Religion, Spirituality and Fate

Part IV : Fate.An Analogy with the Game of Chess.

I would like to draw the attention to my previous blog in which I had argued that Fate is indeed the last refuge for a Coward. What is fate? I feel it is not a force that preordains man’s action to the minute details. Neither it is a program which dictates man’s life. Its not something which can explain the order of life but precisely it’s a disorder of infinite proportions that overwhelms man’s thinking prowess. It’s the infinite choices that each man is presented with, in his everyday life that makes man think that infact he is being worked upon by a force beyond his control. But the real fact could be that it is indeed is inability to work is the reason why he is feeling being worked upon.

Imagine life to be a game of chess. The difference in this game of life chess is that it has infinite squares and infinite players all moving their pieces ie exercising their choices at speed of thought. Now like in a game of chess, each of your move depends on three factors namely, your last move, the last move of other players and the way in which you want the game to proceed. Before doing each move, you have a choice, which you exercise consciously, or being forced to exercise consciously because of lack of other logical choices or for the fear of consequences of exercising those other available choices. Now, this present move of yours and all your opponents move will dictate the future moves and it has irreparably altered the way your life proceeds. So if this be so, it is easier to see why some are successful in life while others resort to finding excuses for their failures. Apart from hardwork and determination, one who has got more vision coupled with tolerance to ambiguity is likely to succeed. What is the difference between people like me who play chess casually and champions like Vishwanathan Anand? It is simply that a champion analyses more number of possible moves that can be made in every stage of the game and infact makes a mental calculation of how the game will proceed for another 30 moves, completes a full game in his mind if that particular choice of move was exercised and if it is in consonance with his overall game plan, then he makes that move.

So in effect, if it possible for such an analysed action in a game of 64 squares with just one opponent, then it is indeed possible in the life game of chess with infinite squares and infinite players. Though before making every move, we have infinite choices, we do have certain rules like the rules in chess dictating how a piece is to be moved. Some of these are in the form of social restrictions that limit some choices of action in the game of life chess. Every move is dictated by previous move and it governs the next move. If a man is able to calculate all the permutations and combinations and visualise how each move will proceed and end, then ideally he has won the game of life. But man's intellect is limited and he can’t do that. He is overwhelmed by the amount of choices and he feels some sheer force beyond his comprehension dictates his moves. That is named god/fate as per his comprehension. In a game of chess, the champions always see moves much ahead of the normal players. That is why they are champions. In real life game, I agree that one cannot completely visualise all the possibilities but atleast if one can think in life and cater for many possibilities, we have a fair chance of not being overwhelmed too much. That is why it is said, if you think in life, you can defeat "fate" and here I mean by that the phenomenon of overwhelming choices in front of you. And I wish to point out that many a times, most of us end up thinking about life than thinking in life. There is a world of difference between the two.

The moves in life chess is your actions. May be the hindu mythology is terming this as karma. So since your previous action dictates your present action more than other actions of the infinite players in the field, it says all actions have their effect. Most of the hindu spiritual paths talk about cause and effect. And since the results of your action does not depend upon your action alone but also includes the actions of infinite other people, it will be not be wise to expect the exact results as calculated by you before and hence I interpret this as one of the meaning of what Bhagavad Gita says “Do your Duty, do not bother about the results”.

Let me give another analogy. Two people A and B proceed for the same interview. Both of them come to the same bus stop to board a bus to reach the place of interview. For some reason, there is a heavy traffic jam. So A decides to start walking through narrow lanes and reach ahead where ever he can and board another bus struck much ahead in the road, so that when the jam clears, he would indeed reach faster. B decides to curse his fate and does nothing. There are two possibilities. A reaches in time, attends the interview and gets the job. Perfect. The fatalist theory is shattered. It is triumph of will over fate. Now say there is a person C, the boss of the company who is to take their interview, coming to office in his car, is also stuck in the same traffic jam and reaches office later than normal time. By this time B has also arrived and both get to attend the interview and by virtue of B’s better skills, he gets the job. In this case, the fatalist will cry victory.

So your results does not depend upon your actions alone, but also on the actions of infinite other players. The traffic jam was indeed caused by an accident by a truck whose driver was drunk because he had a fight with his wife last night since he gives less and less money for home because of the increase in diesel prices which was caused by surge in world oil prices due to the war in iraq for curbing terrorism………This can go on and on. Each and every action of us is minutely interconnected with some other action in the world by unknown faces, Its an intricate web. And that’s what overwhelms man. In this randomness, Closer the players, more profundity of the effect of their actions in our results. But all said and done, the closest player is our own self and by our careful analysis and thinking, we can mitigate the effects this randomness has on us. We can let this infinite choices not overwhelm us by our tolerance to ambiguity and thinking in life. So at the end, even though A did not get the job in the second situation even after trying not to let the situations affect him, his course of action is more correct. If one were to follow B and keep standing in the bus stop and think that if he is fated to get the job then he will get it, then why come to bus stop only??? You can stay at home and think that if you are fated to get the job then you will get it anyways!!!

The essence of my article is that fate is a creation of man's imagination, its all in the mind and that he conveniently assigns it as reason for his failures and shortcomings. While phrases like “ ellam vidhi padi than nadakum” ( All events happens as per destiny) or " maram vachavan thanni oothuvan" ( one who planted the tree will water the plant too) may provide solace in the face of odds, it cannot and must not serve as a refuge for our incompetence, inability to perform, unwillingness to find a way and our shortcomings. For a million Jews cursing their fate in concentration camps and gas chambers, there was one Victor Frankel who chose to fight his fate, who inspired others in the concentration camp and was a source of motivation. He is a legend today. He definitely did not think " maram vachavan thanni oothuvan" ( one who planted the tree will water the plant too)!!