Prof. Mohanan Nair: The concept of destiny controlling man’s life was there from time immemorial. Whenever some unfortunate thing, beyond man’s capacity to explain, happened unexpectedly he attributed it to destiny. That was the easiest and most convenient way to explain the inexplicable.
Greek mythology tells us of the three Goddesses who determined human destiny, known as Fates. They were depicted as three old women, Clotho, the spinner, Lachesis, the allotter and Atropos, the inflexible. Clotho spun the thread of human life, Lachesis dispensed it and Atropos cut the thread. They determined the length of each person’s life as well as his share of suffering. This concept of destiny is reflected in Greek tragedy. The great Greek tragic heroes are all the victims of an implacable destiny. Their doom is decreed beforehand, and they cannot escape it.
This Greek concept of fate was alien to Elizabethan drama, especially to Shakespeare. The Shakespearean tragic heroes bring their fate down on themselves by some error of their own known as the fatal flaw. Hamlet had ‘the courtiers, soldiers, scholars. Eye, tongue, and sword’ but suffered from the habit of procrastination. Othello, ‘a noble and valiant general’, was a slave of sexual jealousy. Macbeth, ‘a peerless kinsman too full of the milk of human kindness’ was ruined by his black and deep desires. Lear who was every inch a king suffered from a violent temper and lack of judgement.
In India the theory of cause and effect was very much in vogue. It was inextricably linked to the process of reincarnation. If the cause and effect are static, then the future is already established. Men can sit back and wait for their destiny. The theory will look all the more illogical when large number of people is involved or calamities like the tsunami swallow the lives of thousands. A hundred thousand including women and new born children were killed in the bombing of Hiroshima. Could it be attributed to destiny? It was the callousness and cruelty of Man that brought about the disaster. Was it the cruelty of Hitler or destiny that was responsible for the merciless genocide of the Jews in the gas chamber? Is it because of destiny or the exploitation of man that millions die of starvation in African countries? How could a whole nation like Iraq be destined to suffer? Will any super intelligence allow such cruelty though the victors reiterated that God was with them? The answer is evident – destiny has not played any part in these.
Emerson has said, ‘the bitterest tragic element in life is the belief in the brute fate or destiny’. Belief in destiny as in the case of any blind belief is the denial of truth. It is a sort of cowardice which helps one to hide the absence of the will to act persistently in spite of failures. In each one of us the good and evil are at war. All through our lives the fight goes on, and one of them must conquer the other. But in our own hands lies the power to choose – what we want most to be, what we are. In other words what we do and what we are, are inextricably linked together. Man is master of his own fate. We have plenty of illustrious examples. Christ could have escaped crucifixion. But he willingly courted crucifixion for the salvation of humanity. Socrates – not destiny – had the courage to stand by his convictions. Louis Braille, who had gone blind at a very young age challenged destiny, overcame not only his affliction but also helped the blind people all over the world to empower themselves by reading and acquiring knowledge. Helen Keller who had gone deaf and blind when she was 19 months old challenged destiny and became a distinguished writer and lecturer.
There is a Chinese saying:
Sow an act and you shall reap a habit.
Sow a habit and you shall reap a character.
Sow a character and you shall reap a fate.
An act is something done or the aggregate of things done, the social implication of which is clear to the doer. A habit is a constantly shown tendency to act in a certain way. Character is an aggregate of the most stable psychic traits of a personality manifested in his acts. But ‘fate’ has been invented by the weak, it has been invented to justify their failures, bad acts, offensive character, and to be able to shift the blame for things on others.
Life on earth is wrought with misery often and the tendency is to blame it on destiny. But if we remember that Man is born to give and not to grab there would be undiluted joy. Life flowers when you realize that you are useful to others. There is the story of the old man who was planting trees on the road side. He was almost bent double with old age. Someone who passed by asked him, ’why do you work so hard to plant these when you may not live to enjoy their shadows?’ the old man replied, “The shadows of the trees which now I enjoy were not planted by me.”
To day there is an accumulation of destructive forces resulting in a feeling of insecurity and mutual distrust. If the world is pushed on to another war and humanity goes back to the Stone Age it is only man made destiny. It is our duty to avoid such a catastrophical fate for humanity. Our duty is to make this world a better place to live in. the world abounds in facilities and amenities that have come as a result of accumulation and application of scientific knowledge. Man should make right use of the facilities and amenities and to live in harmony with nature. In such a case Man is destined to live, as held by H.G.Wells, in a universal palace making the whole globe our garden and play-ground.
Sri K V. Kunhikrishnan: From what we see around us we perceive that for every cause there is its effect and for every effect there is a cause, or several causes behind it. There has been no doubt about this fact. We have discussed the destiny of individual and also the destiny of Man in general. For what is happening today the causes may be spread out to several years, may be decades or centuries in the past. But whether such causes created by a man in a previous birth can affect his fortune in this life is very controversial as we have no means at present of knowing whether there is a previous birth at all, and whether any consequences of actions could be thus passed on. But we do definitely know that actions in this life have their consequences, good or bad.
Therefore there can be no dispute that an individual’s destiny depends to a large part on his own choices, effective efforts, talents and perseverance. But when unexpectedly some untoward outcome turns up, man is naturally confused. When a tree falls on the head of a person walking along the road, it would look absurd to attribute it to his actions of the past in this life unless the timing of his walk at the exact second could be blamed on him. Thus there are many unknown things beyond explanation. Explanations given by seers, masters, and spiritual leaders are also very contradictory, and cannot be verified unless one experiences them oneself.
It is in this context and in the context of the evolution of Man that the question posed in the beginning by Dr. Sadanandan becomes relevant, whether a mutation is possible in the evolution of Man wherein he becomes absolutely free of the cause/effect chain? The question has been answered by the Seer Aurobindo, as explained in the talk of Prof. Sankarankutty. The mutation has already started in the evolution of Man, and what is called the “Supramental Manifestation’ of Man is now happening in a wider scale than earlier. It will speed up faster and faster hereafter.
Going beyond the cause and effect can happen in two ways. The first is being free of it, mentally. Being free does not mean eliminating the effect or altering the effect. One goes beyond the effect, meaning that he is consciously free of the result of the actions, whether it is good or bad. The second is by a willful alteration of the effect or result. If the possible future is known beforehand, any danger can possibly be altered, or avoided. Here again we have no way of knowing which of the ways one can be free of the outcome of one’s actions. Until one becomes super-conscious, there is no way of knowing whether any future is predestined or preordained.
Ultimately, the only way is to acquire the necessary intuitive faculties to understand and comprehend this life and the Reality. For that, the mutation is necessary in all of us. It would appear that each man has to fend for himself in this regard, clearly discriminating whatever advises and suggestions that comes bye while going through one’s life.
Comment:
ALL SAID AND DONE, THE QUESTION STILL REMAINS: WAS IT THE WILL OF THE CRIPPLED AND THE DEAD, OR THEIR DESTINY THAT BROUGHT FORTH THE TSUNAMI? OR MERELY THE RELENTLESS DESTRUCTIVE FORCE OF PURE CHANCE?
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Destiny- Are we destined?(4)
Prof. Richard Hay: Talking about destiny, there is the story of a commander of the Japanese army during the II World war who showed his followers what destiny meant. The brave Japanese soldiers were badly outnumbered by the Allied soldiers in a battle. The Japanese troops were apprehensive about imminent failure. The commander arrayed his soldiers in the field and asking them to pray deep with devotion, said that he is going ro toss a coin, and it will show their destiny in battle. He said that heads would show victory and tails, failure. Heads turned out in the toss. With all enthusiasm and confidence they went for the battle and achieved a miraculous victory. On return one of his colleagues remarked how wonderfully the destiny worked. It was then that the Commander revealed that the coin had head on both sides!
The moral of the story is that destiny is not chance or fate, but sheer will power and perseverance. But in our country destiny has a negative connotation. One’s destiny is supposed to be predetermined and indicated either on one’s palm or in the position of the stars! And just observe the palm. The lines change almost every day. Science says that man changes so fast that a person is not the same next year. But of course there are stories like that of Markandeya in the epics that show that destiny can be challenged and changed by will. .
The legend says that according to a boon granted to the childless couple, Markandeya’s parents belonging to a Rishi family, they had the choice of either having him as a mentally retarded blockhead with a long life of one hundred years or as a short lived child, brilliant and wise, who will live only for sixteen years. They opted for wisdom and brilliancy for their child. When the son became 15 years old, the parents became jittery and panicked. They prayed to the lord with great devotion and intensity, and the lord of death had to yield. To everyone’s surprise he was made a ‘chiranjeevi’, meaning a person who is immortal! Even in ancient times, destiny could be changed. The moral of the story is that destiny can be changed through perseverance.
Now, look at the palm of one’s hand. If you observe it you will notice that the lines change every fortnight, however minute the change might be. Modern psychological theory says that we are not the same person next year, or even next day or next moment.
Dr.Thomas: I have actually noticed it in myself. And the sad part is that the end is more and more nearer!
Prof.Sankarankutty: Wisdom has a relationship to the comb. By the time one is wise there is no need to comb the hair because one is bald!
Prof. Richard Hay: Using the ever changing lines on the palms, the palmists predict the future! My question is, is destiny designed by the lines on one’s palm?
If it is the argument that destiny is perceived as unchangeable and inevitable because it is God’s will or God’s plan, what I would like to state is that destiny is nothing but the bounds created by man that can be crossed by man himself through his will. One succumbs to destiny if he doesn’t use his free will to change it. Will power and ingenuity can help in changing one’s destiny. Man is his own master. If this cannot be accepted, he becomes a slave to his destiny. Destiny per se is superstition.
But we notice that western thinking also was indulging in similar beliefs! Let me quote from Chaucer:
“The destiny a minister general,
That executeth in the world o’er all,
The purveyance which God hath seen before,
So strong it is, that though the world had sworn
The contrary of the thing by yea or nay,
Yet sometime it shall falter on a day
That falleth not oft in a thousand year,
For certainly, our appetite here,
Be it war or peace, or hate or love,
All this is ruled by the sight above.”
Destiny was thus perceived as God’s absolute determination. In the Greek mythology, the underlying concept is absolute belief in destiny. They believed in the ancient saying, “whatever is fated, that alone will take place ‘.
