WE ARE NOT PUPPETS

 

WE ARE NOT PUPPETS

A puppet is defined as a movable model of a person or animal that is typically moved either by strings controlled from above or by a hand inside it.

Metaphorically a person, group, or country under the control of another may also be called a puppet.

Some of the common synonyms of puppets are: stooges, pawns, tools. Instruments, dummies, minions, figureheads, mouthpieces, yes-persons, statues, and underlings.

All these synonyms indicate subordination with no right to think and  act independently.

  What about human beings with reference to God or gods? Many people, believe that we are puppets and have to act as fate ordains.

This view is not accepted  by poets like Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938).  He uses for man the symbol of the “Shaheen” (eagle) who embodies the spirit of freedom, ambition, and self-soaring aspiration. According to him  man, too, is an independent creator. If God has created clay, man has created cups. And if God has created dark nights, man has created lamps to illuminate them.

Before I quote a poem entitled Puppets by a modern poetess Beatrice West, read this view:  “Whether humans are puppets is a matter of personal belief, with some people believing that humans are agents who make choices, while others believe that humans are controlled by external forces.”

The text of the poem Puppets reads as follows:

We are but puppets on the stage of life,

Before the footlights of its pain and strife;

We play the part that fate ordains us play,

And when our part is ended pass upon our way.

 

Time swiftly flies, too soon our part is done,

Life’s play is ended. ‘ere it’s scarce begun;

One final bow, there can be no anchor,

Death’s curtain falls arising never more.

            Finally, this short but relevant quote: Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.

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G.R.Kanwal

24 January 2025

https://grkanwal.blogspot.com/