When we cannot understand an event, we attribute it to an unknown “cause”. That’s OK if we stop here. The circus starts when we try to name the cause as destiny, fate, naseeb, kismat, karma, bhagya, takdeer, ‘higher purpose’ (hereinafter commonly referred to as “destiny etc.”).
If you make people think they are thinking they will love you, but if you really make them think, they will hate you. I am well aware of this but I shall still venture to make you think hoping to make a difference in my own humble way.
There are four major types of beliefs about destiny etc.:
1) Type 1: ‘Universal’ Script: Whatever happens, happens exactly as it should and it couldn’t have been otherwise. In other words, it was predestined to happen this way. Every event is a manifestation or unfolding of a ‘written script’ for the universe.
2) Type 2: ‘Soul Specific’ Script: Whatever happens, happens as a result of your “fate” or “destiny” (naseeb or kismat). That means the journey of your life was written before your birth or at your birth, and you have no choice of changing the same.
3) Type 3: ‘Accounting’ Script: Whatever happens, happens as a result of your past “deeds”. This means things happen to you depending upon your good or bad deeds in your previous birth or births. Some say that deeds of current life are settled in the current life itself.
4) Type 4: ‘Happy Ending’ Script: Whatever happens, happens for good. There is a ‘higher purpose’ behind every event. This means whatever event takes place it is for your good, but because of your hopelessly tiny brain you cannot grasp and comprehend the larger picture of the universal intent.
If you carefully read the Types 1 to 4 again, you should notice that they contradict each other. Still, we hear people using high sounding words such as destiny, fate, naseeb, kismat, karma, bhagya, takdeer and “higher purpose” interchangeably without noticing the startling difference. Though we try to show that we know what is going on, we are damned to be confused. Add to this the confusion created by the competing theories of Palmistry, Numerology, Psychokinesis, Vastushastra, Astrology and the like. I seriously doubt the ability of a normal person when he is continuously struck by so many mutually contradicting theories about life and events. No wonder a great thinker once said: “the average mental age of the so-called normal people is between 10-13 years”.
Relentless use of statements terming the cause of events as destiny etc. is the result of our conditioning and is the hindrance in the growth of our rational thinking, creative thinking, and scientific reasoning.
The reasons why the belief in destiny etc. is irrational and harmful are enumerated below:
1) Destiny etc. are labels used by us to avoid our ignorance. They are a lazy mind’s label. After all, thinking is so much harder than believing. The problem with such statements is they make sure you never think creatively. Once you label an event as destiny etc. you are saved of the mental effort to analyze the event. With this labeling, you have unknowingly killed an opportunity for learning which is harmful in the long run. Once we understand the nature of randomness and chance, we can alter the way we perceive the events that happen around us. The inability of our mind to understand statistics and randomness forcibly draws in the theories of destiny etc.
2) We in the eastern world were busy asking “Why this happened”. The simple answer to our “why” has always been “destiny etc”. Whereas in the west, people were busy asking “How this happened”. The “how” forces you to think and go to the root of the event to arrive at an answer. In answer to their “How” they made marvellous scientific discoveries. Their shift in focus of enquiry from “why” to “how” has made remarkable difference. This is one of the reasons why we have lagged behind the west in terms of scientific discoveries and inventions. More so in the past five hundred years.
3) One of the most dangerous outcomes of belief in destiny etc. is seen in people taking unnecessary risks on the belief that “whatever has to happen will happen”. For example, some people drive rashly, or do not put on the safety belt while driving, or talk on cell phones while driving. If you tell them that they should be careful and avoid taking such unnecessary risk, their reply is: “Whatever has to happen will happen, so why to worry. If the accident is to happen it will happen even at low speed”. You cannot explain it to such people that rash driving increases the chance of an accident manifold. Destiny etc. is just a stupid excuse to wait for things to happen instead of making them happen.
4) If the present moment contains no living and creative choice, and is totally the product of the matter and motion of the moment before, then so was the moment that preceded it, and so on, until we arrive at the primeval nebula (gas and dust) as the total cause of every later event. So are we ultimately being punished or rewarded for the behavior of that primeval nebula? Such a self-destructing conclusion.