Let me tell you the story of two frogs. The two frogs got caught in a small milk can with a lid. The lid was too high for the frogs to jump at it or open it. The first frog panicked, and in the frustration of hopelessness, drowned in the milk The second frog analyzed the situation, and in the hope of finding some way of escape kept himself alive swimming round and round in the milk. Eventually the churning of the milk produced a lump of butter on which it climbed and escaped from the can. The story goes to show that destiny is not a matter of chance, but it is a matter of choice. This has been proved again and again by achievers in Literature, Commerce, Arts, Sports, and in other fields where we go by the saying, ‘genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
As regards the Indian philosophic pronouncements that destiny is nothing but the result of past deeds committed in a previous life, acceptance of this would require an ardent belief in re-incarnation. Many in the world would not subscribe to this view. Hence destiny cannot be conceived as an aftermath of one’s deeds in a previous period of life. Whatever Man achieves is the outcome of his decisions, and not the aftermath of his previous life’s misdeeds or deeds.
With the development of science and technology man is able to bring about drastic changes. Stem cell research, nano-technology, etc., presage wonderful change. The boundless talents of men are still to be exploited to invent new products which would change the entire destiny of mankind. So far we were looking at the sky in wonderment. When spaceships traveled far into space and brought home the secrets of nature unknown to us for centuries, we were thrilled at the achievements. Till then we were mere ignoramuses. Whatever limits us we call Fate.
But destiny has definitely helped Man when he faced risk or failure. This is as a defense mechanism to tide over the repercussions of failure, attributing it to destiny or fate. That way it has served a psychological purpose. Nothing more.
People who believe in the concept of destiny do put pertinent questions like why some people are born rich while others are poor? Why are some people lucky and others not? Why are some people smart and healthy while some are otherwise, although sometimes born to the same parents? Why should one of the siblings be blessed with all material comforts while the other is deprived of them all? Why are some countries growing so fast while others still remain much less developed? These are but questions put to confuse the minds of non-believers of destiny. William Jennings Bryan says, ”Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”
To be successful one has to break the pattern of the old destiny-centered ideas, and develop a new faith, and pursue it with strong determination and ruthlessness. When a person starts unlocking his hidden talents, he gets on to the right road to success. Look at the present younger generation known as ‘techies’ who are more skilled and knowledgeable than their predecessors. They belong to a rapid growth field when they getr the best out of the new system. Talent, determination and a little bit of luck decide the future of men. Are we to call this bit of luck as destiny?
To me destiny characterizes slavery. Liberty, freedom, fortitude, and free will would help demystify the concept of destiny and free us from the bondages of such imperfect thoughts. When man is weak and fickle minded he has no other go but to depend on destiny as an excuse and aid to failure.
Let me conclude by narrating the story of a girl who fought against her destiny, - the story of Wilma Rudolf:
She hailed from a poor family in Tennesse, USA. Plio struck her when she was a child. Paralyzed, she wore braces. Her mother, determined to change her fate, encouraged her to walk. At the age of ten Wilma told her mother that she wanted to be the fastest woman on track in this earth! At the age of thirteen, she entered the race at district level and failed. Destiny against hopes, she failed several times. Undaunted she tried again and again. At 17 she met coach ED Temple who said that with her spirit nobody would stop her. Such was her strong will to succeed. Rest is history. In 1960 Olympics Wilma won three gold medals, for 100, 200, and 400 metres. This greatest of all events in the history of Olympics reveals the strength of that indomitable strength of man to excel braving all challenges. So, destiny is not a matter of chance, but of choice.
Prof.Sankarankutty: Is not the word destiny limited in itself? Not only does it not throw any light on the concept of destiny it is also a trap to get into the confusion on destiny. Be as it may, to remain in the mess on destiny is itself a beautiful thing. The unraveling of it should be worth it.
Talking about Arobindo on the basis of whose metaphysical and spiritual thoughts I base this discussion, I must say that one cannot directly go into the subject of destiny as his thoughts would enclose all the discussions. So vast is the area he covers. In his younger days he was involved with the destiny of India, participating in the freedom struggle. But he was basically concerned with the destiny of all countries in the sense that what he was bothering about was the destiny of the whole of mankind. Coming out of slavery for India was but a limited purpose. Following the cue from the philosopher Nietzsche (Friedrich Nietzche – German), he believed that the whole mankind was, and is, evolving towards super-manhood.
Sri Aurobindo’s 75th birthday on 15th August 1947 coincided with the dawn of India’s independence. He wrote: “I take this identification, not as a coincidence or fortuitous accident, but as a sanction and a seal of the Divine Power which guides my steps on the work with which I began life.”
To understand the integral quality, philosophical, political, poetic, and spiritual, of Sri Aurobindo, it is necessary to have some knowledge of his life and background. At the early age of seven he was taken to England, along with his two brothers, by his father who was in the medical profession. It is an irony of fate that his father, a fully westernized gentleman, permitted no Indian influence to pollute his children’s minds. He spent thirteen years of his developing days in England returning to India only on his twentieth year. He was also fully westernized in behavior. English was almost his mother tongue to the extent that he was thinking in English. He mastered many western languages. He also prepared for the civil services (I C. S) and passed the examination, but was rejected for failing in Horse Riding! It is said that he deliberately failed himself to escape his father’s wrath in refusing to accept the ICS. It was then he came to India and indulged in the revolutionary aspect of the freedom struggle. He found asylum in Pondicherry when he was banished from India by the British. By that time he had found himself absorbed in spiritual pursuit. This is not surprising when we notice that he was destined to the ‘last of the Rishis of India’ as referred to by Romain Roland.
On reaching Pondicherry and founding the Ashram, he kept silence for 12 rears and spent most of the time in meditation. He wrote several books of which two are said to be the most outstanding and of epic quality, in poetic vision and spiritual insight. They are the Life Divine and the epic poem ‘Savitri’. In this poem he deals with the challenge of destiny by the devoted wife Savitri for the life of Satyavan, her husband. He fights the case against the God of Death and wins with her arguments and dialogue. Metaphysical and spiritual truths are revealed with vision and insight. The challenge to destiny here is another interpretation of destiny.
Life divine has a poetic title. But it deals with the evolution of the human kind. It refers to the supreme zone of intelligence. While in Savitri he challenges the concept of destiny, in Life Divine he shows how that challenge can be approached and understood to get an insight to challenge it. It is like the hardware and software of a computer. The hardware is the nature of the human mind which has to be properly tackled and arranged. The software is the way in which it has to be used to challenge destiny. Indian inheritance of the ideas in Vedas, Upanishads etc. helped him in arriving at methods to tackle the mind.
According to his thoughts, one can be free of destiny through ‘supra-mental manifestation’. This manifestation is a mutation in the process of evolution. The process can be speeded up by meditation. Yoga accelerates it. Sri. Aurobindo has a remarkable way of fusion of the eastern and the western ways of thinking. Nobody expressed eastern thoughts in ways that can be understood by a western mind, as Sri.Aurobindo did.
Aurobindo gave us a huge machinery of ideas, very heavy, yet freely moving on water like a ship on the ocean. Inside is very complex in which one could easily be lost. But yet it is simple and straight to understand when you enter into it. Let me try to explain:
Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy is to turn the current of human progress in evolution towards the goal of Supermanhood. The yogi in him formulated a method for achieving the desired ’total change in consciousness’. In his magnum opus, the Life Divine, he incorporates manifold techniques that would pave the way for the creation of the superman and super-nature. First and foremost, the western notions of the supremacy of the intellect in comprehending reality, is to be dismissed. It has to be replaced by the spiritual intuition in man. It is worth recalling in this connection the sayings of Martian Heidegger: ‘Reasons, glorified for centuries, is the most obstinate adversary of thinking.’ Reason has great limitations. How can reason be used to analyze reason? Staying within reason one cannot observe reason. Archemides said, ‘I can move the earth; but get me a space outside earth, and a lever! Reason is only an instrument. It is an exercise by the mind. And the mind has to be understood in terms of other faculties. It was the ancient Greeks who promoted the analytical scrutiny of detached thinking of things and phenomena, giving rise to the present edifice of civilization. It has it’s own uses, but for which today’s progress in conveniences and technology would not have been possible. But the Indian sages insisted on the very opposite, because they found through highly developed vision and insight that man does not attain truth so long as he remains locked up in his intellect.
The answer to the basic problems of philosophy is not possible to be found by mere intellectual exercise. It has to flow from one’s own experiences and realizations. Sri Aurobindo said, ‘discover your state of being, don’t look for God outside. He felt that it is possible for man to advance further in the evolutionary race and reach a new dynamic status, that of the supra-mental being. But there is a lid of resistance barring the way. It is the veil of what is called Maya, the semi-transparent illusion of the mental consciousness. This lid has to be broken through. The mind, instead of guiding us through the haze of half lights and false lights, should link up with the ultimate source of knowledge and power, and achieve the glory of a new life as supermind and take charge of the planning of the new world.
To quote from the Life Divine:
“ We perceive that our existence is a sort of refraction of the Divine Existence in the inverted order of ascent and descent thus arranged:
Existence
Conscious force
Bliss
Supermind
INVOLUTION > < EVOLUTION
Mind
Psyche (Soul)
Life
Matter
The Divine descends from pure existence through the play of consciousness force and Bliss and the creative medium of supermind into cosmic being. We ascend from matter through a developing life, soul and mind and the illuminating medium of supermind towards the divine being. The knot of the two is where mind and supermind meet with a veil between them. The rending of the veil is the condition of the divine life in humanity.”.
Modern materialism, mainly a western phenomenon, has given us considerable knowledge regarding the lower planes of existence. Asceticism, an Eastern, rather an Indian Phenominon has served us by boldly adventuring into the unknown, giving him intimations of the contours of the spirit. And yet Sri Aurobindo urges that neither the revolt of the matter against the spirit nor the revolt of the spirit against matter can yield a lasting harmony. He gives us two facts. (1) The fact of Pure Existence – Being, (2) World Existence – becoming. To recognize the facts of consciousness and find out the relation between Being and Becoming is the true and useful wisdom.
According to Aurobindo the descent (involution), the ‘original sin’ has already occurred, and the ascent (evolution), the redemption is in process. His vision is that it has begun. The leap from mind to supermind is the spiritual adventure of cutting the knot of the mind and supermind by rending of the veil separating the two. The destiny of mankind is the spiritual evolution in which darkness, ignorance and death give place to light, knowledge, and immortality.
It is a total change that is needed, not only transformation of man into superman, but also transformation of nature into super-nature.
The moral of the story is that destiny is not chance or fate, but sheer will power and perseverance. But in our country destiny has a negative connotation. One’s destiny is supposed to be predetermined and indicated either on one’s palm or in the position of the stars! And just observe the palm. The lines change almost every day. Science says that man changes so fast that a person is not the same next year. But of course there are stories like that of Markandeya in the epics that show that destiny can be challenged and changed by will. .
