Destiny of Choice 001

God in Dialogue with Self

[This dialogue emerged out of e-mail dialogues, initially with a former, junior colleague and later out of e-mail and face-face interactions with many others including siblings, relations, friends, and former colleagues. How interesting to note that almost all had their own spiritual beliefs and dilemmas. I sincerely thank them all for their contribution to my thoughts and to the emergence of this Dialogue over the years, even as I await more interactions in future. For most part, the thoughts reflect undigested readings of books and articles on Hindu Philosophy and Upanishads authored by both foreigners and Indians including learned Bengalis like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore. The entire responsibility of my weird views certainly rests with me and I would be happy to join you in ridiculing such views.]



PART TWO: GodAndI: Destiny of Choice



1. Illusion of Independent Choice



G: We are meeting after a long time.

S: Yes, after a long time. That was as per the Stochastic Dynamic Destiny Principle. There was no way we could have exercised a choice to meet yesterday. However I feel fortunate that I have chance to have another session with you.

G: Well, that’s how you say always. But, today was a bad day with a train accident
in the morning and bomb blasts in the evening, both causing loss of life and limb and damage to property. Hope good senses come some day.

S: We are an integral part of Nature. Nature operates as part of the Divine Destiny Principle and makes us feel happy or sad. Yet, on this Diwali day we wish each other better days ahead. By nature most of us feel happy, when others become happy. Maybe tomorrow may well be better and the day after not so good.

G: In one state of mind, I agree with your idea. The following lines from T.S. Eliot’s Poem I of Choruses from "The Rock", appeals to me:
” The world turns and the world changes,
But one thing does not change.

In all of my years, one thing does not change,

However you disguise it, this thing does not change:
The perpetual struggle of Good and Evil.”

S: I am not that well read. I did not know that Eliot wrote this. I was only repeating the age-old observation that good and evil repeat in turn following each other. I also believe that this happens as part of the Natural process. We cannot prevent earthquakes and hurricanes. I believe that rail accidents and terrorist blasts/ massacres will continue to happen despite all our desire that they do not happen and despite all our efforts to prevent them.

G: As usual, you are saying that they are pre-ordained. But it is the eternal conflict about the importance of "daiba" and "purushakar". I believe both are important and one should not view them as in conflict. One should put one's best efforts and then let daiba take its course.
S: Some persons believe that there is no daiba events controlled by something divine. They think if someone really wishes he/ she can chose his/her destiny. However, you are not so sure: you continue to feel that you are in charge of destiny in some way and letting daiba events over which you have no control some role. I say that everyone and everything in this universe chooses the destiny it is destined to choose. I continue to say that every thing in this creation / universe happen only as per the same natural law / dynamic process that gives rise to gravitation force, the earth's movement around the Sun and the Sun's continuous burning. I am responding to your words that were prompted by my previous set of words and so on - all this is due to the operation of the same natural dynamic process. It is the operation of the same law or process that makes me believe in what I believe in and makes you believe in what you believe in. There are, I believe, no Daiba and no Purushakar.

G: If there is no Daiba and no Purushakar, what explains my life? I make choices of my free volition and that is my Purushakar.

S: Simple the operation of Nature explains everything.

G: Do you mean Prakriti ?

S: All that happens is natural. Natural events are natural
events. No body does anything here: only the Nature plays out in
different ways as per its own immutable law. So when we make efforts to do
our best we are forced to do it as per natural law. Similarly, when we do
not take efforts, we are forced that way as per the same law. No choice
exists for any one, even for the Nature. The thief steals because of the law. The
Sadhu worships and spreads the message of love and sacrifice also because of
the same law. They did not have any choice. Neither Ravana nor Ram had any choice other than what they actually did. Same thing applies to Ramkrishna, Chaityana, Hitler, Buddha, Bush, Saddam, Bin Laden, Jesus, you and I.

G: I am still in dialogue with you because I seem to be somewhat spiritually inclined. I only found your ideas interesting but not entirely acceptable. You are emphasizing on the all-pervasive role of destiny – to the extent that one becomes fatalistic.

S: You are partly right. You can say that my ideas are not almost, but completely fatalistic from your point of view. For me, Nature is both Purush and Prakriti . Nature seems to act independently, so we say Nature is Independent Purusha. But we all agree that every element in Nature has some properties or tendencies. So we call Nature as Prakriti. However when it comes to an individual’s behaviour we often assume that at least some times an individual takes independent decision and that is his Purushakar. But we fail to notice that an individual takes only such decisions as are natural to him under the given circumstances at any point of time. In other words, it the individuals nature or prakriti that drives the individual to take certain decisions and act in certain way.

G: So, everything is Nature ultimately. Even what happens in what we call in the environment external to an individual, is part of Nature and often called Daiba.

S: You are right. Everything that happens and does not happen at any point of time is explained by Nature or what I call the Divine Destiny Process or, from the perspective of any individual or group, the Stochastic Destiny Principle.

G: Assuming that what you say is correct, what would you prescribe me or any other individual or group to do to be happy and progress in the path of peace, prosperity, technological advancement and establishment of just order.

S: Since everything is explained by Destiny Principle, I can prescribe what I am destined to prescribe. But in theory no particular prescription follows from the Destiny principle. This tautological theory does not give rise to any prescription or sermons or advice. I have therefore nothing to prescribe. To me the implications of Destiny process as I have understood and tried to explain does not lead to the prescription that ‘one should depend on destiny and do not work as per his choice’. The theory says that one has to do and does what he believed he would be doing. He has no choice except that he may be destined to believe that he has choice and is working as per his choice. One is making only those choices all the time as one was destined to choose as per the Dynamics of the Destiny Principle.

G: I think ultimately a man is what he believes in. You are what you believe – nothing else matters – for you are viewing the world through all the virtues / sins pride / prejudice that define ‘you’ and its your own experience which you are labeling as your life – things are happy / sad, not important / important solely based on your judgment. You can be passive / involved. All this is your choice.

S: I may agree with you that that “you are what you believe in”. I do not, however, believe that one has any control over your actions or ‘reactions’ in the movie / play going on the theatre of life. I believe that there is virtually nothing over which one has no control and therefore really no choice. It only seems that one has and does make choices. This attitude is natural in you and I: each one of us thinks that he thinks and does such work as he chooses to think and do. This attitude helps continue the game all of us have to play! Something beyond us actually forces us to make our choices: we do not choose but made to choose the way we do. It is like the way the coins play in caroms, the balls and bats play in cricket. The human players in these games are also like coins and balls/ bats.