Fortunately, last night i had a fight (again!) with one of my close friends. It being an argument between two lawyers, soon became a battle of egos - with each not wanting to acknowledge merit in the other's reasoning. It ended in a fight (yet again) without a conclusion.
i dedicate this post to our fight - since it gave me a topic for my post.
The fight was about theorising 'Destiny'. And this post is meant to gain some clarity of what we were fighting about. And also to know what others think.
i dedicate this post to our fight - since it gave me a topic for my post.
The fight was about theorising 'Destiny'. And this post is meant to gain some clarity of what we were fighting about. And also to know what others think.
My friend supports the theory that every individual is 'micro-managed' i.e., what an individual would do in each micro second, minute, hour, day, week, month and year of his life is pre-destined or pre-managed. If a thing were to happen in a person's life, it shall happen. An event will happen, at its predestined time. Before its time, no effort to make a thing happen shall fructify. Destiny will guide a person when to act. If a person has taken a step or a decision at any given time, it is because destiny dictated him to.
i think that if my friend's theory of destiny were true, then we would be mere puppets in the hands of an unidentified manipulator and there would be little or rather, no credit to be ascribed to the individual for his/her successes or failures. i would rather believe that each individual is pre-programmed only to the extent that he/she is born with certain potentials or tendencies which set the person to a particular course. However the credit for the person's achievements or failures goes to his environment and his actions.
Why then do we often make statements like - it was not destined to be , or, he/she was destined to rule. Why despite best efforts do we sometimes not get desired results and at other times, when we are least expecting, we are put on a course we may have desired but not really strived for. I do not know do you?
8 comments:
I believe in destiny - that we all come on earth with a certain purpose or fate that is "written". The basis of my belief lies in my belief in past lives. The "karma" of our past lives determines the course of our present and future lives. According to our karma, several routes for our present lives have already been chalked out! We can change our karmas for the good or bad consciously or unconsciously and this can accordingly impact our fate or destiny. So, by that measure, we can "shape" our destiny. Even when we do not lift a finger thinking what is destined will happen no matter how hard I try - is also a karmic pattern that we are exhibiting. Sometimes "bad" things happen to good people and we say - so and so person does not deserve this! There is no "good" or "bad" - these qualities are an illusion to put us through various circumstances – only to help us learn lessons according to our accumulated karmas. In the end, I’d like to say that all spiritualists inspire us to detach ourselves from the results of our actions. Once you detach, and even when you put in your best but do not get desired results, you will not mind. Or you will not complain that you did not get something because you know you did not put in your best. Yes sometimes, we do get things on a silver platter – we must consider these instances as blessings from the Universe and we must strive to act responsibly and show that we are worthy candidates for the blessings. This will only improve our karmas.
Thankyou ambroisa. I buy your argument as it credits points to individual enterprise too.
Well, I believe in the existence of a supreme power. I also agree that everything is not in our hands and maybe they can be termed as 'forces of nature.' Now if you just wait to be guided by destiny for each and every action of your life, she too will tire of you one day and refuse to do it. Come on, we all know the saying, "God helps those who help themselves." One should learn to take control of their lives. After all if everything was planned for us in advance, why were we given the power to think, create and do things. We should just have been mere machines with few buttons guiding our actions. The Supreme power created us and provided us with some basic faculties to help us in living our lives. And left it on us how to go about doing it.
I dont understand what AD says. But I suppose everyone comes to this earth with some kind of fate - as etched into the lines on our hands. But I also think - those lines can be changed - through our own efforts and actions. I think we can shape our destiny as well. We do get many choices in this journey of life and at every point, how we 'choose' - guides us towards our destiny... thats what I think, at the moment.
Believing that everything we do has already been decided for us by some mythical higher power means taking away human agency and rational choice - the power that we believe sets us apart from most other species - and that can't be right, now, can it? At every step in our lives we find ourselves confronted with choices - and we choose one or the other, and that choice shapes the course our lives take. Am I to believe that I would have taken that course anyway, because 'destiny' wills it? What is destiny, really? If everything is preordained, then I may as well give up and sit around doing nothing - after all, if I have no choice in the matter, then my life will pan out the way 'it's supposed to' anyway, right? No, M, I'm with you here - destiny never appealed to me, either as a reason, an excuse, or a justification. I choose who I am. I choose what I do or do not do. And I take responsibility for the consequences of my actions.
The topic of your blog, brings to my mind, a very interesting case. As you know, our politicians depend heavily upon astrology and do various things, like wearing gems, tabeez, performing pujas, visiting temples for avoiding the evil shadows of the fate.. Indira Gandhi was no exception.
She had the horoscope of her younger son, read by various astrologers and all had predicted violent, untimely death for him.She had planned a yagna, asking divine benediction for his life. The word goes that hundreds of gallons of milk, procured from the milkmen to be used for puja had gone soue, rendering that unfit for offering to Gods.Sanjay Gandhi had died a violent death, while doing acrobatic in his private aircraft, loosing control.
I believe, blessings do provide a safty circuit around a person, lessening the impact of the misfortune but they fail, if the magnitude of the karmas is so high., unpardonable. Sanjay Gandhi had made himself immensely unpopular, hateful, for his undemocratic, highhanded, demonic actions, like forcefully sterilizing people, demolishing jhuggis etc. No amount of prayers and pujas could save him.
Now take the case pf Indira Gandhi herself.. She had announced general election.,All famous astrologers of the country had predicted that her party (Congress) would get a landslide victory but she will not be the PM. What did that mean ? She toured through the length and bredth of the country, offering prayers in every temple and just a day before she had been gunned down by her own security guards she was in Orissa, where she was addressing a public meeting, where she had said that If I die tomorrow, every drop of my blood will invigorate India. The fate cought up with her on the exact date, 31st. October, given by the President Maharaj of Belur Math, with who she was very close.
Here again the impact of her karmas (operation Blue Star), when she had sent army inside the Golden Temple of Amritsar, to flush out the terrorists. Hundreds of innocent people living in the guest rooms were killed along with the terrorists.. The anger of the Sikhs was so much that no amount of prayers and blessings could save her.
Therefore my deduction is that our Karmas come back to us, in that very life, or next life, there escape.
Thamkyou everyone for your valuable comments. i am glad each one of you reasoned it out for me. Pro and Rashi, your reasoning appeals to me as much as Ambroisa's, in essence that is - Ambroisa i agreed with KD you do tend to go over my top most times on such topics ;). And Urmila, you are as always a pitara of tales :)
Thankyou.
Hello!! MD! I have tagged you for a meme. Please visit my blog post to see :-): http://ambrosia-am.blogspot.com/2009/04/tagged-and-passed.html
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