The legend says that according to a boon granted to the childless couple, Markandeya’s parents belonging to a Rishi family, they had the choice of either having him as a mentally retarded blockhead with a long life of one hundred years or as a short lived child, brilliant and wise, who will live only for sixteen years. They opted for wisdom and brilliancy for their child. When the son became 15 years old, the parents became jittery and panicked. They prayed to the lord with great devotion and intensity, and the lord of death had to yield. To everyone’s surprise he was made a ‘chiranjeevi’, meaning a person who is immortal! Even in ancient times, destiny could be changed. The moral of the story is that destiny can be changed through perseverance.
Now, look at the palm of one’s hand. If you observe it you will notice that the lines change every fortnight, however minute the change might be. Modern psychological theory says that we are not the same person next year, or even next day or next moment.
Dr.Thomas: I have actually noticed it in myself. And the sad part is that the end is more and more nearer!
Prof.Sankarankutty: Wisdom has a relationship to the comb. By the time one is wise there is no need to comb the hair because one is bald!
Prof. Richard Hay: Using the ever changing lines on the palms, the palmists predict the future! My question is, is destiny designed by the lines on one’s palm?
If it is the argument that destiny is perceived as unchangeable and inevitable because it is God’s will or God’s plan, what I would like to state is that destiny is nothing but the bounds created by man that can be crossed by man himself through his will. One succumbs to destiny if he doesn’t use his free will to change it. Will power and ingenuity can help in changing one’s destiny. Man is his own master. If this cannot be accepted, he becomes a slave to his destiny. Destiny per se is superstition.
But we notice that western thinking also was indulging in similar beliefs! Let me quote from Chaucer:
“The destiny a minister general,
That executeth in the world o’er all,
The purveyance which God hath seen before,
So strong it is, that though the world had sworn
The contrary of the thing by yea or nay,
Yet sometime it shall falter on a day
That falleth not oft in a thousand year,
For certainly, our appetite here,
Be it war or peace, or hate or love,
All this is ruled by the sight above.”
Destiny was thus perceived as God’s absolute determination. In the Greek mythology, the underlying concept is absolute belief in destiny. They believed in the ancient saying, “whatever is fated, that alone will take place ‘.
Let me tell you the story of two frogs. The two frogs got caught in a small milk can with a lid. The lid was too high for the frogs to jump at it or open it. The first frog panicked, and in the frustration of hopelessness, drowned in the milk The second frog analyzed the situation, and in the hope of finding some way of escape kept himself alive swimming round and round in the milk. Eventually the churning of the milk produced a lump of butter on which it climbed and escaped from the can. The story goes to show that destiny is not a matter of chance, but it is a matter of choice. This has been proved again and again by achievers in Literature, Commerce, Arts, Sports, and in other fields where we go by the saying, ‘genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
As regards the Indian philosophic pronouncements that destiny is nothing but the result of past deeds committed in a previous life, acceptance of this would require an ardent belief in re-incarnation. Many in the world would not subscribe to this view. Hence destiny cannot be conceived as an aftermath of one’s deeds in a previous period of life. Whatever Man achieves is the outcome of his decisions, and not the aftermath of his previous life’s misdeeds or deeds.
With the development of science and technology man is able to bring about drastic changes. Stem cell research, nano-technology, etc., presage wonderful change. The boundless talents of men are still to be exploited to invent new products which would change the entire destiny of mankind. So far we were looking at the sky in wonderment. When spaceships traveled far into space and brought home the secrets of nature unknown to us for centuries, we were thrilled at the achievements. Till then we were mere ignoramuses. Whatever limits us we call Fate.
But destiny has definitely helped Man when he faced risk or failure. This is as a defense mechanism to tide over the repercussions of failure, attributing it to destiny or fate. That way it has served a psychological purpose. Nothing more.
People who believe in the concept of destiny do put pertinent questions like why some people are born rich while others are poor? Why are some people lucky and others not? Why are some people smart and healthy while some are otherwise, although sometimes born to the same parents? Why should one of the siblings be blessed with all material comforts while the other is deprived of them all? Why are some countries growing so fast while others still remain much less developed? These are but questions put to confuse the minds of non-believers of destiny. William Jennings Bryan says, ”Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”
To be successful one has to break the pattern of the old destiny-centered ideas, and develop a new faith, and pursue it with strong determination and ruthlessness. When a person starts unlocking his hidden talents, he gets on to the right road to success. Look at the present younger generation known as ‘techies’ who are more skilled and knowledgeable than their predecessors. They belong to a rapid growth field when they getr the best out of the new system. Talent, determination and a little bit of luck decide the future of men. Are we to call this bit of luck as destiny?
To me destiny characterizes slavery. Liberty, freedom, fortitude, and free will would help demystify the concept of destiny and free us from the bondages of such imperfect thoughts. When man is weak and fickle minded he has no other go but to depend on destiny as an excuse and aid to failure.
Let me conclude by narrating the story of a girl who fought against her destiny, - the story of Wilma Rudolf:
She hailed from a poor family in Tennesse, USA. Plio struck her when she was a child. Paralyzed, she wore braces. Her mother, determined to change her fate, encouraged her to walk. At the age of ten Wilma told her mother that she wanted to be the fastest woman on track in this earth! At the age of thirteen, she entered the race at district level and failed. Destiny against hopes, she failed several times. Undaunted she tried again and again. At 17 she met coach ED Temple who said that with her spirit nobody would stop her. Such was her strong will to succeed. Rest is history. In 1960 Olympics Wilma won three gold medals, for 100, 200, and 400 metres. This greatest of all events in the history of Olympics reveals the strength of that indomitable strength of man to excel braving all challenges. So, destiny is not a matter of chance, but of choice.
Prof.Sankarankutty: Is not the word destiny limited in itself? Not only does it not throw any light on the concept of destiny it is also a trap to get into the confusion on destiny. Be as it may, to remain in the mess on destiny is itself a beautiful thing. The unraveling of it should be worth it.
Talking about Arobindo on the basis of whose metaphysical and spiritual thoughts I base this discussion, I must say that one cannot directly go into the subject of destiny as his thoughts would enclose all the discussions. So vast is the area he covers. In his younger days he was involved with the destiny of India, participating in the freedom struggle. But he was basically concerned with the destiny of all countries in the sense that what he was bothering about was the destiny of the whole of mankind. Coming out of slavery for India was but a limited purpose. Following the cue from the philosopher Nietzsche (Friedrich Nietzche – German), he believed that the whole mankind was, and is, evolving towards super-manhood.
Sri Aurobindo’s 75th birthday on 15th August 1947 coincided with the dawn of India’s independence. He wrote: “I take this identification, not as a coincidence or fortuitous accident, but as a sanction and a seal of the Divine Power which guides my steps on the work with which I began life.”
To understand the integral quality, philosophical, political, poetic, and spiritual, of Sri Aurobindo, it is necessary to have some knowledge of his life and background. At the early age of seven he was taken to England, along with his two brothers, by his father who was in the medical profession. It is an irony of fate that his father, a fully westernized gentleman, permitted no Indian influence to pollute his children’s minds. He spent thirteen years of his developing days in England returning to India only on his twentieth year. He was also fully westernized in behavior. English was almost his mother tongue to the extent that he was thinking in English. He mastered many western languages. He also prepared for the civil services (I C. S) and passed the examination, but was rejected for failing in Horse Riding! It is said that he deliberately failed himself to escape his father’s wrath in refusing to accept the ICS. It was then he came to India and indulged in the revolutionary aspect of the freedom struggle. He found asylum in Pondicherry when he was banished from India by the British. By that time he had found himself absorbed in spiritual pursuit. This is not surprising when we notice that he was destined to the ‘last of the Rishis of India’ as referred to by Romain Roland.
On reaching Pondicherry and founding the Ashram, he kept silence for 12 rears and spent most of the time in meditation. He wrote several books of which two are said to be the most outstanding and of epic quality, in poetic vision and spiritual insight. They are the Life Divine and the epic poem ‘Savitri’. In this poem he deals with the challenge of destiny by the devoted wife Savitri for the life of Satyavan, her husband. He fights the case against the God of Death and wins with her arguments and dialogue. Metaphysical and spiritual truths are revealed with vision and insight. The challenge to destiny here is another interpretation of destiny.
Life divine has a poetic title. But it deals with the evolution of the human kind. It refers to the supreme zone of intelligence. While in Savitri he challenges the concept of destiny, in Life Divine he shows how that challenge can be approached and understood to get an insight to challenge it. It is like the hardware and software of a computer. The hardware is the nature of the human mind which has to be properly tackled and arranged. The software is the way in which it has to be used to challenge destiny. Indian inheritance of the ideas in Vedas, Upanishads etc. helped him in arriving at methods to tackle the mind.
According to his thoughts, one can be free of destiny through ‘supra-mental manifestation’. This manifestation is a mutation in the process of evolution. The process can be speeded up by meditation. Yoga accelerates it. Sri. Aurobindo has a remarkable way of fusion of the eastern and the western ways of thinking. Nobody expressed eastern thoughts in ways that can be understood by a western mind, as Sri.Aurobindo did.
Aurobindo gave us a huge machinery of ideas, very heavy, yet freely moving on water like a ship on the ocean. Inside is very complex in which one could easily be lost. But yet it is simple and straight to understand when you enter into it. Let me try to explain:
Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy is to turn the current of human progress in evolution towards the goal of Supermanhood. The yogi in him formulated a method for achieving the desired ’total change in consciousness’. In his magnum opus, the Life Divine, he incorporates manifold techniques that would pave the way for the creation of the superman and super-nature. First and foremost, the western notions of the supremacy of the intellect in comprehending reality, is to be dismissed. It has to be replaced by the spiritual intuition in man. It is worth recalling in this connection the sayings of Martian Heidegger: ‘Reasons, glorified for centuries, is the most obstinate adversary of thinking.’ Reason has great limitations. How can reason be used to analyze reason? Staying within reason one cannot observe reason. Archemides said, ‘I can move the earth; but get me a space outside earth, and a lever! Reason is only an instrument. It is an exercise by the mind. And the mind has to be understood in terms of other faculties. It was the ancient Greeks who promoted the analytical scrutiny of detached thinking of things and phenomena, giving rise to the present edifice of civilization. It has it’s own uses, but for which today’s progress in conveniences and technology would not have been possible. But the Indian sages insisted on the very opposite, because they found through highly developed vision and insight that man does not attain truth so long as he remains locked up in his intellect.
The answer to the basic problems of philosophy is not possible to be found by mere intellectual exercise. It has to flow from one’s own experiences and realizations. Sri Aurobindo said, ‘discover your state of being, don’t look for God outside. He felt that it is possible for man to advance further in the evolutionary race and reach a new dynamic status, that of the supra-mental being. But there is a lid of resistance barring the way. It is the veil of what is called Maya, the semi-transparent illusion of the mental consciousness. This lid has to be broken through. The mind, instead of guiding us through the haze of half lights and false lights, should link up with the ultimate source of knowledge and power, and achieve the glory of a new life as supermind and take charge of the planning of the new world.
