Varanasi - pratyush




In a normal religious person's life, he/she is told to lead a virtuous and moral life, dedicated to worship of the Guru, Gods and elders/ancestors. The fruits of such worship and reverence leads to much 'punya' (accumulation of spiritual merits)...they say, that helps in the present life as well as in the future lives of the individual... in a religion that firmly believes in the concept of rebirth. And then there is constant eulogy of 'self-effort' (sadhana) as well, and the virtues of the same, in terms of achieving material and spiritual glory and self-realization. Lastly, the concept of fate and karma (how are they linked or are they mutually exclusive and operate in their own domains...?). This triad of issues has constantly been a puzzle to me, as I'm sure it is to a vast majority of Hindus who are taught these apparent contradictory streams of thought.

If fate is supreme and cannot be surmounted, what is the role of self-effort? Many scholars and saints will say that self-effort does have the ability to change fate. And then the role of prayers and spiritual practices...every story in the Puranas and epics, when you read them, seem to suggest that one's fate can be changed by sincere prayers and heartfelt remonstrations before the Supreme Almighty God (whatever you choose to call Him by). But then quite contradictorily those same scholars will also tell you that joys, sorrows, birth, death and all the experiences in between, are all pre-ordained and nothing can change their course or timing. So come around full circle and end up with the same confusion where you started with.


"Part V: Stanza 24



So let's analyze this verse essentially says..."Self effort-Divine grace-Fate" are all one and the same thing. So to use an analogy...A person is critically sick and we are praying for his recovery and at the same time also putting in maximum possible efforts in the form of medical and physical support, to turn things around. Suppose the person recovers, which one of the three gets the credit? if the person does not recover, which of these three takes the blame? According to this verse, all combined get the credit and all combined take the blame, for they are the one and the same thing. 


We are just pawns in this eternal game. And even this is bluntly stated in many of our scriptures in not so cryptic form..."This whole universe is a grand game in the mind of the infinite..." perhaps the latter referring to the player called 'Fate'. A game we cannot get out of, a game where there is only one loser, us. And while we play the game for a limited amount of time (called one lifetime), this entity called 'Fate' watches it and makes us believe (falsely) that we are the doers and managers of our destiny. Then 'Fate' gets bored and kicks our spirit out of the present body (the process being called death) and pushes it into another new body (the process being called birth)...and so on, until...yes now we come to another realization!

What is the true purpose of religion and spiritual practices then, in this entire scheme of things? This is what I think...again from my limited interpretation of the scriptures I have read since childhood. 

There are essentially two functions that religion tries to do, one, a social keep society in functional/working state (hence all the multitude of rules and regulations in every religion about every aspect of sentient life of a human being) keep that game interesting for its creator and enforcer, whose name you know by now 'Fate'.


Essentially a process of becoming aware that we as individuals, are actually not different or separate from that entity/concept called 'Fate' and that in fact we are the one and the same, i.e., fate is us and we are fate and that we have been playing this game on ourselves alone. That there is no duality as to the gamer and the game, just an appearance of duality on the world stage, until we realize our which point birth and death lose their meaning (as the scriptures so convincingly assure us)

Until we attain this Self-Realization...we will continue waiting for the next boat on the river Vaitarani (the Hindu mythology equivalent of river Hades), waiting to go into the realm of death and Pitri loka (spirit world) and then returning back in another new body.

But sometimes knowledge doesn't necessarily lead to understanding, instead it spawns more questions.  


The more I think about it the more this truth appears macabre, heartless, ruthless and merciless...the very qualities we are told to shun from our hearts in this game called life.  


राम नाम सत्य हे

Manikarnika Ghat, where the funeral pyre is said to burn 24/7, 365 days a year, since the formation of the city. Nearly 100 bodies are burnt at this ghat every single day of the year

*All pictures taken on a 16MP Android phone camera and processed on Topaz/Snapseed

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