaws and powerful
claws is as blunt and harmless as horns of antelope. The mighty and the meek are
same just prisoners. Then poor sparrow in the story unable to fly high calls
the lion good morning brother. The brotherhood in the cage. All the prisoners
are brothers, are on the same living platform of lost freedom. It’s a pity the
powerful is as subjugated, as powerless as weak and small for all are equal in
prison. They are brothers, they live with same agony and pain of losing the
most precious gift ‘Born free’, provided they realize it.
We the homosapiens are born free,
enjoy freedom and equally enjoy killing the freedom of others. More than any
living animal we know, understand and cherish freedom. We all hate prison; the
cage we never wish to enter into for once in the long struggle begins to get
back the lost freedom. A free man, free to live, free to think, free to enjoy
freedom is what we all aspire. But are we really free? Thinking freely, living
freely …????? We actually live in fear of all kinds from failure to loss of fame
to loss of money to death, all contribute to our fear. The fear of failure,
fear of loss of money, fear of future … and many more and the ultimate one of
death dominate our psyche so much so that our claim of thinking freely is
ridiculous. We all think but not freely, we think under the shadow of our own
fears. We live in the cage of our own fears. For whole life we struggle to
conquer but apart from exceptional few we all face escalation of fears. The
unseen cage decimates our freedom. Interestingly neither we realize that we are
prisoners, that we live in cages of our
own fears nor we cherish being a free thinker.
We are born free but don’t live freely.
We build our own cages, the cages of religion, cast, colour, language and yes the
strongest one of our own interests. Humanity is outside these cages. A born
free is without cage but the all our life we build cages. The fun is we all
seek pride in these cages, in fact we never appreciate the presence of the cages
we build around us and denounce others on the inferiority of the cages they
live in. What we all forget is till we cross this barrier we cannot embrace
humanity to live freely. Realization of loss of freedom apart we like these
cages, feel powerful in the cage but then a mighty lion and little sparrow, in
the cage are no different, they are brothers. How strange it is, the animals
don’t like cages, they struggle to be free but the most brilliant species, the
humans likes cages, don’t mind sacrifice of freedom. Freedom you have then lion
is with all his strength but if it is lost, he is no different from a sparrow,
Khalil Gibran expresses it beautifully.
Bizarre it is indeed, in the zoo the animals
lose freedom for man erects cages for them but the man himself is unmindful of
the cages he has built around himself. Not just one but many more and still he considers
himself free and conceive the animals as living in the cages. We don’t appreciate
our own freedom, but we don’t let animals that hate cages, have their own.
Freedom is not just physical, it is a condition of mind. A man with free mind
cannot be caged but a man with a mind which is not free doesn’t need physical
cage. He is a prisoner. The mighty and the meek are brothers once they lose
freedom. Cage is not necessarily tangible always but cage is a cage, visible or
invisible, once you are in the sparrow
is free to call you good morning brother even if you are a mighty lion.
In
the zoo I see animal in just one visible cage watched by another with multiple
self erected invisible cages.
"Good
morning brother", said a songless sparrow.
I was left
with no choice but to say "Good morning".
Do you have?