To quote from the Life Divine:
“ We perceive that our existence is a sort of refraction of the Divine Existence in the inverted order of ascent and descent thus arranged:
Existence
Conscious force
Bliss
Supermind
INVOLUTION > < EVOLUTION
Mind
Psyche (Soul)
Life
Matter
The Divine descends from pure existence through the play of consciousness force and Bliss and the creative medium of supermind into cosmic being. We ascend from matter through a developing life, soul and mind and the illuminating medium of supermind towards the divine being. The knot of the two is where mind and supermind meet with a veil between them. The rending of the veil is the condition of the divine life in humanity.”.
Modern materialism, mainly a western phenomenon, has given us considerable knowledge regarding the lower planes of existence. Asceticism, an Eastern, rather an Indian Phenominon has served us by boldly adventuring into the unknown, giving him intimations of the contours of the spirit. And yet Sri Aurobindo urges that neither the revolt of the matter against the spirit nor the revolt of the spirit against matter can yield a lasting harmony. He gives us two facts. (1) The fact of Pure Existence – Being, (2) World Existence – becoming. To recognize the facts of consciousness and find out the relation between Being and Becoming is the true and useful wisdom.
According to Aurobindo the descent (involution), the ‘original sin’ has already occurred, and the ascent (evolution), the redemption is in process. His vision is that it has begun. The leap from mind to supermind is the spiritual adventure of cutting the knot of the mind and supermind by rending of the veil separating the two. The destiny of mankind is the spiritual evolution in which darkness, ignorance and death give place to light, knowledge, and immortality.
It is a total change that is needed, not only transformation of man into superman, but also transformation of nature into super-nature.
Destiny- Are we destined?(3)
Dr. Abdulla: Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines Destiny as ‘The power believed to control events or fate; something which is inevitable or unavoidable’. References to destiny are often made by poets and writers. “Happy is he who caring not for pope, consul or king, can sound himself to know the destiny of man, and live in hope”, said William Wordsworth. According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, the bitterest element in life is the belief in a brute Fate or Destiny. A vast majority believes that faith in God gives meaning and purpose to human life.
Belief in God is akin to belief in Destiny. Why do we believe in god or nature, or the power that governs the whole universe? And did God create everything? A possible answer to this question is indirectly suggested in the interesting dialogue quoted below:
Did God create everything?
The university professor challenged his students with this question. “Did God create everything that exists?”
A student replied, “yes he did!”
“God created everything?” The professor asked.
“Yes sir”, the student replied.
The professor continued, “If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, God is evil”.
The student became quiet.
The professor quite pleased with himself boasted to the students that he had proven once more that faith in God was a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said, “Can I ask you a question, Sir?”
“Of course”, replied the professor.
The student stood up and asked, “professor, does cold exist?”
“What kind of a question is this?” Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?”
The students snickered at the young man’s question.
The young man replied, “In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460F) is the total absence of heat; all matters become inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat. “
The student continued, “Professor, does darkness exist?”
The professor responded, “Of course it does.”
The student replied, “ Once again, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colours, and study the various wavelength of each colour. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.”
Finally the young man asked the professor, “Sir, similarly does evil exist?”
Now uncertain, the professor responded, “ Of course, as I have already said, we see it everyday. It is the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing but evil.
To this, the student replied, ”Evil does not exist sir, or it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”
The professor sat down.
The young man’s name was Albert Einstein.
Dr.Thomas: Einstein’s thoughts came from outside the structure of his brain. He functioned beyond it.
Dr.Abdulla: Well, I gave this anecdote just to explain that innumerable phenomena are there in this universe that cannot be explained or reasoned out. Universe follows great mathematical laws and reveals unimaginable engineering feats that only a gigantic intelligence can fathom. These cannot exist by mere chance. No wonder that scientists like Darwin and Einstein believe in destiny. Life on the planet cannot be by accident. I would like to give here a brief summary from the book, ‘Man Does Not Stand Alone’, on why scientists believe in God or Destiny.
SEVEN REASONS WHY A SCIENTIST BELIEVES IN GOD OR DESTINY:
Since Darwin over ninety years back, the world had been progressing tremendously in science gathering more and more knowledge. The more we know, the more we are fascinated at the super-intelligence of a creator. The probability of choosing at random a sequence of one to ten from a pack of ten shuffled cards in succession is, as we know, the unbelievable chance of one in ten billion! With all the precise and complicated mathematical laws that govern the physical existence of this world as uncovered by science now, the probability of it being a chance is one in infinite, or nil. There is every indication that the whole system is the handiwork of an infinite intelligence, and not that of any chance. The earth’s rotation, its slant for exposing evenly to the sunlight, the moon’s position, the depth of the sea, earth’s atmosphere, why, even the supply of sufficient oxygen on earth to make life possible, point to an unimaginable force of intelligence.
Life is a fantastic phenomenon. It’s roots can crack a rock, even its tiny beings are able to change the chemical structures of almost all matter, it compels elements to dissolve and form different combinations, it creates colourful pictures on leaves and flowers, produces music of the birds, gives tastes and flavours to fruits, and fragrances to blossoms. The life in a single cell, a drop of protoplasm has so much power that it multiplies itself ultimately into all sorts of vegetation, animal, and all life in general. Who put life into it?
Who put instinct into animals to make it capable of survival? What makes some fish to travel all through a river miles and miles to reach the sea, and then ultimately come back to the same place of its birth to breed? What guides the migratory birds to travel thousands of miles in the same route year after year? A wasp stings a grasshopper only numbing it to preserve its meat for its offsprings till the eggs are hatched. Who teaches it the technology?
Man’s intelligence, just a spark of the universal intelligence, makes him capable of thinking all the thoughts. Is not that universal intelligence that of god or God himself?
The wonders of Genetics, Gene and the unraveling of the secrets of Genome are now fairly well known. Who gave the power of self organizing to the double helix DNA, the chromosomes and the genes, the intricately woven patterns which decide the nature of each individual being?
Plants, pests, flora and fauna are balanced by nature, by destroying excess growth of some, promoting growth of others and making yet some others extinct. Some deliberate intelligence is seen behind these checks and balances. Only infinite wisdom could have foreseen this and made provisions.
The very fact that man is able to conceive the idea of god in his wonderful imagination that can perceive the unseen, points towards the existence of the unbounded power that is of God. Behind that imagination there must be that divine force which makes it possible.
“Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork”
The supreme power governing the entire universe, you call it by any name, GOD, Almighty, or even Destiny, is undoubtedly beyond human intelligence, comprehension, or reasoning. Even though science and technology have advanced to such heights, we are nowhere near to analyzing Life as such, from where it comes and to where it disappears.
I think, the most simplest form of destiny – or you might call it Primary destiny- of any living object in this universe is the GENETIC DESTINY, the destiny of being male or female at birth. I don’t know whether this new terminology coined by me is appropriate or correct. But the gender of any organism in this world at birth can be its main destiny, and it invariably cannot be altered or manipulated with any amount of success. Even with the present day advancement in science it is very difficult. In human beings even before birth this gender destiny plays an important role in the sense that you cannot alter it even though you may find it out, the power of that destiny continues till death of the individual.
The much acclaimed ‘Karma Yoga’ of Hindu philosophy, in my opinion points to the role of destiny in our worldly existence. Your Karma is your yoga(fate). Similarly the cause and effect phenomena, where the effect or Karma is the response to the cause, yoga or destiny.
Prof. Richard Hay: There is another angle or approach to the way of thinking. Man, bewildered by the mystery of life, took recourse to the idea of destiny or faith for consolation or relief from his predicament. But it is an escapist philosophy. It was explained here that biology, especially the DNA that determines the structure and behaviour of a being is indeed destiny as living beings cannot go beyond what it stipulates. But that is an old theory exploded long ago by the advent of Stem Cell Research. Science has developed methods to change the very structures of the basic cells making it possible to change everything in a living being. Even the gender of a child to be yet born can be changed. Nothing need be predetermined. What we refer to as Destiny is actually accidental; it is mere coincidence.
Dr. Abdulla: But how the basic cell itself came about? There is a superior intelligence that created the complicated cell?
Dr. Thomas: It can be called the God-point. Brain is the god-point.
Prof.Hay: Man;s creative powers work. Inventions are made. Patents and trademarks are taken. WTO works internationally expanding trade in new findings worldwide. There is the cause, operations, and the effect functioning. Occasional accidents cannot change this view. Of course, death is destiny. Everything ends there. But Man’s progress is through technological advancement. The great powers are fast advancing in powerful nuclear fusion-energy reactors, stem cell research, cloning, and nano-technology The point is that the destiny of Man hereafter will be decided by the super powers, and not by fate. Man has to act to avert any disaster. Destiny is not by accident, but by choice. I shall elaborate the point in my talk in the next discussion. Recently American president Bush came to India. Most people do not know his real purpose. It was actually to seek the help of India in that area of science where intense research is required in genetic and other higher technologies.
Mr. Kunhikrishnan: Science is definitely very much advanced. It is going up and up to reveal the secrets of nature and perhaps ultimately, even God. But the God has to come down to meet it. Science is the external exploration. God is internal. The understanding and probing of the internal makes the God climb down to meet science.
Belief in God is akin to belief in Destiny. Why do we believe in god or nature, or the power that governs the whole universe? And did God create everything? A possible answer to this question is indirectly suggested in the interesting dialogue quoted below:
Did God create everything?
The university professor challenged his students with this question. “Did God create everything that exists?”
A student replied, “yes he did!”
“God created everything?” The professor asked.
“Yes sir”, the student replied.
The professor continued, “If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, God is evil”.
The student became quiet.
The professor quite pleased with himself boasted to the students that he had proven once more that faith in God was a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said, “Can I ask you a question, Sir?”
“Of course”, replied the professor.
The student stood up and asked, “professor, does cold exist?”
“What kind of a question is this?” Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?”
The students snickered at the young man’s question.
The young man replied, “In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460F) is the total absence of heat; all matters become inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat. “
The student continued, “Professor, does darkness exist?”
The professor responded, “Of course it does.”
The student replied, “ Once again, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colours, and study the various wavelength of each colour. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.”
Finally the young man asked the professor, “Sir, similarly does evil exist?”
Now uncertain, the professor responded, “ Of course, as I have already said, we see it everyday. It is the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing but evil.
To this, the student replied, ”Evil does not exist sir, or it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”
The professor sat down.
