GATES AS POWERFUL SYMBOLS OF INDIVIDUAL STRENGTH.

Traditionally, a city guarded itself by installing a huge fortified gate at its entrance. The gate kept out foes and let in friends and so was an important security support that allowed inhabitants of the city to set themselves up as a community.
The life in a city often revolved around its gate: meetings were held, political manoeuvres were worked out; it was the place from which armies set out for war and judgements made.
The gate represented the power of the city and stood for justice and security, much the same way as a country protects its borders today.
As individuals, we tend to 'shut' our 'gates' in defence, when we feel threatened or when we face a difficult situation. When we do open up, we find that it lets in a great deal of freshness and warmth, allowing for forging lasting and fulfilling relationships.
A gate can, however, become an obstruction when we shut ourselves in or do not allow others to touch us or our lives in any way. When we cut ourselves off from societal interaction, we could be paving the way to stagnation and inner death, starved of stimulation and engagement.
Sometimes, we become like impregnable fortresses because we guard the gates of our hearts fiercely. We may have been hurt in life and by others and may not be willing to risk getting into relationships again.
How relevant are gates in today's information-communications rich world, accelerated by the Internet and other technology? Gates are relevant in a symbolic sense.
When we shut out what is vulgar, demeaning and demotivating, we are, in fact, using a gate to protect ourselves in a healthy way.
When we lay ourselves open to the beauty of the world around us, the freshness of new experiences and what is good and noble, we are, by granting ourselves and others unrestricted access, gaining new experiences of strength, faith and love.
The Bible, too, speaks symbolically of the gates of heaven when God is said to have opened them to send showers of manna and other forms of blessing.
We also speak metaphorically of the gate to heaven and the gate to hell representing a state of life that people cross to when they die and appear before God, a threshold where the good is separated from the bad.
When Jesus said that the way to heaven was a narrow gateway which one could cross through only after an inner conversion while the way to perdition was very wide, he was representing the same idea of a gate as being a way of conserving one's life or a way of losing it.
Today, a gate does not necessarily demarcate boundaries in a city, but the symbol retains meaning and value, as a way to define ourselves.
The gate could be a symbol of the power we have in us to deter forces that threaten to weaken or defeat us in life, that could leave us captive to a past or a present in which we are only victims.
Shutting the gate against all that makes us helpless victims is a way of transcending forces that debilitate us and make us give in.
Opening the gate to life is to be open to the forces of faith, trust and hope that lead us to eternal life.
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Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy
H. No. 12-13-302, St. No. 9,
Lane. No. 1, Flat. No. 203,
Satya Classic, Tarnaka, 
Secunderabad- 500 017
Telangana State, India.
e-mail: chakkuresearchscholar13@gmail.com
Cell: 09985732397.
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