Fate vs Free will

You opened the link and started reading this blog – is it because of fate or free will?

You are now thinking about it – is it fate or is it free will?

But what is fate?

Fate as google suggests is – things outside of a person’s control, predetermined by a supernatural power.

And free will is the capacity to choose what to do and what not to.

Freedom of humans to make choices that are not determined by prior causes or by divine intervention.

There are people who believe that another force decides what they do or what they don’t.

So much so that they think the responsibility for things always lies outside of themselves.

They believe that their entire life is dependent on people around them ( parents , friends , family , school , government & God)

And there are other kind of people who truly believe in free will, they believe that everything around them can change if they want it to. And that they can achieve anything and everything by just exercising their will.

They believe that their parents , friends , family , school , government all come under their will.

And when I had this question of what is more powerful, is it fate or is it free will? I couldn’t answer it.

I don’t know if I can answer it even now.

It is chaos and confusion I don’t know if my fate makes me feel that way or my free will- but here’s what I found.

Rationally free will’s principle says that: An action is free only if the agent – that is , the person doing the thing could have done otherwise. – so truly free will requires options.

And determinism by contrast doesn’t allow options. It says that every event is caused by a previous event. A person could have never done anything apart from what he/she already did.

Now even after reading that I couldn’t figure it out.

Because I do believe that every event is caused by a previous event but at the same time I also do believe that I am one person who thinks that everything and anything is under my will.

So what is it that governs our life?

And finally a person from the YouTube channel ‘school of life’ had made this really interesting comparison:

“We are like dogs , a dog who is tied to a leash and this leash is tied to an unpredictable cart.

The leash is long enough to give me a degree of lever but not long enough to let me wander wherever I want.”

So I realised , maybe my life is a combination of both , in fact a perfect combination – I don’t know which one is greater , but do I have to ?

what is independence without you?

Recently I got a school assignment to talk about the army and its determination as a part of our independence week celebration.

So I called up one of my family friend ,who’s dad was army officer now 87 and retired , and as I was talking ,thatagaru said and I quote “ To be very honest , it wasn’t hard being at the border , but the hardest part was the vacation; when I came home and  every time I came home my two little kids didn’t look so little anymore and even though it felt good being at the border throughout the year , it was only hurtful when I had to leave family after vacation” 

He laughed when I asked him if he was ever scared of losing his life. And replied “the only thing I was scared of is what my family and my little children would do if I was gone , but maybe that’s what army is , it never gives you the time to think about yourself “

After the talk with him , I realised that its not as easy as it sounds to be on the border , its not easy to wake up everyday not knowing if you will still breathe as the day evolves.

The Indian Army looks out for us while putting their lives at stake ,From when we got Independence till 2013 about 23,000 soldiers lost their lives while protecting ours. 

And the fact that we are all here today at this very moment , doing what we are doing , despite all the non state actors out there is itself proof that their determination can determine our lives. 

JAI HIND!

question – the first one yet

If you had only one week left to live , what would you do ?

can we heal ourselves ?

Thank you so much Lellavati aunty ,for gifting me Louise Hay’s YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE around summer last year!

 I was really not a reader back then , so I took sweet three months to complete reading the book and thanks to my Dad who kept pushing me to complete it.

The book is very inspiring and what really hooked me is the chapter that describes the life story of Louise Hay : how her parents  got divorced when she was  eighteen months old and why her mom married her step dad -was it because she actually loved him or just for providing them a home . 

Louis Hay described how she faced constant sexual and physical abuse as a child by predators around her ; she ran away from her family at the age of fifteen. 

Starvedof self esteem and affection she gave her body to anyone who was kind to her , and right after her 16^thbirthday she gave birth to a baby girl. She found her child a good home and left  5 days after the birth of the child. 

 Onovercoming the mental pattern of guilt and shame she went back home and got her mom away from all the abuse there . She left her sister with her step dad as her sister was always daddy’s little girl.

After making her mom comfortable , she left for Chicago for 30 days and didn’t return for over 30 years. She then left for New York and became a fashion model; yet she couldn’t own her beauty and her self esteem stayed the same. 

She met a handsome English man. She travelled the world with him and  married him. They had fourteen years of beautiful marriage till her husband expressed his desire to marry another woman. 

She was devastated , but she moved on with time.  She studied and passed a test and became a counsellor at the church of religious sciences soon . 

And all of a sudden one fine day she was diagnosed with cancer , and yet with all her understanding, she knew that mental healing worked , she knew that getting an operation was not the ultimate cure for her disease.  She knew she had to dissolve the mental pattern that created this disease in her . She negotiated with the doctors for sometime and did everything in her power , from consulting a therapist to getting reflexology. And six months later there was no trace of cancer! 

And in the joy of celebrating she found out that her mother had been blind for years .

And as she began to get back to her normal life , she got a call from her sister , the first call in years , that her mother , blind , almost deaf , has fallen and broken her back . 

She got her mom’s cataract off one eye and got her a hearing aid too.

This one chapter made me read the entire book . The book is about the power of the subconscious mind and the power of self-healing that we all possess ; it is also about the value of self esteem which most of us lack in right proportions. 

More importantly, the book has made me realise how my mom’s true love for me has made me love myself.