The young man’s name was Albert Einstein.
Dr.Thomas: Einstein’s thoughts came from outside the structure of his brain. He functioned beyond it.
Dr.Abdulla: Well, I gave this anecdote just to explain that innumerable phenomena are there in this universe that cannot be explained or reasoned out. Universe follows great mathematical laws and reveals unimaginable engineering feats that only a gigantic intelligence can fathom. These cannot exist by mere chance. No wonder that scientists like Darwin and Einstein believe in destiny. Life on the planet cannot be by accident. I would like to give here a brief summary from the book, ‘Man Does Not Stand Alone’, on why scientists believe in God or Destiny.
SEVEN REASONS WHY A SCIENTIST BELIEVES IN GOD OR DESTINY:
Since Darwin over ninety years back, the world had been progressing tremendously in science gathering more and more knowledge. The more we know, the more we are fascinated at the super-intelligence of a creator. The probability of choosing at random a sequence of one to ten from a pack of ten shuffled cards in succession is, as we know, the unbelievable chance of one in ten billion! With all the precise and complicated mathematical laws that govern the physical existence of this world as uncovered by science now, the probability of it being a chance is one in infinite, or nil. There is every indication that the whole system is the handiwork of an infinite intelligence, and not that of any chance. The earth’s rotation, its slant for exposing evenly to the sunlight, the moon’s position, the depth of the sea, earth’s atmosphere, why, even the supply of sufficient oxygen on earth to make life possible, point to an unimaginable force of intelligence.
Life is a fantastic phenomenon. It’s roots can crack a rock, even its tiny beings are able to change the chemical structures of almost all matter, it compels elements to dissolve and form different combinations, it creates colourful pictures on leaves and flowers, produces music of the birds, gives tastes and flavours to fruits, and fragrances to blossoms. The life in a single cell, a drop of protoplasm has so much power that it multiplies itself ultimately into all sorts of vegetation, animal, and all life in general. Who put life into it?
Who put instinct into animals to make it capable of survival? What makes some fish to travel all through a river miles and miles to reach the sea, and then ultimately come back to the same place of its birth to breed? What guides the migratory birds to travel thousands of miles in the same route year after year? A wasp stings a grasshopper only numbing it to preserve its meat for its offsprings till the eggs are hatched. Who teaches it the technology?
Man’s intelligence, just a spark of the universal intelligence, makes him capable of thinking all the thoughts. Is not that universal intelligence that of god or God himself?
The wonders of Genetics, Gene and the unraveling of the secrets of Genome are now fairly well known. Who gave the power of self organizing to the double helix DNA, the chromosomes and the genes, the intricately woven patterns which decide the nature of each individual being?
Plants, pests, flora and fauna are balanced by nature, by destroying excess growth of some, promoting growth of others and making yet some others extinct. Some deliberate intelligence is seen behind these checks and balances. Only infinite wisdom could have foreseen this and made provisions.
The very fact that man is able to conceive the idea of god in his wonderful imagination that can perceive the unseen, points towards the existence of the unbounded power that is of God. Behind that imagination there must be that divine force which makes it possible.
“Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork”
The supreme power governing the entire universe, you call it by any name, GOD, Almighty, or even Destiny, is undoubtedly beyond human intelligence, comprehension, or reasoning. Even though science and technology have advanced to such heights, we are nowhere near to analyzing Life as such, from where it comes and to where it disappears.
I think, the most simplest form of destiny – or you might call it Primary destiny- of any living object in this universe is the GENETIC DESTINY, the destiny of being male or female at birth. I don’t know whether this new terminology coined by me is appropriate or correct. But the gender of any organism in this world at birth can be its main destiny, and it invariably cannot be altered or manipulated with any amount of success. Even with the present day advancement in science it is very difficult. In human beings even before birth this gender destiny plays an important role in the sense that you cannot alter it even though you may find it out, the power of that destiny continues till death of the individual.
The much acclaimed ‘Karma Yoga’ of Hindu philosophy, in my opinion points to the role of destiny in our worldly existence. Your Karma is your yoga(fate). Similarly the cause and effect phenomena, where the effect or Karma is the response to the cause, yoga or destiny.
Prof. Richard Hay: There is another angle or approach to the way of thinking. Man, bewildered by the mystery of life, took recourse to the idea of destiny or faith for consolation or relief from his predicament. But it is an escapist philosophy. It was explained here that biology, especially the DNA that determines the structure and behaviour of a being is indeed destiny as living beings cannot go beyond what it stipulates. But that is an old theory exploded long ago by the advent of Stem Cell Research. Science has developed methods to change the very structures of the basic cells making it possible to change everything in a living being. Even the gender of a child to be yet born can be changed. Nothing need be predetermined. What we refer to as Destiny is actually accidental; it is mere coincidence.
Dr. Abdulla: But how the basic cell itself came about? There is a superior intelligence that created the complicated cell?
Dr. Thomas: It can be called the God-point. Brain is the god-point.
Prof.Hay: Man;s creative powers work. Inventions are made. Patents and trademarks are taken. WTO works internationally expanding trade in new findings worldwide. There is the cause, operations, and the effect functioning. Occasional accidents cannot change this view. Of course, death is destiny. Everything ends there. But Man’s progress is through technological advancement. The great powers are fast advancing in powerful nuclear fusion-energy reactors, stem cell research, cloning, and nano-technology The point is that the destiny of Man hereafter will be decided by the super powers, and not by fate. Man has to act to avert any disaster. Destiny is not by accident, but by choice. I shall elaborate the point in my talk in the next discussion. Recently American president Bush came to India. Most people do not know his real purpose. It was actually to seek the help of India in that area of science where intense research is required in genetic and other higher technologies.
Mr. Kunhikrishnan: Science is definitely very much advanced. It is going up and up to reveal the secrets of nature and perhaps ultimately, even God. But the God has to come down to meet it. Science is the external exploration. God is internal. The understanding and probing of the internal makes the God climb down to meet science.
Destiny-Are we destined (2)
Sri. K.V.Kunhikrishnan: In the initial discussion on the subject Dr. Sadanandan had posed the question whether a mutation is possible in which human beings will be free of the chain of cause and effect, which actually results in the destiny. Defining the words relating to ‘Destiny’, he started with the genome restrictions on the destiny of man/living beings. He proceeded to show that in this vast universe where Man seems to be an insignificant entity, we are in a process of cause and effect phenomenon. Is an escape from this possible by a mutation, was the question. Dr. Babu Ravindran pointed out that the same cause and effect phenomenon is contained in the concept of the continuity of birth and death in the rebirth philosophy of ‘Karma Yoga’ in the Hindu tradition. In the elaboration of that tradition the principle of right effort/work as sacrifice without bothering about the results is a key for liberation from the phenomenon of cause and effect resulting in the chain of births and deaths. Dr. Thomas dwelt on the other meaning of the word destiny as the ultimate destination or future towards which man is moving, and explaining the various aspects suggested that a good future of man can be assured only by ‘psyching’ up the growth of children with right motivation, intelligence and health.
With these ideas in the mind I am inclined to think that may be, will or volition is a myth or illusion, and destiny is preordained. ‘The best of men cannot suspend their fate’, said Daniel Defoe. Or is it to be reworded to say that the best of men cannot suspend a coincidence? If Man is not fated, then every incidence should be a coincidence or accident. If everything that happens is the resultant of a series of causes, the future should be predictable when all the causes and circumstances are known. The ignorance of all causes does not make it any less predictable.
Destiny, Fate, and Will or Volition, are closely interconnected. While destiny and fate are used as synonyms, fate has an element of foregone past in it, whereas destiny seems to have hope in the future. Will has to play and act within the limitations imposed by fate and destiny.
Prof. Sankarankutty: Unlike ‘destiny’, ‘fate’ has negation in its meaning. It is used in a negative sense. For example, Napolean was a man of destiny; you don’t say he was fated. But the famous musician, Maharajapuram Santhanam died suddenly in the prime of his life, and he was said to be fated to die early. Similarly the American singer Elvis Presley also died early in his forties.
Dr. Babu Ravindran: Man’s mind is programmed to act in a given situation. To that extend he is bound by destiny.
Sri.Kunhikrishnan: A dog is bound and restricted to move and act as a dog, not as a cat or rat. Its will and freedom is restricted to the behavior of not only a dog but also the particular dog. Is it not destined or fated to behave in a predetermined manner decided by its genetic structure and its particular environment? It has definitely freedom of movement within the restrictions of its body and surroundings. A train has freedom of movement within the beaten railway track. The driver may have freedom of movement from here to Kashmir, but only on the beaten track. Can we call restriction that a dog thus experiences as its destiny?
Suppose in an accident the dog is killed by a passing motor vehicle. Was it fated to so die? Was it its destiny? Genetics cannot explain that. A man driving his scooter along the highway was hit by a falling coconut tree right on his head and he collapsed dead. His DNA can hardly be responsible for his scooter reaching the particular spot so as to receive the tree on his head at the exact moment. The consolation of an explanation for such a tragedy can be found only in his fate or destiny unless on a future date somebody proves that the victim’s brain could be so programmed as to reach the particular spot at the moment of the fall of the tree. And thus, probably a whole system of fate, destiny, predictions, and occult remedies started, all because of man’s confusion and ignorance about the unknown. Samuel Johnson said that our will is free and there is an end on it. The free will was going along on the scooter with a clear purpose and target. And the end came from elsewhere.
An English poet of the last century wrote,
‘Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate
Still achieving still pursuing
Learn to labour and to wait” (HW. Longfellow)
This is nothing but condensed ‘Karma Yoga’ of Lord Krishna! I think that somewhere he might have come across a text on ‘Karmayoga’. Why should one ‘labor and wait’ if one is destined?’ the question arises. But even if fated, one does not know all the facts leading to the end-result. One does not also know whether one is destined to work and win, win without working, or to lose. Moreover, ‘Where ignorance is bliss it is folly to be wise’ Therefore it is better to work and wait for the result whatever that might be.
As regards predictions, as said above one is incapable of knowing all the minute circumstances to predict a result of an action. But one can always roughly predict where a stone will fall on throwing it. But the final point where it reaches depends upon several factors. Even a passing bird may hit it. Outcome of an action depend on several factors. If all factors are known to a superior intelligence, such an intelligence may be able to predict the exact point of the fall of the stone. By extending this idea of cause and effect we can reach to a conclusion that everything that is happening in this universe is predetermined and predictable provided one has a superior intelligence to know all facts and circumstances. As no man has such an intelligence, and he, in his confusion, is fated to act only to the best of his ability according to the will or volition conferred on him, surrendering or leaving the power of granting results, to his fate. Man is thus doomed to imperfect action. The outcome also is, therefore, destined to be distorted to the extent of that imperfection. He can only succumb to his destiny – ‘ the immanent will that stirs and urges everything’.- Thomas Hardy.
