Meant to Be or Made to Be?

My horoscope column in the newspaper warned me of a tiff with a friend. Surprisingly true! I did have a minor argument with a friend that day. Are our lives really planned out to every incident before they happen? Or are we inclined to trace a relation between predictions and incidents. Did I say trace? I mean force one out. I may have arguments with my friends every day. But if I read my horoscope one day, then I might connect the prediction with a very quotidian argument and probably believe that it was all meant to be. But so what if one does form such a belief? Here's an old Arab tale -


Death Speaks 
There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the market-place, I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him the horse and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

The servant, on learning of his future, strives to change it. Ironically, his "counter steps" only lead to the future he was trying to escape. In the book "Palace of Illusions", the protagonist is foretold that she would change history. She is even warned of the key events in her life and which of her decisions would lead to her ultimate destiny. In the pursuit of her predicted 'destiny' and her attempts to avoid some aspects of it, the protagonist only entangles herself deeper into unknown and undesired circumstances. It made me wonder - maybe she would have fared better had she been unaware of her "destiny" and lived life as it came.

When told of one's destiny, one would naturally make decisions to either follow or sidestep that destiny. One would define their boundaries based on what they believe they are meant to do. In that case, is "destiny" even a valid term? After all, the decisions that lead to it are made consciously. That way, whether or not we believes in destiny, we actually do create our own lives. Every thought is responsible for one's present situation. It's just upto each person to decide whether or not they would call this destiny.


P.S.: This is one very confusing post. Sigh.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Neighborhood Project: Teaching Kids English.

Image
I stayed back at school today to teach underprivileged kids from our neighborhood. It's been a month since I started doing this. Most of the time, it's fun. I mean, you call the shots; you get a delicious little meal (even more delicious since you're ravenous after school) from the canteen; you teach some amusing kids; and the best part: you can tell yourself that you are contributing to your society. What more do you want? Over the few weeks, I've come to the conclusion that kindergarten teachers probably work much more than high school teachers. If you think teaching a couple of restless, 4 year-olds the English alphabet is easy, well, you sure are mistaken! These children need far more attention, patience and encouragement than a high school student learning trigonometry. See it this way, which is harder to do: teach someone to ride a bicycle or teach an average cyclist a bunch of cool tricks? You get my point. So if I become a school principal, I'll make s
Read more

What We Do in the Name of God: An Account of My Visit to SriKalahasti Temple

Image
Yesterday, I visited an ancient, renowned temple called SriKalahasti with my family ( 8 people ranging from age 5 to 6).My account of this visit is from the perspective of an agnostic who is hesitant to travel to another state just for pooja and darshan at a temple. SriKalahasti Temple As soon as we stepped outside the bubble of our tourist car, we were surrounded by several unkempt, hungry pilgrims. They all began speaking at once. They had traveled from far off places and had no money. One of them requested for money to buy food. My uncle opened his wallet and handed over a few rupee notes and coins. That was enough to attract another bunch of saffron clad pilgrims. We managed to evade them and enter the temple premises. The inner premise of SriKalahasti was constructed back in the 5th century A.D. whereas the extended area was built in the 12th century. It is only expected that the structure would be imposing and awe-inspiring. We were told that the puja was not to beg
Read more

Tales from Abu Dhabi

Image
Airports seem to be the place for unique experiences. While waiting to board a midnight flight from Abu Dhabi to Delhi, the passenger waiting area was full of immigrant workers - all men. Regardless of how safe the airport was, being the only female in a hall full of testosterone can be a frightful prospect. To my relief, a middle aged  American woman walked into the waiting area. She looked equally relieved to find a female face in a sea of men. We made sure we were seated next to each other. Later, a few more women walked in. Still, on a flight with over a hundred passengers, I could count the number of women on two hands.  During the flight, I learnt that the woman I had the just met was an entrepreneur. Engrossed, I asked her if her trip to India was a business trip. She replied in the affirmative. She ran a clothing line in Mexico whose production was based in Jaipur. She often visited India and some more Asian countries to oversee the production and in search of new materia
Read more