A number of years ago I saw an all time classic “Lawrence of Arabia”. One very memorable line of the film was “It is written”.
Destiny, fate, kismet all refers to a perception that there is a predetermined course of events and that our future is predetermined. What I understood from that line from Lawrence of Arabia was that certain things are inevitable. Like the rising of the Sun, producing light and removing darkness. The pessimistic view would be that at the end of the day the sun sets and there is darkness everywhere.
Literature has frequent reference to fate. In "The Appointment in Samara" by W. Somerset Maugham, fate’s inevitability is given:
(The speaker is Death)
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 marketplace 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 Samara and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his 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 marketplace 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 Samara.
(http://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english320/Maugham-AS.htm)
In another context, the soldiers of the light brigade in their famous charge in the Crimean War knew their fate, which was death, and yet they welcomed it leaving a permanent mark on history.
(http://poetry.eserver.org/light-brigade.html “Charge of the light Brigade, by Lord Alfred Tennyson )
So do we run from fate, as in the first case or welcome it as in the second? In welcoming fate, do we avoid the tension and fear of negativity and manage to live our lives in greater harmony?
In the words of William Shakespeare:
“What fates impose, that men must needs abide; it boots not to resist both wind and tide”
Destiny, fate, kismet all refers to a perception that there is a predetermined course of events and that our future is predetermined. What I understood from that line from Lawrence of Arabia was that certain things are inevitable. Like the rising of the Sun, producing light and removing darkness. The pessimistic view would be that at the end of the day the sun sets and there is darkness everywhere.
Literature has frequent reference to fate. In "The Appointment in Samara" by W. Somerset Maugham, fate’s inevitability is given:
(The speaker is Death)
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 marketplace 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 Samara and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his 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 marketplace 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 Samara.
(http://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english320/Maugham-AS.htm)
In another context, the soldiers of the light brigade in their famous charge in the Crimean War knew their fate, which was death, and yet they welcomed it leaving a permanent mark on history.
(http://poetry.eserver.org/light-brigade.html “Charge of the light Brigade, by Lord Alfred Tennyson )
So do we run from fate, as in the first case or welcome it as in the second? In welcoming fate, do we avoid the tension and fear of negativity and manage to live our lives in greater harmony?
In the words of William Shakespeare:
“What fates impose, that men must needs abide; it boots not to resist both wind and tide”
8 comments:
Sunil,
It is a very important aspect that you have raised. Let me provide my comments.
First of all we need to be very clear that we are not our BODY but SOUL ! Everything starts from.
We wronly consider DEATH as the most dreadful FATE and FEAR DEATH.
On a higher level thinking we come to know that this BODY is ONLY perishable ! Hence we are not THAT but we are the un destructible SOUL ! We should always live in the SOUL. SOUL lives for ever. This BODY is like a shirt which will be removed automatically once it is worn out !
When we master this ultimate FEAR death - we will not have any expectations, disappointments and will be in bliss!
Why do we fear DEATH ? Because we strongly believe that we will not exist, we will depart from kith & kin etc., The detachment with this body only can make us realize that we are different from our Body.
When we know the truth that at the time of birth we come with a return ticket we will not worry. One day we have to go ! What matters if it is to-day or to-morrow ?
Thanks for the opportunity .
Raj.....
We experience success and failures due to many reasons including how determined we are, hard work, proper planning,winning attitude and environmental factors.
Here I would like to quote the following from the website (www.thesecret.tv)of the book "The Secret" by Rhonda Bryne:
"The Secret reveals the most powerful law in the universe. The knowledge of this law has run like a golden thread through the lives and the teachings of all the prophets, seers, sages and saviors in the world's history, and through the lives of all truly great men and women. All that they have ever accomplished or attained has been done in full accordance with this most powerful law".
JATINDER KAPUR
Associate Professor
Federation of Hotels and Restaurants Association of India (F.H.R.A.I.)
FHRAI Institute of Hospitality Management
Plot no 45 Knowledge Park III
Greater Noida 201306 UP India
Tel: +91 120 2323626/27/28/29/30
Extn: 309
"Without exception, every human being has the ability to transform any weakness or suffering into strength, power, perfect peace, health, and abundance".
"You are a magnet attracting to you all things, via the signal you are emitting through your thoughts and feelings."
If as described in the book "The Secret" we have our objective on target and have the zest and zeal to strive to achieve it, day in and day out, with proper planning and a hunger to conquer sucess, there is no power on earth which can come in between us and success apart from uncontrollable fate
I can only describe uncontrollable fate as one who is born or encounters with an incurable disease or a freak accident.
With the eye on the eye of the fish as did by Arjuna in the Mahabharata lets have our focus constantly on the target and ignore the rest rather like you described welcome the rest. Success will flow.
I believe we write our destiny... Some things are pre-ordained - of course, but God has granted us free will. It's like an algoritm: if... then... else...
One of my favourite books of all times is The book of San Michele, which is the story of one of the youngest doctors (specialist in psychiatry) ever to come out of the French university, a disciple of Charcot himself. He wrote his own fate.
I also love Tolkien's books. He has a similar conviction as my own. One of his characters - Frodo - wishes he had never become the Ring bearer... What the wise Gandalf tells him is that even the smallest creatures can change the world, but only if they don't abandon their mission. There's a lot of stress in the book Lord of the Rings placed on the importance of keeping your choices consistent. And never giving up.
Pretty cool vibe we have going here, keep it going =]
nice stuff here, very very nice
Use your passion and geek expertise to liberate the latent creativity that resides in readers, something that works better than the linear, sequential and fast fading stream of comments (yeah, this is recursive). Comments are writing, but lets have something not as we know it. Writing in this box just feel a little klunky, there must be a better way, make a better blog :)
I think that you'd probably do well in a consulting role where you are helping companies who want to improve in the area of creating passionate users (products and websites). Your knowledge of the field is shown well by your blogging, and maybe getting out in front of people will give you more of a reason to stay passionate about this subject area (if not the blog itself).
ould also do your (wonderful) thing around the blogosphere for a while (just not always here). Keep the juices flowing, continue to help people, foster even greater community growth, and not be an (ugh) static single target.
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