Left or Right...

“Should I take a left or a right”? I wondered, having gotten myself lost for the n’th time in Pune City. It had started to rain, I needed to decide quickly. That was when a thought came to mind,

“What determines our decisions?” - All our decisions are governed ‘Thought’ (which may manifest itself in from of Rationality or emotion etc.) Our thoughts define us.

“But where do the thoughts come from?” - Science doesnt have an answer yet; Spirituality says that thoughts mainly come from the karmic conditioning – they come from the God.

Coming back, both Left and Right would lead me to different places, different possibilities and perhaps, different outcomes – different destinies.

This, now, brings me to a more fundamental question. “Is destiny Fixed and Pre-determined?” (There is a difference between the two!!) - I admit to being a firm believer in Destiny being Pre determined (otherwise how do we explain the ‘de-ja-vu’ dreams that we keep having from time to time).

So now the question remains “Is destiny Fixed”? The fact that I am free to take a left or a right, and the possibility of a unique outcome in each instance, leads me to believe that destiny is not fixed. A Fixed destiny, further, seems to be repugnant to the Laws of the Universe as it renders important virtues like hard work, nobility, philanthropy meaningless. (If destiny is fixed and non changeable there is no incentive to work hard, stay away from bad habits, help people etc.). Also, a fixed destiny would bore the hell out of the God!! J

So, Destiny isn’t fixed but it’s predetermined. This means that there already exist two unique worlds: one in which I have taken a left, and the other in which I taken a right!! J Worlds with their own unique outcomes and unique ( but predetermined) destinies!! Quantum Physicists call this phenomenon as ‘Alternative Universes’, i.e the Universes that exist parallely with each other. Thus, every decision that we take, creates an alternative universe.

The Bhagwat Gita says that the God is the Sum total of the all the stuff comprising the Universe. On juxtaposing this wisdom with the theory of Alternative universes, it becomes clear God is the Sum total of all the alternative universes…Decisions of ours lead to alternative universes. The alternative universes define the God.

All this leads to a startling conclusion…. God defines us through thought, we define God through Action…. J “Whoa!!” I exclaim, still unsure whether to take a left or to take a right…

The Irony Of Recession

I met with an accident recently, on the Holi day…  Certain individuals were, merrily, playing away with Engine oil right in the middle of one of the busiest roads in Pune. The slight drizzle completed the lethal combo; an accident prone spot was, thereby, created.

My bike slipped, I fell to my left. Got a couple of bruises on my left knee , shoulder  and elbow. Not too much of damage – strangely…Dozens of other people also slipped; the sight would have been hilarious, had I myself not been one of the victims. J ( How I envy the awestruck spectators who were trying hard to suppress their laughter !!)

 

As I tried to gather myself, I heard a gentleman, a fellow victim, murmur abuses in the general direction of  “ the lack of civic sense amongst “gaonthi” ( country side) people, the inability of infrastructure to measure up to the  demands of  our huge population” blah blah blah…

 

I had engine oil all over my body-  on my shirt, my pants, my helmet – “Yuks –what a mess”, I thought. As I picked my bike up and resumed by journey home, I noticed that neither I nor my bike  had suffered any significant damage ( I mean Injury that would be sufficient for me to get a leave the next day!! J)… strange I thought, I had slipped pretty bad, my bike had got thrown a good 15 meters away from  me…. “How come I am not hurt?” I asked myself… It was then that it occurred to me that “The oil that had caused me to fall, saved me from the injury…. It acted as an insulator for my skin, and avoided friction with the ground…. “Gosh” I thought “ Life, they say, isn’t without a sense of Irony…”

 

My thoughts then shifted to the guy who had fallen beside me…” India’s biggest problem… too many people, too high a population…. Too many un-sophisticated rural people… rural people… no access to the world, people still happy living in “self supporting” village. Rural population… makes it impossible for the country to take off, get developed….”

 

I reached home… my newspaper told me that the Indian Economy is still the 2^nd fastest growing in the world ( the suspicions of falling growth notwithstanding)… My news paper also told me that US , despite all the illustrious bail outs attempts, will record a negative growth;  that most of the developed countries, especially European, are tottering under the recessionary pressure – that Countries, let alone banks, are on verge of bankruptcy. I wondered how My country is doing much better than its “developed counter parts”… It was then that it struck me that:

 

1.      The huge population, the so called “No.1 problem of the country”, ensures that the demand ( especially for basic goods) never falls below a bare minimum ( which, again ,because of the sheer size of the population, would be significant);

 

2.      That the fact that exports are an  insignificant contributor to the GNP, thus a reduction in overseas demand , from a central perspective, doesn’t affect India, as much as it would affect a country like Japan or a UK;

 

3.      That most of the population lives in Villages ( about 65% );Most of the Villages are “self sustaining”; Making it difficult for Mr. Recession to create a similar  impact, on India, as he has done in developed countries;

 

 

Huge population… self supporting, disconnected villages… the factors that supposedly would never allow the nation to get developed, the biggest stumbling blocks in the development path are , now, the ones arresting the fall, insulating the Economy against the pains of recession. This is the irony of recession, a new food for thought that has forced me to think “  is the big population good or bad”… waqt waqt ki baat hai. Life, they say, isn’t without a sense of irony. J