What is Life to you?
Or let’s rephrase the question
What is Death to you?
You see these two words or concepts or moreover, a reality is two sides of the same coin. But there are some things or concepts that we have been facing since ancient times till today. The Fate, The destiny, the choice of Free will and Karma. There has been a lot of research, debates, and theories around it in Religious Scriptures, Philosophy, Theology, and even in a well-formed Democracy.
You see it is always said to have a real experience of what another person is going through we should walk in his/her shoes, but lets for a moment lets walk barefoot on a journey to look closely yet from a distance to these concepts and then form any conclusion based on our own barefoot experience. After all, we all are unique individuals yet the same.
The Fate
The oxford dictionary defines fate as some development of events that are beyond human control and is regarded as predetermined by a supernatural power. It is like the two defined ends or points of a finite line drawn on a sheet of paper, a definite start, and a definite end. Or probably it is the endless cycle, a circle that is filled with choices of our own. If we date back to ancient Greek Mythology in the works of Plato and Early thinkers, the Fates were called Moirai who were three Goddesses, the Three Sisters who appeared on the day of birth of a human to write his fate. The Clotho, the spinner of life’s thread, Lachesis: the allotter of a person’s destiny, and Atropos: who cut the thread at death. These three are rarely mentioned by name, but their power seems to have control over even Zeus, the most powerful of the gods. The Moirai seems to be rigid and cannot be influenced not even by the Gods.
In Hinduism as well there is no clear demarcation of predetermined Fate and In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna,
“The Supreme dwells in all living beings revolving them by mysterious power: Maya. However, the Supreme doesn’t control the entity like mere puppets but by a subtle mechanism under materialistic nature: The Prakriti ”.
Which is the concept of destiny and Free will.
In Islamic texts, however, the concept of Fate is extremely delicate any debate around it is forbidden. Because probably it is the will of the Almighty which cannot be denied neither should it be questioned. The idea probably is to assign Fate as a baton of Hope for things that go wrong or even good, it embraces and encourages to love the creator instead of the creations.
An ethos of fate has taken the world and its entities to promulgate the idea of sharing some common definitive character of having and finite life span, the defined timeline on this microcosmic planet as per our best-limited knowledge.
Certainly, we all somewhat share the same fate: We all will taste Death.
Moreover, Fate is the Destiny unattended.
This brings us to the next concept which is usually used interchangeably with fate.
The Destiny
Destiny is like the subset of fate that is not yet determined, or moreover which can be determined by the choices and the backed-up data. Like a Machine Learning Algorithm is only efficient if it has given enough training data-set to learn from it and is ready to implement on unknown data with accuracy. It is like the destination which is determined but the path is taken to reach that has to be developed by the choices and actions. And sadly, if there are no actions there is no destiny and fate will overtake it.
Most of the Christian time was dominated by the concept of the Wheel of fortune to which a human is bound throughout, sometimes the wheel took him to highs and sometimes to lows, the destiny looks opportunistically to this wheel and will try to influence through the actions in every high cycle, however, he won’t ever doubt the veracity of the wheel if he remains downtrodden. Somewhat tying a rope of hope with the Destiny. In Islam as well destiny, termed as Naseeb is of our own deeds, whereas in every scriptures or philosophy destiny is deemed to have changeable character subject to the action one takes.
This brings us to the point that this reality is essential for destiny.
The Karma — Actions that shape the Destiny versed with Fate
How often you’ve heard this phrase:
Karma is a Bitch!
Well, this has nothing related to Karma and certainly, it’s not a bitch or entity.
The meaning of Karma is kaleidoscopic in varied religions and varied schools of psychology. In the recent adoption of the sense of Karma by the Western culture, to simply put is similar to the Law of Cause and Effect, the catch is that the effect may or may not be immediate but definite. The literal meaning of Karma is derived from the Sanskrit word kriya- which means action.
In Hinduism dating back to the Vedic era, Karma plays a crucial role in attaining salvation. The historical origins of the doctrine of karma and rebirth cannot be determined with certainty and precision. While the Vedas and Brāhmaṇas provide significant antecedents, they do not show any clear recognition of the doctrine as such. In sense, the idea is the person’s actions are responsible for the life he is leading now and will be leading to in the future, in another life cycle as well. It is like an accounting system where all the data entered is Karma and according to the score, one will get affected i.e all the sorrows, happiness and every nuance of life is an outcome of the Karma which is like an endless cycle of Samsara. To get rid of this Samsara the Atman (the Self) has to get rid of the Karmic cycle and attain the Moksha (Salvation).
If we refer to early scriptures the Isha Upanishad of Yajurveda states something like this:
“ He who sees all beings in the Self and the Self in all beings, he never turns away from it (Self).
For he who perceives all beings as the Self, how can there be a delusion or grief, when he sees oneness (everywhere)”.
