Life is calling !!

Around 1600 BC, an eruption of Santorini volcano formed volcanic ash that reached the Cretan shores and wiped off the Minoan civilization. Some debate that tsunamis were the real cause; but a civilization perished, a civilization that had attained maturity in almost all scales of societal, economic and military strength.

Sounds stupid or irrelevant, but a question comes ‘was their destruction completely predestined or it was retribution of their current or past deeds’?

Karma..

I find it difficult to believe that their deeds or Karma were solely (if at all) responsible. No child or an innocent person should ever meet an unfortunate end, if I had to believe in Karma.

Humankind has quietly gone through a number of such indiscriminate destructions, due to calamities or conflicts. And then of course, it has seen revivals, triumphs and heroes; some greats, and some fakes too.

These miseries and recoveries continue. A plane crashes; our loved ones pass away; without any basis of selection. ‘It is all pre-determined’ some of our elders say. ‘There is no differentiation on the basis of good or bad in this’. So both Mother Teresa and Princess Diana would become famous, even if one worked for others; and the other only for herself. And both would die in 1997.

An ongoing paradox..

Does God pre-decide all outcomes ? Or his decision (and thus the outcome) is his response to our choice or deeds?

If outcomes are pre-decided, then our choices would also have been pre-decided or inspired by God. We couldn't have chosen to do something else if we follow the theory of ‘pre-destined’ outcomes.

And if an outcome is God's response to our choice or deeds, no innocent would have ever lost his life, including the Minoan civilization.

Actually if God didn't know our choice, he wouldn't have known the outcome. Then he cannot be the God that we know of. God has to be omniscient, remember?

The lesser God..

Well, going with experiences of millions of people, one may still construe that God exists. Perhaps he sits in a timeless space (a tesseract may be), out of the time dimension, seeing our past and future all at once. He may not be able to stop calamities or conflicts. But he has been able to communicate to us, with his messages or signals.

His messages may not change our fate; but they suggest how to live and enjoy our lives. However it takes faith and patience to be able to receive those messages.

I believe in such ‘lesser’ God, because he fits better into the overall scheme of events from evolution and history better than the omniscient God.

Purpose..

My new God concurs that there is no point in seeking purpose of this life. None of the events of our past suggest any broader or wider purpose other than surviving the odds; natural or spawned of our own weaknesses.

Given that our fate is fixed for tomorrow or for next 500 million years, the choice of action is ours.

Our greatness lies in our ability to live well and enjoy life. That's our only connection to God for he continues to guide us on ‘how to live or enjoy this life’; if we could keep faith and patience to hear him. There is no further greatness to be reached. There is no higher purpose to be achieved.  

Pic by: Ajay Sudhanshu