Dr. Sadanandan: Confined by thought, it is the mind that restricts man’s freedom. Once the mind is free of thought, there cannot be the imperfection in action and the distortion.
Prof. Sankarankutty: The limitation is there, and the freedom is there. Both are there. Man can become a superman by being free of the limitation.
Dr. Sadanandan: That freedom is Divine Love. The action of a person with a lot of love will be entirely different from that of others.
Prof. Sankarankutty: It is said that the mother’s love is the greatest and the most pure. Is it a mutation? Real mutation should be at the psychological level or the psychic level, and not at the material level. This psychic level mutation can then make changes not only at the mental level but also at the material level even in the DNA. The processes are by movements in two directions, up and down. The soul or man’s will moves upwards to the divine, say by ‘Chittavritti Nirodha’ meaning a silent mind, and the divine grace comes down to meet it. This is called by Sri Arobindo as Supramental Manifestation. Allow me to explain this in detail in my talk in the next discussion.
Stray comment by a member: Science is in the process of creating a superman.
Prof. Hay: Man is born, and his growth and development are all programmed. But he has the freedom to shape his own destiny. He creates a future for himself. Let us take India and America for example. With all the knowledge available the American pursues relentlessly with vigor to create new things and to prosper. We only copy lacking creative action. Nothing is pre-ordained. Even in the story of Srirama you can see that he had to live life in the jungle because he chose it. It was Rama’s destiny which he himself created and shaped. It was not pre-ordained. I would talk on this in detail later.
Dr. Thomas: In the west they encourage creativity and enterprise, and that makes a lot of difference.
Dr. Sankarankutty: Stephen Hawkins cannot live the life of an ordinary human being because of his handicaps. Yet he became great by his creative abilities and effort. Did he create his own destiny or was he destined to become great because of his inborn abilities?
Indian fatalism is actually a corruption of the original Indian thinking on fate. The fatalistic superstition was not there in the Vedas. Original thinking on destiny and fate did not make man lethargic by promoting inaction or by belief in superstitions. But later on even in the texts of scriptures superstitions crept in. the present day texts are not one man’s creation. Nor are they original. So many people have contributed, tampering with the originals.
There cannot be fatalism where there is continuity in the cause and effect chain. For right action there is right result. There is a hidden continuity in it. The Karma theory has an ultra part and an infra part.
Note: The discussion went on for some more time. No particular point is noticed for recording except that it was pointed out that in the Vedic stories even the gods and goddesses are seen to be not free from the cause/effect chain. For example, to expiate a curse, even Godess Mahalaxmi had to take birth on the earth as Tulsi, the basil plant.
With these ideas in the mind I am inclined to think that may be, will or volition is a myth or illusion, and destiny is preordained. ‘The best of men cannot suspend their fate’, said Daniel Defoe. Or is it to be reworded to say that the best of men cannot suspend a coincidence? If Man is not fated, then every incidence should be a coincidence or accident. If everything that happens is the resultant of a series of causes, the future should be predictable when all the causes and circumstances are known. The ignorance of all causes does not make it any less predictable.
Destiny, Fate, and Will or Volition, are closely interconnected. While destiny and fate are used as synonyms, fate has an element of foregone past in it, whereas destiny seems to have hope in the future. Will has to play and act within the limitations imposed by fate and destiny.
Prof. Sankarankutty: Unlike ‘destiny’, ‘fate’ has negation in its meaning. It is used in a negative sense. For example, Napolean was a man of destiny; you don’t say he was fated. But the famous musician, Maharajapuram Santhanam died suddenly in the prime of his life, and he was said to be fated to die early. Similarly the American singer Elvis Presley also died early in his forties.
Dr. Babu Ravindran: Man’s mind is programmed to act in a given situation. To that extend he is bound by destiny.
Sri.Kunhikrishnan: A dog is bound and restricted to move and act as a dog, not as a cat or rat. Its will and freedom is restricted to the behavior of not only a dog but also the particular dog. Is it not destined or fated to behave in a predetermined manner decided by its genetic structure and its particular environment? It has definitely freedom of movement within the restrictions of its body and surroundings. A train has freedom of movement within the beaten railway track. The driver may have freedom of movement from here to Kashmir, but only on the beaten track. Can we call restriction that a dog thus experiences as its destiny?
Suppose in an accident the dog is killed by a passing motor vehicle. Was it fated to so die? Was it its destiny? Genetics cannot explain that. A man driving his scooter along the highway was hit by a falling coconut tree right on his head and he collapsed dead. His DNA can hardly be responsible for his scooter reaching the particular spot so as to receive the tree on his head at the exact moment. The consolation of an explanation for such a tragedy can be found only in his fate or destiny unless on a future date somebody proves that the victim’s brain could be so programmed as to reach the particular spot at the moment of the fall of the tree. And thus, probably a whole system of fate, destiny, predictions, and occult remedies started, all because of man’s confusion and ignorance about the unknown. Samuel Johnson said that our will is free and there is an end on it. The free will was going along on the scooter with a clear purpose and target. And the end came from elsewhere.
An English poet of the last century wrote,
‘Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate
Still achieving still pursuing
Learn to labour and to wait” (HW. Longfellow)
This is nothing but condensed ‘Karma Yoga’ of Lord Krishna! I think that somewhere he might have come across a text on ‘Karmayoga’. Why should one ‘labor and wait’ if one is destined?’ the question arises. But even if fated, one does not know all the facts leading to the end-result. One does not also know whether one is destined to work and win, win without working, or to lose. Moreover, ‘Where ignorance is bliss it is folly to be wise’ Therefore it is better to work and wait for the result whatever that might be.
As regards predictions, as said above one is incapable of knowing all the minute circumstances to predict a result of an action. But one can always roughly predict where a stone will fall on throwing it. But the final point where it reaches depends upon several factors. Even a passing bird may hit it. Outcome of an action depend on several factors. If all factors are known to a superior intelligence, such an intelligence may be able to predict the exact point of the fall of the stone. By extending this idea of cause and effect we can reach to a conclusion that everything that is happening in this universe is predetermined and predictable provided one has a superior intelligence to know all facts and circumstances. As no man has such an intelligence, and he, in his confusion, is fated to act only to the best of his ability according to the will or volition conferred on him, surrendering or leaving the power of granting results, to his fate. Man is thus doomed to imperfect action. The outcome also is, therefore, destined to be distorted to the extent of that imperfection. He can only succumb to his destiny – ‘ the immanent will that stirs and urges everything’.- Thomas Hardy.
Dr. Sadanandan: Confined by thought, it is the mind that restricts man’s freedom. Once the mind is free of thought, there cannot be the imperfection in action and the distortion.
Prof. Sankarankutty: The limitation is there, and the freedom is there. Both are there. Man can become a superman by being free of the limitation.
Dr. Sadanandan: That freedom is Divine Love. The action of a person with a lot of love will be entirely different from that of others.
Prof. Sankarankutty: It is said that the mother’s love is the greatest and the most pure. Is it a mutation? Real mutation should be at the psychological level or the psychic level, and not at the material level. This psychic level mutation can then make changes not only at the mental level but also at the material level even in the DNA. The processes are by movements in two directions, up and down. The soul or man’s will moves upwards to the divine, say by ‘Chittavritti Nirodha’ meaning a silent mind, and the divine grace comes down to meet it. This is called by Sri Arobindo as Supramental Manifestation. Allow me to explain this in detail in my talk in the next discussion.
Stray comment by a member: Science is in the process of creating a superman.
Prof. Hay: Man is born, and his growth and development are all programmed. But he has the freedom to shape his own destiny. He creates a future for himself. Let us take India and America for example. With all the knowledge available the American pursues relentlessly with vigor to create new things and to prosper. We only copy lacking creative action. Nothing is pre-ordained. Even in the story of Srirama you can see that he had to live life in the jungle because he chose it. It was Rama’s destiny which he himself created and shaped. It was not pre-ordained. I would talk on this in detail later.
Dr. Thomas: In the west they encourage creativity and enterprise, and that makes a lot of difference.
Dr. Sankarankutty: Stephen Hawkins cannot live the life of an ordinary human being because of his handicaps. Yet he became great by his creative abilities and effort. Did he create his own destiny or was he destined to become great because of his inborn abilities?
Indian fatalism is actually a corruption of the original Indian thinking on fate. The fatalistic superstition was not there in the Vedas. Original thinking on destiny and fate did not make man lethargic by promoting inaction or by belief in superstitions. But later on even in the texts of scriptures superstitions crept in. the present day texts are not one man’s creation. Nor are they original. So many people have contributed, tampering with the originals.
There cannot be fatalism where there is continuity in the cause and effect chain. For right action there is right result. There is a hidden continuity in it. The Karma theory has an ultra part and an infra part.
Note: The discussion went on for some more time. No particular point is noticed for recording except that it was pointed out that in the Vedic stories even the gods and goddesses are seen to be not free from the cause/effect chain. For example, to expiate a curse, even Godess Mahalaxmi had to take birth on the earth as Tulsi, the basil plant.
Destiny - Are we destined (1)
Dr. Sadanandan: Let me first go into the various definitions connected with Destiny:
‘Destine’ means 1) To determine beforehand: Preordain to, or as if to, an inevitable outcome. 2) To assign or intend for a specific end use or purpose. 3) To direct towards a given destination
‘Destined’ means preordained, assured through destiny: Bound for a particular destination. And
‘Destiny’ means 1) The inevitable or necessary fate to which a particular person or thing is destined 2) Preordained or inevitable course of events considered as something beyond human power or control. 3) The power or agency thought to predetermine events, fate.
It is our experience in life that many things happen to us without our planned move or control, and, it might be cause for far reaching consequences in our life. We term this fate or destiny.
At times, what is initially considered to be good for us may in due course turn out to be quite bad, and vice versa. These happen without our control or conscious knowledge, and we attribute the whole thing to some external agency – some supernatural power, e.g. God; so much so, while considering the subject ‘Destiny’ the God-factor in any event has to be understood first. And, the idea of God interfering in between, in a random fashion, in the affairs of certain individuals, is indeed difficult to understand. An omnipresent, omnipotent god, as generally conceived, should be there in all activities of the whole universe. The universe as we perceive is immensely vast. The sun, the planets, the stars, the galaxies, and our tiny earth with all its living and non-living things form, after all, only an infinitesimal spec in this vast universe! Explanations as to how this whole thing, with a life span considered to be millions of years, manifested itself, are only mere theories. We do not know who designed this intricate vastness, who the prime mover is! We assume that a sort of Gas-mixture solidified and life formed from organic compounds in that ocean taking millions of years of churning. And Homo sapiens have hardly a history of 30,000years. And we, with our 80 or 90 years of life span is trying to understand the mystery behind Destiny!
