Thoughts from the void: Of Freedom and Captivity

There is a woman. She grew up blissfully in the beauty of nature. She contains and reflects all the aspects of nature, its strength, poise, serenity, as well as its spontaneous moods and changes. When she was growing up, people around her noticed her serenity. Soon she became known in all the lands of this earth. Her images were a part of nearly every household and people considered her a manifestation of divinity on earth. Invoking her was considered auspicious and good, whenever an activity had to be performed or even when there was none. She became a part of every ritual and action that was known to man. The hunter invoked her before proceeding on his hunt, the plowman thought of her as he tilled the land and sowed the seeds, the blacksmith brought her to mind as he shaped, in the furnaces, the metals dug up from the earth. Everywhere her presence brought calmness and serenity to all who accepted her. Many illnesses, bad tempers, misunderstandings and conflicts were calmed down and removed the moment she entered the picture. Over time her fame had become so widespread that people everywhere were mostly content to live in harmony with nature and with what they had. They crafted beautiful things and felt at one with the great universe.

However, as the light can never put out the darkness forever, there were people in whose minds the light of this divine being had not entered. They were the slaves and lovers of money, for whom nothing mattered more than amassing and hoarding wealth, because they loved the taste of illusory power that came with the money they made. The craving for money and its associated power was so great that they did not hesitate to destroy nature and all the beings within it, if this could further their purposes. They chained and enslaved humans, animals, birds and nature, in their pursuit of that insatiable thirst. They formed alliances and combined strength to achieve their goals. It was essential for their existence that more and more persons should think like them, so that they could become more powerful. The more powerful among them constantly seduced and lured the weak and made them a part of the machinery that rolled forward, like a juggernaut, towards the destruction of the world.

These people, through their shrewdness and cunning, realized that the serene woman was a hurdle to their goals, since in her company people seemed to be immune to the craving for money and power. They could not be recruited for the armies of the lovers of money. So they devised a plan to take her by force and guile, and use her instead to further their goals. The powerful and the cunning ones among them located her and brought her to the citadels of their kingdom. She was pure, innocent and naive to the guile of the manipulators. They locked her up in a prison. Her natural attraction and power was so strong that whoever came in contact with her became intoxicated by her. Her light shone in the dreary darkness of their lives and lit it up for those few moments. They started to exploit her and use her discretely. They visited her in secrecy under the cloak of darkness, experienced her powers and enjoyed her nature.

In the meantime, the money addicts started to slowly spread the propaganda that they had discovered that the woman was evil. She had the power to enter people's minds and cause madness. She turned people into vile beings, suddenly possessed, capable of rape, murder and all kinds of other evil things, without warning or remorse. As time went by, in the absence of the serene woman, and through the incessant and widespread propaganda against her, more and more people started to believe the words of the power seekers. Stories were planted, and skillfully crafted, in many places where persons sympathetic to the money lovers reported the evils that they had faced or seen due to the association with the serene woman. People who loved her and were associated with her were beaten up, killed, or locked up in prisons and mental institutions. Since most of her followers were not wealthy or materially powerful, but lived humbly, they were suppressed through the might of money power and violence.The few who continued to love her, invoked her in secrecy, out of fear of discovery and punishment. Slowly people all over the world started to forget the woman and became part of the money makers' machinery. The addiction with the drugs of money and power made the world more and more deadly, poisonous and terrible. These effects were visible, in not just nature but, in the minds of people everywhere. The paradise like existence in nature of some time ago was forgotten. Killing millions of humans, plants and animals, and the gradual transformation of the green earth into a vast rotting sewage filled graveyard, started becoming a reality, and for many it was the only reality they knew, such was the addiction to money and power, and its illusory rewards. Things had now reversed. The darkness in the corners of the minds of the lovers of money had projected all over the world. It was now filled with darkness.

But, just as the light can never put out the darkness forever, neither can the darkness put out the light forever. Today, the serene lady continuous to live in imprisonment, access to her is limited to a few, mostly persons who are associates of the lovers of money and power. These persons continue to benefit from her powers, and continue to spread the word about her evil nature. They visit her stealthily, sneaking to be with her under the cover of darkness, while publicly they speak of her evil nature and how terrible she is. A few of her closest associates still invoke her, and establish in their minds and their immediate surroundings, for a short while, the blissfulness and serenity that was once a pervasive reality, the true nature of the eternal spirit. Through the power of connectivity, they try every day to counter the effects of the vast propaganda against her, and to remind people who she was, and still is.

It is possible that you may have heard of her, may have known her ,and may have even loved her once. It is possible that now you have completely forgotten her. It is very much possible that you now firmly believe in her being evil, and better left locked up. It is also possible that you have given up your mind and body to the seeking and fulfilling of the insatiable cravings for money and power at the cost of everything else.The serene woman, meanwhile, exists in her serenity and true eternal nature, locked up up in the darkness, which still cannot put out the light of her nature. You may have heard her name, her name is Ganja.

Related articles
Cannabis legalization - Will Bengaluru be the second Indian city to legalize?
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/10/marijuana-legalization.html

Thoughts on draft legal cannabis policy
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/10/thoughts-on-draft-legal-marijuana-policy.html

Ganja Economics for India
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/10/ganja-economics-for-india.html

Recreation is Medicine with cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/12/recreation-is-medicine.html

Some reasons to legalize cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/07/some-reasons-to-legalize-ganja.html

Cannabis and the Environment
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-and-environment.html

Cannabis as Medicine
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-as-medicine.html

Cannabis for Recreational Purposes
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-for-recreational-purposes.html

Cannabis and Research
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-and-research.html

The Business of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-business-of-cannabis.html

The Economics of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-economics-of-cannabis.html

The Legality of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-legality-of-cannabis.html

The Politics of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-politics-of-cannabis.html

The Social Usage of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-social-usage-of-cannabis.html

No medicinal value?
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/02/no-medicinal-value.html