Similarly, another oldest Upanishad Chandogya of Samveda somewhat interprets it like:
“As the rivers flowing east and west Merge in the sea and become on with it, Forgetting they were separate rivers, So do all creatures lose there separateness when they merge at last into pure Being. There is nothing that does not come from him. Of everything, he is the inmost Self.
He is the truth; he is the Self Supreme.
You are Shvetaketu, you are that.”
The Ideology of Karma was beautifully explained by Lord Krishna in Geeta during the events of Mahabharata where the Karma is Typically divided into 3 types:
- Sanchita Karma: The piled-up or stored mess of the account that you carry from the previous life or lives.
- Prarabdha Karma: The actions that are being taken in the present right now in this universe in this lifecycle.
- The Agami Karma: This has not yet come in your life will eventually come one day probably you will meet this fate someday.
Well, this reminds me of an Anime ideology:
The teachings of Buddha added some stricter notions to Karma and a more explicit sense of moral responsibility in terms of psychological as well as universal understanding. In Buddhism, the law of karma, says “for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was skillful or unskilful.”
Therefore, the law of Karma teaches that the responsibility for unskillful actions is borne by the person who commits them it is moreover the psychological meaning. This universal karma is a system of cosmic justice, whereby moral acts never fade into oblivion, but register in the fabric of reality, their moral quality conserved until the very universe rewards and punishes good- and evil-doers.
Similar to the accounting system of Karma credits.
Countering the above explanations Islam has a very different notion on karma, there is nothing mentioned about karma in the holy book instead Kifarah (Gift & punishments) from the Almighty is mentioned upon the accounts of the deeds. Since there is no concept of reincarnation in Islam, it is believed on the doomsday each soul will be accounted based on their deeds/actions in the world (the essence of karma) but according to that, they will be given their rewards or punishments which will be the eternal fate of an individual soul.
Well, I don’t know to post my exit of this world whether I’ll be reincarnated or I’ll be doomed in Hell for eternity but the central idea about karma or the deeds can be understood by the various religions, psychologies, and ideologies which is:
- Used to describe casual explanation of this realm of life
- Serves as a framework for an ethical and discipline or moreover a religious life
- Provides rationale for fundamental dissatisfaction with worldly existence and
- Commitment to final liberation from such existence
The relation of Karma — Destiny — Fate
Destiny = Function (Karma) + Fate
I’m incapable of deriving a fundamental equation that relates to Karma and Destiny however it is somewhat related to each other regardless of the Fate of mortality.
If we go back to history, once a renowned palmist after examining Napolean’s palm told him that he had a fate line missing for which he will not be successful, He immediately drew his sword and draw a faint palm line but then conquered the invincible which in retrospect imparts a very wonderful lesson to humanity. Confidence and Will conspire with the universe against preordained. ~The Karma.
Similarly, the great Sanskrit scholar named “Panini” carved a line of head on his palm, after being denied admission in the gurukul for not having a headline. He later went on to right the Grammar of Sanskrit, known as “Ashtdhyayi”. ~The Karma.
If you ever watched Anime- Naruto, there is an episode during the Chunin exam where Naruto gets to fight Neji- the best example of describing fate and karma. Neji believed as he was the offspring of a branched family where his fate was to serve the main family regardless of his talents, he believed that it was pointless to fight over one’s destiny however Naruto proved him wrong during the fight explaining the Will and Actions (Karma) can change anyone’s destiny and he won the fight against Neji.
However Naruto himself was the child of destiny which he was not aware of, but in that case, had he not worked hard enough to become the Hokage he would have never made his fortune. Let’s suppose if Shikamaru was chosen as the destined child, he would have never made the fortune like Naruto did because clearly, he lacked the power of determination and the will to —
Never Go back on his words (The Naruto’s Ninja way).
Well, somehow we can draw some inference that our Karma or our Actions which can be driven by ourselves or may be influenced by the surroundings have a sound effect of building our destiny regardless of whatever fate we might share with this cosmos.
Conclusions
Regardless of our mortal nature, decided fate, and undecided destiny, the only thing which we have under our control is our Actions — Karma. Our karma can be influenced by the world around but it can only be true if it comes from our true identity.
But the question arises what is our True Identity?
Once you realize that your true identity is way beyond anything in space-time then there is no birth and certainly no death. There is only a continuum of birth and death as punctuated points in the grammar of life.
You are your own universe.
And from there, our Karma must act, to free us, from the Karma.
And before I go I will leave you by these lines:
I’m astonished, disappointed, pleased with myself. I’m distressed, depressed, rapturous. I am all these things at once and cannot add up the sum. I’m incapable of determining ultimate worth or worthlessness.I have no judgment about myself and my life:
I was born, I exist, I’ve been carried along, and eventually, I will die.
But
My Karma to this cosmos will remain, to shape my destiny and hereafter.
