HARI OM Philosophical capsule Is death really predestined? The recent plane crash of Malaysian aircraft has hastened me into thinking that whether death is really predestined. And if it is so, were all those deceased passengers destined to die together, or it was a coincidence that resulted in the collective death of the people travelling together. The timeless truth as encapsulated in Bhagvat Gita eloquently proclaims, that when no one knows about tomorrow, why bother thinking thoughts about the future? In other words the great scripture conveys the meaning of life: to live in moment, for the moment is ours and the moment that yet to come, is unknown, alien and therefore deserves no consideration of our attention. Even Buddhas doctrine of momentariness only emphasises on living on moment to moment, as impermanence is the nature of the universe. Buddha too had jettisoned the existence of the future, for the future is still to come and past is non-existent. Nonetheless, Buddha had stressed upon the Karma as supreme while dismissing the relevance of the phenomenon known as destiny. Having been in serious quest for understanding the subtle realm of destiny, I ran from pillar to post, went through the scripture after scripture, entered into the intellectual discussion with scholars to decode this mystical phenomenon called destiny. My search led me into a timeless incident as enshrined in Garudapuran, which throws some insight into the window of destiny which goes in this way: A man is restlessly worried as anxiety apparently reflects at his face, for the man knows that he will die after five minutes. He sits at his home in a highly sombre mood. In his palace, the Lord of death( Yamraj) sits little worried as he awaits the final moment of the end of this man which was destined to happen after the end of just 2 minutes in the lonely ruins which stood separated from the place where he currently was, by almost 100 miles. He began wondering, how could it be possible that the Creator had fumbled in creating his destiny? He is destined to die in the ruins but he sits comfortably perched at his home, did the Creator really err in writing his destiny, he wondered? Suddenly, Garuda appears at the home of the man who was destined to die after 2 minutes, beholding the man in deep worries, he ventured to ask, why, my friend, you appear to be concerned about something, tell me what is it that really bothers you? The man hurriedly confides in Garuda anout his impending death. On being briefed, Garuda chortles, who can dare take you away from us, let me take to the safer place where no one can dare intrude. Garuda placed that man on his shoulder and flew away; reached to the same ruins where the destiny had decreed his death, and told him, worry not my friend, I have secured your life now, you are immune from any hazard now. The Lord of death smiled at seeing the man reaching the place where he was destined to die, he chuckled mumbling, Creator can never err, destiny is the final arbiter of mans life. In Ramcharit Manas, Tulsidasjee describes that how demon Ravana laughed and mocked at Creator Brahma decreeing his death in the hands of both men and monkey. Contemptuously he would dismiss Brahma with this quote, Nar Banar aapan badh dekhi, likha Biranchi jarathi mat phere( Looking into the inscription of my destiny where my death is decreed in the hands of men-monkey I know the senility had gripped Brahma and therefore he had gone to the extent of writing insane things). But then, Ravana too fell to death by the combination of both Rama-Hanumana, and despite being a mighty could not shrug off the death that destiny had decreed for him. How could it be, then, that 289 people who died together inside the plane, could have been destined to die together? Or, were all decreed by destiny to board the same plane which was shot down? Nani A Palkivalla writes in his classical book We the people that he was supposed to board a plane for Delhi from Mumbai for an important case, however in the wee hours while he lay asleep, he heard some mysterious voice urging him to cancel his trip. Palkivalla had the wisdom in shunning his trip and, lo and behold, the plane got crashed and almost all the passengers died. Was destiny saving NanI a Palkivalla, when some mysterious voice forbade him to board the plane, it is indeed some deeper reflection over it. Palkivalla, however, attributes his own escape to that mysterious factor of destiny which enabled him to escape the genuine death. Even Robert Clibe, the founder of the British empire who, too, talks about the msstery of destiny when he said that fed up with the menial job at the deck of a ship, once he tried to kill himself by firing at himself thrice. However, each time he tried, his gun did not operate and, mysteriously, he was spared the life. He went on adding, that he got a message from the whole episode: destiny wanted him to live and that he had something greater to achieve in life. The writer was confided by a lawyer about a miraculous incident which confronted him in the railway station in Jammu when he had gone on pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi. It so happened that the lawyer who practices in the district court of Darbhanga, was just strolling at the platform awaiting the train to Delhi which was about to come in few minutes. In the meantime, something struck him and he barely moved few steps away from the place where he was standing, suddenly a train appeared on the same platform and the terrorists jumped from it, firing indiscriminately at the passengers, the lawyer said that the spot where he stood barely few seconds ago, the terrorist just alighted there firing randomly. Had he stood there, he was a dead man, but he had moved away abit and now hid himself under abook stall. Little later, a policeman also came to hide beside him. One of the terrorist, firing indiscriminately, was trying to escape and moved past the counter where he was hiding. Suddenly, terrorist spotted him and looked into his eyes with extreme ferocity, the lawyer, due to some divine inspiration, too, looked into his eyes with even a greater ferocity. Both looked at each other for awhile, and then, the terrorist inexplicably--without firing--ran with a greater pace towards the exit door. While on his way out, he bent down in a serpentine posture to avoid the bullet being hit from behind, he intended to move out, however the policeman who hid along with the lawyer, shot him dead from behind by firing from his gun. The lawyer shook for almost hours and even became senseless after the incident. He too said that destiny alone saved him from his impending death. Quoting all these important incidents in support of destiny, I firmy believe that all the deceased passengers were unfortunately destined to die as their collective destiny tied them together. Vivekanand Jha A researcher on the path of unknown
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 08:42:37 +0000
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