5) We call ourselves as “logical minded” and thus despise superstitions and black magic on the pretext that it is illogical, non-sense, unscientific, and without evidence. Why then we accept the claims of destiny etc. without any evidence to prove or disprove it. A logical statement is the one which can be proved or disproved. Illogical theories leave no room for disproving them. Tell me how you can disprove the theory of destiny etc. Whatever the outcome of an event, an unthinking mind can link it up with destiny etc. We believe and then we try to find proofs for support, which is what delusion is. It is like throwing a dart and then circling the point as though we have hit the target. We are logical only on the surface, deep beneath we are condemned to be superstitious because of our shallow thinking. Worst, we are unaware of this. The only cure is rational thinking.
6) The respect we command in society is at stake if we accept our ignorance. This makes it hard for us to say: “I don’t know why this has happened, and it’s OK if I don’t understand”. We are more inclined to say: This has happened “because”…. The labels of destiny etc. give an “illusion of understanding” which is our need. A similar need induces us to give our comments on complicated issues like politics, economics, stock markets, inflation, philosophical speculations etc.
7) Our self-esteem need doesn’t allow us to accept our ignorance. Self-esteem is the product of “self-confidence” which is derived from a sense of “being in control”. A feeling of “loss of control” leads to fear and confusion which hits our self-esteem. We want to impress upon our self that we know what is going around and make sense of whatever is happening around us. It gives an illusion of “knowing it all” which boosts the confidence of the ignorant. That is the reason it is said: “the ignorant are confident and the wise are full of doubts”. But this unfounded confidence soon turns into adamant and egoist behavior.
8) If the happening of events is predestined, human effort is useless. The proponents of destiny etc. try to cover up this folly by making a justifying statement as: “a person should perform his duty supremely as though there is nothing called destiny and leave the results to destiny and accept the outcome as destiny’s wish”. Such a paradoxical and ridiculous philosophy is accepted by us without much thought. What a confusing way to make people work.
9) The laws of destiny etc. are against some of the basic universal values like forgiveness, freedom and living in the present. We are told to be forgiving while destiny etc. is ruthlessly unforgiving. We are asked to forget the past and live in the present, but destiny etc. feed on the past. We are taught that freedom is of great value but told that we are tied by the chains of our destiny etc. How can we function under such a contradictory set of values? No wonder we try to make peace with these contradictions by ignoring the inconsistencies or invoking a “higher purpose which we cannot understand” theory. One more point of confusion is, the barometer of good and bad. With every century the definition of good and bad changes. For example our thoughts about slavery, women etc. have been continuously evolving. What is the barometer then for good and bad?\
10) If destiny etc. is going to take its own course and do justice, why don’t we dismantle all the political and legal system including the police and the courts?
11) We need a ray of hope to be able to overcome misery in our lives. We want to hang on to some statement like “whatever happens, happens for good” and be assured that things will turn better in the near future. The human desire to hear only what we want to hear and believe only what appeals to our emotions is universal. We are ‘whistling in the dark’. We should transform ourselves from hollow positive thinking to positive knowing.
12) I shall venture to use some statistical thinking at the risk of your hate. If you flip a coin the chances of a head occurring is ½ or 0.5 (or say 50%). The chance of a tail occurring is also 0.5. As there are only two possible outcomes, the total probability of either a head or a tail occurring is 0.5 + 0.5 = 1.0 (that is 100%). What this means is that the ‘individual’ probability of a head or tail is 0.5 (50%), but the probability of ‘any’ one of the two outcomes, that is a head or tail occurring after the toss is 0.5 + 0.5 = 0.5 x 2 = 1.0 (that is 100%). Similarly, if you are dealing with an event which has 100 possible outcomes the individual probability of each outcome occurring is 0.01 (or say 1%). But the probability of ‘any’ one outcome is 0.01 x 100 = 1.0 (that is 100%). Take an example of the lottery. Suppose there are 1 million lottery tickets sold. The probability of a ‘particular’ lottery ticket purchased by you being the winner is 0.000001 (1/1000000). But the probability of the winner being ‘any’ one of the 1 million lottery tickets sold is = 0.000001 + 0.000001 + 0.000001 … so on for 1 million times = 0.000001 x 1 million = 1.What this means is, though the chances of a single outcome may be very very rare, the total of the individual probabilities of each of the very very rare events occurring is still 1.0 (that is 100%). Thus, ‘any’ one of the occurrence though very very rare “has” to happen to the exclusion of others. If a naïve mind still asks “why this particular occurrence”, the most apt and fitting answer would be “why not”.
Let us take responsibility for our lives instead of believing and degrading ourselves to be mere puppets in the hands of destiny etc. Accepting life as a peaceful warrior is better than accepting life as a prostrating victim. The former is active acceptance, the latter is negative acceptance.
Love,
Mahendra Chaturmutha.
