Skip to main content

Rebel

 


Anyone who loves life genuinely cannot but be a rebel. You will rebel against the all-pervasive evil that appears in the forms of diseases, natural calamities, and manmade disasters. You will rebel against malevolent bacteria and viruses. Your blood will boil when you see innocent kids dying because of any reason whatever. You won’t be able to accept a fraction of the injustice you see around you. If you love life. As Ivan Karamazov tells his fervently religious brother, “I don’t accept this world of God’s… I don’t accept it at all. It’s not that I don’t accept God, you must understand, it’s the world created by Him I don’t and cannot accept.”

This world is a terrible place where, in the words of the Bard, fair is foul and foul is fair. A lot of great people have tried to change that terrible situation. What else were the Buddha and the Christ and the Prophet and the Mahatma trying to do? And what did we get because of their efforts but more evil in the names of their respective religions? Should we go on accepting this world as it is?

We needn’t if we choose. Rebellion is a refusal to accept the evils and a simultaneous affirmation of the good. Rebellion is saying No to certain realities and saying a louder Yes to better alternatives. Rebellion is throwing out the junk and bringing in dignity.

Every act of rebellion is a nostalgia for innocence, said Albert Camus. Only those who have traces of innocence left in their hearts can actually rebel. The rest can at best only shout hollow slogans and throw vacuous fists in the air. Rebellion is a genuine longing for a better world for everyone.

Rebellion is a sign of deep awareness. Every rebel knows that he is just a lamb being fed by hands that will slit his throat tomorrow.

Rebellion may fail. Indeed often it is condemned to fail. It will be suppressed. Remember the great rebels of the past? Even god-incarnates had to end up on a cross or a burning stake. Vested interests win at any rate. That is how the world is. And that is why the rebel must live. Even if he does not win. If only to become what your soul was meant to become. You don’t rebel for what you can achieve, but for who you are at heart. Rebellion belongs to the heart. Rebellion runs in the veins.

PS. This is powered by #BlogchatterA2Z

Previous post in this series: Quest

Tomorrow: Spirituality

 

 

 

Comments

  1. You've made a great case for rebelling. Indeed with constant rebellions will the world become a better place. But what about the destruction mayhem that rebelliousness causes?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Only those who have traces of innocence left in their hearts can actually rebel. The rest can at best only shout hollow slogans and throw vacuous fists in the air. You said it. And yes, an innocent one only can rebel not to win but to become what his soul is meant to become. Considering the harsh reality of this (hypocrite) world in which vested interests are only destined to win, rebels are essential to prevent (or at least, delay) complete doom.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you got exactly what i meant. I was scared this would be grossly misunderstood.

      Delete
  3. Yes, a Rebellion is the one who really longs for a better world for every one. Well said.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rightly said. Anything new or unconventional is sadly considered rebellion. But history proves that inventions are made by rebellious minds.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In today's context, all the more relevant because even simple dissent is viewed with suspicion.

      Delete
  5. Rebellion is surely an act to voice against injustice and any ill - happening around. You have highlighted correctly that even if rebellion fails, the one who rebels must live. Can not be more appropriate keeping in mind the activities happening currently in society.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. People are becoming either scared or unconcerned these days.

      Delete
  6. Reminded me of a line from a Rang De Basanti song - Be a rebel. Also made me think of 2 characters from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Both are rebels but where 1 tries to have a conversation, 1 resorts to violence.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I worked on Albert Camus's concept of rebellion which is philosophical and highly positive if not creative. Create an alternative system. Not destroy. That's Camus's view. For more, please read his book 'The Rebel'.

      Delete
  7. As we found yesterday, rebellion brought a measure of justice -- even if not as great or generalized a measure of justice as we would hope. So voices must and will continue to be raised.
    Visiting from A to Z https://mollyscanopy.com/2021/04/rock-n-roll-djs-my-brief-crush-on-jack-rose/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, voices must rise at appropriate times. India now stands in need of some great rebels.

      Delete
  8. I'll say amen to that.
    This line "Every act of rebellion is a nostalgia for innocence." of Camus you quoted is gold.
    Brilliant read. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  9. "Rebellion may fail. Indeed often it is condemned to fail. It will be suppressed. Remember the great rebels of the past? Even god-incarnates had to end up on a cross or a burning stake. " And I guess that's the reason many don't rebel!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Possibly and most probably. People love expediency.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Feelings are Snowballs

Illustrations by Copilot Designer Feelings are like snowballs. They make a small start as minor emotions or subtle reactions. Unless they are brought under the control of rational thought, they are likely to intensify as we dwell on them or as new experiences amplify them. It’s just like the snowball picking up more snow on the way and growing bigger. And bigger. That big snowball gathers greater momentum as it hurtles down the hill. Soon it will acquire an unstoppable energy. Quite the same thing happens to feelings. They become powerful enough to control our thoughts and actions. It should be the other way around: our reason should control our emotions. Let us consider an example. Nationalism is a feeling. Contrast it with rational truths. A simple rational truth is 2 + 2 = 4. Indisputable. We all learnt at school that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius. That is another indisputable truth. Unless you’re living on Kilimanjaro where water boils at about 80 degrees Celsius. On the...

The Patriot

Fiction India's new Lady of Justice Raju is shocked out of his deep sleep early in the morning by the doorbell that rings rather imperiously. His mobile phone shows the time: 4.04 am. Who can come visiting at this unearthly hour? Raju looks out through the window and sees a saffron-robed man with a saffron shawl wrapped around his torso standing outside. An alarm bell rings in Raju’s heart. As soon as Raju opens the door, the saffron man hands him a sealed envelope and walks away into the darkness without uttering a single word. The letter is addressed to Mr Rajashekharan, LD Clerk, Shantigram. It is written in extremely formal language. The letter charges Raju of being antinational and orders him to prove his patriotism to concerned authorities at the earliest failing which he will have to face severe consequences under some section of the Naya Nyaya Samhita, New Penal Code. Raju sits with a tremor in his heart on the sofa in his small living room. He doesn’t want to dis...

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

A guide to good health

Book Review Title: Weightless: Unburden Author: Dr Mickey Mehta Publisher: Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, 2023 Pages: 240 This is not a book to be read. It is a set of instructions that are to be put into practice if you wish to have long life with good health. Let me tell you at the outset that practising what the author is asking you to is going to be tough, as tough as becoming a genuine yogi. If you want to enjoy some of the simple delights of life like a weekend drink, then you’d better forget this book and go ahead with a wellness programme of your choice. This book can make you a saint. In fact, it intends to do precisely that. In one of the last pages, introducing the author to the readers, the book says that Dr Mickey Mehta’s vision is “Connecting with 8 billion hearts to make wellness the religion no. 1.” Wellness is indeed a religion in Dr Mehta’s vision. The book starts with a theoretical framework which is founded entirely on Indian philosophy, essentially Yoga a...