Long back, I watched the movie "Rang De Basanti". There was a song in the movie, Lose Control wherein some students are drinking liquor and having fun and jumping from a very high place into the pond and singing the song Lose Control. In today's world, not only the students but also the adults are looking for more and more opportunities to lose control. The more we want to control the world, the more are we becoming desperate to lose control.
We live in a very strange world. Stressed during the day, while attending the office somehow avoiding the undesired consequences. Somehow we manage our work which is ever-expanding with the increasing complexities of the systems. Ideally, with the advent of technology, the life of human beings should have been easier, and we should have had more time to connect to our fundamental elements. However, on the contrary, with the development of technology, we have become control freaks. We have set up cameras at home and want to see what is happening at home, big corporations want to track each and every click by all human beings so that they can analyze the big data to target their potential customers, and fraudsters are busy finding some broken link in the chain of online security so that they may sneak into our accounts and steal the money. Everywhere there is an atmosphere of mistrust and fear.
We live in such an ecosystem and at the end of the day, get so tired of all these problems that we look forward to having some party with our friends so that we can have some liquor and have fun and dance with our friends. I often wonder, why we become so happy by making our minds dull while we, as human beings, have made tremendous efforts during the phase of evolution to evolve into intelligent human beings. We are the only species in this world that have a developed neo-cortex that is capable of analyzing the most complex information and sensory inputs and no wonder that is why human beings rule the planets. We have made tall buildings with all sorts of luxuries, flown in the sky without having wings, made nuclear bombs that may destroy the entire planet in seconds, and made big dams to supply electricity to our entire population. In a way, we have almost established control over different forces of nature. Yet, we do not know whether an electron is a particle or wave, do not know what the fundamental forces of nature are and how they are interconnected, and get frightened whenever an asteroid is too near to the planet. We are in a state of perpetual war among the countries, as well as within the families and colleagues.
We are making wonderful advancements in the external world and making a mess of our internal world. Almost one-fourth of the population in cities is experiencing perpetual stress. Students are committing suicide because of the stress of their studies and due to the fear of not getting admission into a university they desire. Somehow there is no space for the second in this society. Either you win the race or you are worthless. That is the message widespread in society. We want to control everything. We ask an astrologer about the time a baby should be born and get an appointment with the doctor to have the baby at that precise time. When the baby is born, we want to control his areas of interest and how he should live life by making him a doctor or engineer. Then comes COVID and we become very stressed and upset since we realize that nothing is in our control.
I do feel that the desire to control emanates from a weak inner connection. That weak inner connection makes us insecure. We somehow want to become secure and seek such security in controlling the things and people to which we anchor our existence. My parents, wife, kids, friends, and everybody I like should become immortal so that I can perpetually cling to them. My money should grow and I should occupy powerful positions so that people remain dependent on me. I should gather more and more knowledge so that I remain indispensable. Inner insecurity makes us control freaks in one or the other way. However, nature keeps reminding us in the form of pandemics, natural disasters, and death that we are just a dust particle in this universe. However, we do not take the lessons and again try to become more in control of our lives. That naturally brings stress because we are trying to do something that is impossible. When we get tired, we try to "Lose Control" by having liquor and parties. I wish that more human beings understand the fundamental truth that life is not about "Taking Control" or "Losing Control", rather it is about living in a state of flow with nature. We don't need to control anything because what we are trying to control is a part of ourselves. The entire universe is connected.
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