The development of human brain to the present day level is helping us in our enquiry. We get knowledge formed out of experience. Such knowledge is apparently limited. And with this limited knowledge we form ideas. Before we act we plan. To build a house first we should have a plan, a blue print according to which we try to appropriate the final outcome. Similarly, our idea about creation of the universe may be that an architect, out of his imagination, visualizing the whole thing, knowing each and every detail started creating the universe. And this mastermind have the control on every aspect of it, control on each living or non-living thing on it. Here destiny comes into play. But this idea about creation, being only a concept of the human mind, might be entirely wrong.
But logically, we know that we are destined. The inherent limitation to our biological existence is self-evident. The activity inside our body is programmed. The genes decide everything. How long one should live, what illnesses one can contract, what all one can safely eat, -almost everything depend upon the nature of one’s genes. And the genes point towards how an individual would behave too. Certain levels of enzymes, chemicals, neurotransmitters etc. predetermine one’s psychological nature. And mind of course, is part of the biological system. Is its activity not thus predetermined? Thinking has a definite pattern. One thinks out of one’s memories. Experience stored as knowledge conditions one in his activities. This conditioning is naturally, a predetermination. Is there any spontaneity in any of our activities? We pray God to intervene and help us on our preferred path.
If we are destined, towards where are we moving? What exactly is the destination? Are we in a position to comprehend? We are evolving. We are in a process of cause and effect phenomena. We are the effect of a cause. And we move as a cause to some future effect.
Now, is there a possibility of a mutation where one is free from the chain of events, from this cause and effect system? Not freedom from something, but a simple freedom of being free. -not like an instrument A free will operating by itself, an Intelligence in tune with That Immensity.
Prof. Richard Hay: Are we not part of that Universal Consciousness?
Sri. K.V. Kunhikrishnan: Dr.Sadanandan is posing the question whether such a mutation is possible where Man comes out of the cycle of cause and effect.
Dr.Babu Ravindran: The need for the very same freedom from the cause and effect system, or the cycle of birth and death, is tackled also in a different way in our tradition. Destiny, and Destiny as opposed to Individual Effort or Will have been explained in detail, and are referred to very often in the ‘Karmayoga’ philosophy of Hinduism. This naturally is based on the firm belief in the rebirth concept. But yet it would be interesting to examine closely the ideas contained in the philosophy for understanding the subject ‘destiny’ contrasting it with Human Will.
Avoiding all technical jargon, we can broadly divide the purpose of life or the requirements/desires in this life into four items of pursuit. They are,
1. To lead life according to one’s conscience and understanding of what is right/wrong.
2. To acquire material prosperity,
3. To enjoy pleasures,
4. To seek the Truth behind the phenomena of Life.
Out of these, the first three are worldly pursuits, and the last is the spiritual pursuit. The great seers and saints consider and say that the last pursuit of seeking the Truth or Reality behind the phenomena of existence as the ultimate aim of Man in this life.
Individual human effort is the most important factor in living a life according to one’s own nature and conscience. Destiny or fate has only a small part to play. One has to be ever vigilant not to stray into illegitimate pleasure seeking or to go against one’s conscience.
To acquire material prosperity and importance in life, effort is definitely required. But result is not in one’s hand. The result or the fruits of endeavor are with one’s destiny, fate, or God. That is why it is said that you do your duty with utmost effort and with the aim of success, but all the time leaving the result to God, being never sure of the fruits of one’s labor. Too much reliance on good results only may end in disappointments, as the ultimate say is with one’s destiny.
In the case of spiritual seeking of Truth, continuous and incessant effort by oneself only can lead one towards understanding the Ultimate Reality that is referred to also as God. Only at the end of the road, destiny or fate comes into play for making it possible and ready for Grace to enter, and bless.
Therefore, in the Karmayoga philosophy, individual human effort or will as well as destiny, play their part in one’s life in different proportions in different types of endeavours.
But here destiny is not considered illogical. Destiny and fate depend on good or bad deeds did earlier in this life or an earlier life. The deeds of the past are, for purposes of deciding the consequences, divided into three categories, namely, those which are accumulated from the past lives but not yet ready to be compensated or exhausted now, those which are to be lived and exhausted now in the present life, and those which are newly committed or acquired in this life. Thus every action has a reaction, good, bad, or indifferent. All are accounted for, and punished or rewarded as the case may be. And, yet in it individual will plays an important part.
In the Karma theory, the accumulated results of past actions are in the nature of tendencies that lie dormant till they are ripe for working it out or ‘burning’ it out in the present life and time. Those that are ripe for exhaustion are experienced in the present life. Deliberate actions of will in the present create their results or consequences afresh, to be either accumulated for the future or to be experienced in this life, unless no residue of the results are left of the experience, they having been burnt in the righteous awareness of correct action. The theory is a little complicated for those who are not familiar with the belief in rebirth and the system of carrying on the consequences of one’s actions to a next birth. But it seems to have its own well-constructed logic.
To conclude, whether one believes in rebirth or not, it seems that both destiny and Will play their part in human life. Man is not entirely fated to any destiny. Neither is he entirely controlled by his own free will. Free Will and individual effort have their place.
Dr. K.P.Thomas: When we think about Destiny with a Destination, it implies a start or beginning. None will want a failure; but our life is such that several factors affect our journey to the destination of our destiny. Destiny is something of depth and distance. Achievement of greatness is one aspect of destiny. The work up towards it is the preparation that we do in life with available materials and circumstances. Many a civilization had the peak and then a decline. There were various factors controlling the final outcome. Since life is an ongoing process we cannot stop and take stock of the achievements we might have had.
The present frame of time is such that the whole world is like a single village. This happened in a short span of time during the last twelve years or so when computer network became global. Intramural within ourselves, and extramural from outside, knowledge has made us more in tune with the power of the Gods of yester decades. This phenomenon of rapid human progress in all fields of technologies has put us into the task of ‘protecting responsibilities’ in the global context or extra-global context.
The countries with sub-cultures are now being identified, but the common goal is to make life worth living. The restrictions are still there in the Indian community, but the western communities are looking towards occident. Even though there was progress in China and India, a superior culture evolved in the western world had asserted itself over the Indian sub-continent and Asiatic countries.
Search for energy for comfort, search for good living, and search for pleasure has pushed the western culture into a position in which the youth of the occident has an edge over the youth of those countries who burn out quickly with no more ambitions to fulfill.
However we may have to define the destiny of the universe with the destiny of man and beasts, destiny of vegetation and other structures, destiny of the condition of the globe in general etc. Considering ‘intramurally’, we can jump on to the development of nano-technology and its impact on the health sector, that is, our life itself. The genetic engineering has become part of the next generation or even the present generation itself. It has definitely got an impact on the global civilization. The times are such that there may not be a nature for us to paint or draw a picture of hope and solace. Impending doom is lurking. The stronger cultures are looking into the courtyards of the weaker neighbors. A sense of insecurity has gripped the developed countries. The once weaker countries are developing so fast that the world is afraid of a global catastrophe. The projection of this sort of fear is seen in the production of western motion pictures of extreme violence and of aliens take over of the world. Confined between the Sahya Hills and the Ocean the Travancore-Cochinites were not bothered till the early sixties. The two world wars did not make my village poorer or richer. But knowledge seeped through too fast thereafter, and my son and niece reached America and England as engineer and doctor.
The ‘umikkari culture’ of yesterday has now dramatically changed into a consumerist ‘Colgate’ culture. One ‘knickers’ or two and a shirt were all that was required for me till my fifth standard. Then came footwear, toothbrush, and shoes. With occasional dresses for multiple uses, a wardrobe culture evolved. Sharing of soap, towel, and food even in the same family slowly vanished. Single unit families burdened our culture, producing loneliness of old age and childhood with untold miseries. The destination of yester years was up to the nearest town, and now it is up to a distant country seeking better future, or even to the end of the world!
The selfish motive of destiny as far as I am concerned is the progress of my wife and that of my children, and a comfort, which may be equated with optimum sustaining wealth. In this context I can put forward the precept of combined efforts like forming a company or manufacturing unit. The Government has failed, and the individuals are there without any vision, and, perchance even if they have any vision they cannot join together due to the constraints of funds or capital.
Now let us look at the great people who have performed so as to enrich the present global culture. The Religious heads, the Scientists, the Architects, the Kings and Emperors, the company executives, were all driven by a zest for innovation, improvement, for conquering nature with the intent of wealth accumulation. Now the period of conformity in thinking is gone. Even in our own circle of nine there are nine viewpoints on one single subject. How can the world absorb all these varying ideas? In all probability, the strongest among a group or society may dictate to the others to follow his own destiny to pursue his own destination. The Portuguese occupation of Goa resulted in the imposition of a strong and ‘superior’ culture over the natives resulting in the present Goan culture.
Now let us go to the phenomenon of adventures like that of Columbus discovering America, Vasco De Gama landing in Calicut, and in general the Westerner’s opening of trade with Emperor Jahangir etc. the countries of Europe established themselves in various parts of India, and later the British occupied various parts of India as well as Malayasia, Vietnam, China and Combodia. In all this there was not only the spirit of adventure and exploration, but also to a greater degree the element of avariciousness. They were in fact fortune hunting colonialists only and not adventure seeking explorers. I think the least scarred of the area of population in India was the south of Vindhyas. Exploitation was always there and continues. The history of monarchs and their exploits are well known. However the present aggression seems to be in the form of taking up and controlling governmental activities by institutions like the World Bank and A.D.B. There can be a repetition of the colonial exploitation.
Regarding following one’s destiny I would like to say that the motivation for it starts from childhood. ‘Psyching’ it up is the most important factor in reaching the destination provided there is enough brain and brawn.
‘Destine’ means 1) To determine beforehand: Preordain to, or as if to, an inevitable outcome. 2) To assign or intend for a specific end use or purpose. 3) To direct towards a given destination
‘Destined’ means preordained, assured through destiny: Bound for a particular destination. And
‘Destiny’ means 1) The inevitable or necessary fate to which a particular person or thing is destined 2) Preordained or inevitable course of events considered as something beyond human power or control. 3) The power or agency thought to predetermine events, fate.
It is our experience in life that many things happen to us without our planned move or control, and, it might be cause for far reaching consequences in our life. We term this fate or destiny.
At times, what is initially considered to be good for us may in due course turn out to be quite bad, and vice versa. These happen without our control or conscious knowledge, and we attribute the whole thing to some external agency – some supernatural power, e.g. God; so much so, while considering the subject ‘Destiny’ the God-factor in any event has to be understood first. And, the idea of God interfering in between, in a random fashion, in the affairs of certain individuals, is indeed difficult to understand. An omnipresent, omnipotent god, as generally conceived, should be there in all activities of the whole universe. The universe as we perceive is immensely vast. The sun, the planets, the stars, the galaxies, and our tiny earth with all its living and non-living things form, after all, only an infinitesimal spec in this vast universe! Explanations as to how this whole thing, with a life span considered to be millions of years, manifested itself, are only mere theories. We do not know who designed this intricate vastness, who the prime mover is! We assume that a sort of Gas-mixture solidified and life formed from organic compounds in that ocean taking millions of years of churning. And Homo sapiens have hardly a history of 30,000years. And we, with our 80 or 90 years of life span is trying to understand the mystery behind Destiny!
The development of human brain to the present day level is helping us in our enquiry. We get knowledge formed out of experience. Such knowledge is apparently limited. And with this limited knowledge we form ideas. Before we act we plan. To build a house first we should have a plan, a blue print according to which we try to appropriate the final outcome. Similarly, our idea about creation of the universe may be that an architect, out of his imagination, visualizing the whole thing, knowing each and every detail started creating the universe. And this mastermind have the control on every aspect of it, control on each living or non-living thing on it. Here destiny comes into play. But this idea about creation, being only a concept of the human mind, might be entirely wrong.
But logically, we know that we are destined. The inherent limitation to our biological existence is self-evident. The activity inside our body is programmed. The genes decide everything. How long one should live, what illnesses one can contract, what all one can safely eat, -almost everything depend upon the nature of one’s genes. And the genes point towards how an individual would behave too. Certain levels of enzymes, chemicals, neurotransmitters etc. predetermine one’s psychological nature. And mind of course, is part of the biological system. Is its activity not thus predetermined? Thinking has a definite pattern. One thinks out of one’s memories. Experience stored as knowledge conditions one in his activities. This conditioning is naturally, a predetermination. Is there any spontaneity in any of our activities? We pray God to intervene and help us on our preferred path.
If we are destined, towards where are we moving? What exactly is the destination? Are we in a position to comprehend? We are evolving. We are in a process of cause and effect phenomena. We are the effect of a cause. And we move as a cause to some future effect.
Now, is there a possibility of a mutation where one is free from the chain of events, from this cause and effect system? Not freedom from something, but a simple freedom of being free. -not like an instrument A free will operating by itself, an Intelligence in tune with That Immensity.
Prof. Richard Hay: Are we not part of that Universal Consciousness?
Sri. K.V. Kunhikrishnan: Dr.Sadanandan is posing the question whether such a mutation is possible where Man comes out of the cycle of cause and effect.
Dr.Babu Ravindran: The need for the very same freedom from the cause and effect system, or the cycle of birth and death, is tackled also in a different way in our tradition. Destiny, and Destiny as opposed to Individual Effort or Will have been explained in detail, and are referred to very often in the ‘Karmayoga’ philosophy of Hinduism. This naturally is based on the firm belief in the rebirth concept. But yet it would be interesting to examine closely the ideas contained in the philosophy for understanding the subject ‘destiny’ contrasting it with Human Will.
Avoiding all technical jargon, we can broadly divide the purpose of life or the requirements/desires in this life into four items of pursuit. They are,
1. To lead life according to one’s conscience and understanding of what is right/wrong.
2. To acquire material prosperity,
3. To enjoy pleasures,
4. To seek the Truth behind the phenomena of Life.
Out of these, the first three are worldly pursuits, and the last is the spiritual pursuit. The great seers and saints consider and say that the last pursuit of seeking the Truth or Reality behind the phenomena of existence as the ultimate aim of Man in this life.
Individual human effort is the most important factor in living a life according to one’s own nature and conscience. Destiny or fate has only a small part to play. One has to be ever vigilant not to stray into illegitimate pleasure seeking or to go against one’s conscience.
To acquire material prosperity and importance in life, effort is definitely required. But result is not in one’s hand. The result or the fruits of endeavor are with one’s destiny, fate, or God. That is why it is said that you do your duty with utmost effort and with the aim of success, but all the time leaving the result to God, being never sure of the fruits of one’s labor. Too much reliance on good results only may end in disappointments, as the ultimate say is with one’s destiny.
In the case of spiritual seeking of Truth, continuous and incessant effort by oneself only can lead one towards understanding the Ultimate Reality that is referred to also as God. Only at the end of the road, destiny or fate comes into play for making it possible and ready for Grace to enter, and bless.
Therefore, in the Karmayoga philosophy, individual human effort or will as well as destiny, play their part in one’s life in different proportions in different types of endeavours.
But here destiny is not considered illogical. Destiny and fate depend on good or bad deeds did earlier in this life or an earlier life. The deeds of the past are, for purposes of deciding the consequences, divided into three categories, namely, those which are accumulated from the past lives but not yet ready to be compensated or exhausted now, those which are to be lived and exhausted now in the present life, and those which are newly committed or acquired in this life. Thus every action has a reaction, good, bad, or indifferent. All are accounted for, and punished or rewarded as the case may be. And, yet in it individual will plays an important part.
In the Karma theory, the accumulated results of past actions are in the nature of tendencies that lie dormant till they are ripe for working it out or ‘burning’ it out in the present life and time. Those that are ripe for exhaustion are experienced in the present life. Deliberate actions of will in the present create their results or consequences afresh, to be either accumulated for the future or to be experienced in this life, unless no residue of the results are left of the experience, they having been burnt in the righteous awareness of correct action. The theory is a little complicated for those who are not familiar with the belief in rebirth and the system of carrying on the consequences of one’s actions to a next birth. But it seems to have its own well-constructed logic.
To conclude, whether one believes in rebirth or not, it seems that both destiny and Will play their part in human life. Man is not entirely fated to any destiny. Neither is he entirely controlled by his own free will. Free Will and individual effort have their place.
Dr. K.P.Thomas: When we think about Destiny with a Destination, it implies a start or beginning. None will want a failure; but our life is such that several factors affect our journey to the destination of our destiny. Destiny is something of depth and distance. Achievement of greatness is one aspect of destiny. The work up towards it is the preparation that we do in life with available materials and circumstances. Many a civilization had the peak and then a decline. There were various factors controlling the final outcome. Since life is an ongoing process we cannot stop and take stock of the achievements we might have had.
The present frame of time is such that the whole world is like a single village. This happened in a short span of time during the last twelve years or so when computer network became global. Intramural within ourselves, and extramural from outside, knowledge has made us more in tune with the power of the Gods of yester decades. This phenomenon of rapid human progress in all fields of technologies has put us into the task of ‘protecting responsibilities’ in the global context or extra-global context.
The countries with sub-cultures are now being identified, but the common goal is to make life worth living. The restrictions are still there in the Indian community, but the western communities are looking towards occident. Even though there was progress in China and India, a superior culture evolved in the western world had asserted itself over the Indian sub-continent and Asiatic countries.
Search for energy for comfort, search for good living, and search for pleasure has pushed the western culture into a position in which the youth of the occident has an edge over the youth of those countries who burn out quickly with no more ambitions to fulfill.
However we may have to define the destiny of the universe with the destiny of man and beasts, destiny of vegetation and other structures, destiny of the condition of the globe in general etc. Considering ‘intramurally’, we can jump on to the development of nano-technology and its impact on the health sector, that is, our life itself. The genetic engineering has become part of the next generation or even the present generation itself. It has definitely got an impact on the global civilization. The times are such that there may not be a nature for us to paint or draw a picture of hope and solace. Impending doom is lurking. The stronger cultures are looking into the courtyards of the weaker neighbors. A sense of insecurity has gripped the developed countries. The once weaker countries are developing so fast that the world is afraid of a global catastrophe. The projection of this sort of fear is seen in the production of western motion pictures of extreme violence and of aliens take over of the world. Confined between the Sahya Hills and the Ocean the Travancore-Cochinites were not bothered till the early sixties. The two world wars did not make my village poorer or richer. But knowledge seeped through too fast thereafter, and my son and niece reached America and England as engineer and doctor.
The ‘umikkari culture’ of yesterday has now dramatically changed into a consumerist ‘Colgate’ culture. One ‘knickers’ or two and a shirt were all that was required for me till my fifth standard. Then came footwear, toothbrush, and shoes. With occasional dresses for multiple uses, a wardrobe culture evolved. Sharing of soap, towel, and food even in the same family slowly vanished. Single unit families burdened our culture, producing loneliness of old age and childhood with untold miseries. The destination of yester years was up to the nearest town, and now it is up to a distant country seeking better future, or even to the end of the world!
The selfish motive of destiny as far as I am concerned is the progress of my wife and that of my children, and a comfort, which may be equated with optimum sustaining wealth. In this context I can put forward the precept of combined efforts like forming a company or manufacturing unit. The Government has failed, and the individuals are there without any vision, and, perchance even if they have any vision they cannot join together due to the constraints of funds or capital.
Now let us look at the great people who have performed so as to enrich the present global culture. The Religious heads, the Scientists, the Architects, the Kings and Emperors, the company executives, were all driven by a zest for innovation, improvement, for conquering nature with the intent of wealth accumulation. Now the period of conformity in thinking is gone. Even in our own circle of nine there are nine viewpoints on one single subject. How can the world absorb all these varying ideas? In all probability, the strongest among a group or society may dictate to the others to follow his own destiny to pursue his own destination. The Portuguese occupation of Goa resulted in the imposition of a strong and ‘superior’ culture over the natives resulting in the present Goan culture.
Now let us go to the phenomenon of adventures like that of Columbus discovering America, Vasco De Gama landing in Calicut, and in general the Westerner’s opening of trade with Emperor Jahangir etc. the countries of Europe established themselves in various parts of India, and later the British occupied various parts of India as well as Malayasia, Vietnam, China and Combodia. In all this there was not only the spirit of adventure and exploration, but also to a greater degree the element of avariciousness. They were in fact fortune hunting colonialists only and not adventure seeking explorers. I think the least scarred of the area of population in India was the south of Vindhyas. Exploitation was always there and continues. The history of monarchs and their exploits are well known. However the present aggression seems to be in the form of taking up and controlling governmental activities by institutions like the World Bank and A.D.B. There can be a repetition of the colonial exploitation.
Regarding following one’s destiny I would like to say that the motivation for it starts from childhood. ‘Psyching’ it up is the most important factor in reaching the destination provided there is enough brain and brawn.
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