Destiny Vs Will to Power

“No Plain not followed by a slope

No going not followed by a return

He who remains preserving in danger

Is without blame

Donot complain about this truth

Enjoy the good fortune you still possess”  …….I ching

After a long hiatus of three months, I have started to write this post. Thanks to my dearest friend, who inspires me every day and makes me feel special. As usual, as a prelude to what I am going to discuss, I share an anecdote (that was not so long back) etched in my memory timeline.

                 In one of the PSD sessions at Infosys –Mysore, I was in orientation for my new job. There was a task on public speaking. We were asked to choose our own topic and speak for 2 mins in public. I enthusiastically rose up fighting the post-lunch Coma and started talking impromptu: 

“I would like to talk about the topic- My dreams and fantasies. Well, I have been a dreamer all my life, learning new things along and hoping to reach my fantasy destination. By profession, I am working in IT but recently I have developed a flair for writing- penning my thoughts and opinions. I like to express human feelings, emotions and tell stories just like writers do! 

So I started to think I would be a writer someday, if not in this life may be in the next one (if there is one) –I wouldn’t stop dreaming.”

Believe it or not! I didn’t know that I was going to say what I had said. I never made up my mind words-they just flowed from my tongue. May be I was giving mouth to my to-be-happening events. I was supposed to take up a technical (coding) role. I left Hyderabad campus for Bangalore campus presuming to work in a technical role of my choice. However, fate had it – ended up consenting to a functional role, which involved lot of writing, testing and talking to clients. I said to myself that destiny counts more than will sometimes.

Uncles, Aunts and Mosquitoes:

One often wonders at the age of 15, how one can take decisions that dictate the rest of one’s existence on this earth. My point is about the choices made by me, rather made for me by my parents. Of course, they want the best for their beloved kid. Hence, seek the advice of so-called aunts and uncles. They simply make a whizzing sound saying that is good for you, not good , great , money is lacking, that is impossible…blah..Blah, biting you like a mosquito with their opinions and eventually contracting malaria.

Point is they know very little about yourselves but feel they know the ways of the world and shove your throat with their advice, completely ignoring that you are the one who is swallowing the pill of precarious future. Those decisions are like dirty catalysts, which run a complex chemical reaction that is irreversible –forming the permanent compounds that are incapable of mutation.

Chelation of White collar Identity:

I always wanted to study medicine. Unfortunately, I realised this after making irrevocable moves.Nevertheless, I sat for my JEE exam with half-hearted & disconcerted effort only to score a dismal yet qualifying mark sufficient enough to fetch me a B pharm at BHU: An opportunity to study cellular biology and become a scientist at CCMB.

I was determined to go but again fate had it – succumbed to parental wishful rhetoric- “Mera beta sirf engineer banega!” . You know why 3 idiots had been such a run for your money.

So far Destiny has ruled the roost of this post.

Will and water turbines:

However, without any will we cannot put any concerted effort in any direction, let alone dreaming.

It is like running the water turbines in hydroelectric plant .You know that water runs the turbines providing mechanical energy, which is converted into electrical energy by producing induced electricity. Running turbines is our exercising will and generate electricity ie., our destiny.

Justifying the title:

Discussing about Will to power without looking at Nietzsche’s doctrine (notoriously insane philospoher) is as good as thinking that ‘Dirty Picture’ is dirty without ever watching it ! (Thanks to those sleazy  vidya Balan’s posters at Malls).

Nietzche will to power says-

The world is conceived as a monster of energy, of conflicting forces and drives striving for power, of an underlying principle that explains all events and actions.

That  humans are always attempting to inflect their wills upon others.Every  action toward another individual stems from a deep-down desire to bring that person under one’s power in one way or other. Whether you are giving gifts, claiming to be in love, praising and harming the psychological motive is same: to exert one’s will over others.

Therefore, it is a life affirming view, you affirm your instincts to acquire power and dominance and suffering is not seen as evil, but as a necessary part of existence-to be embraced.

So lasting pleasure and satisfaction come about as a result of being able to live according to one’s instincts.

Personal pilgrimage of our Dam(n)mad life:

Yes, our life is a pilgrimage- A journey that is inevitable to be made. It could be either smooth, bumpy or wrought with pain, suffering and misery. However, it has to go on – Sun has to rise in the morning whether the climate is cloudy, sunny or windy.

We meet people–the fellow pilgrims- on the way. We tell our stories to one another and search for some meaning in our paltry journey, rationalizing the choices and justifying ourselves of the past. We realise that we have to tread on our own path not bothering whether someone is following your trail or you following someone’s lead!

The journey could be driven by pain, drawn by longing and lifted by hope. Whatever is the reason, there is always this feeling of uneasiness-when you are sufficiently unsettled to have an opportunity for growth-as being or chance for “making the growth choice rather than the fear choice”. This longing for the growth is the central force of one’s pilgrimage .Thus, the pilgrim can be anyone: a reformer striving for change in society, atheist condemning god, seeker of enlightenment (if there is one), hedonist perving the pleasures of flesh&bone and politician drenched in corruption. Whatever is the one you are trying to pursue is nothing but your own self-gratification!

We always wish to grow up once again:

The beginning to a new Ending: 

1.       The Buddha, being a prince, had everything at his disposal and so could afford to say that desires & pleasures are the beginning of sorrow and went on to renounce- seeking enlightenment.

Where as

A beggar deprived of all worldly pleasures craves to be rich and pursues the path as a miser accumulating as much as he can.

2.       A contented middle-class family gets devastated mentally and financially after saving their only sick child back from chronic sickness.

Where as

An ultra-rich family (who can afford ICU 365 x 24x7 hrs), loses their only child, cynosure of all eyes, while treating a chronic ailment.

3.       A philanderer husband, realising the futility of satiating the carnal pleasures through many relationships, comes clean and renounces everything even his wife and career becomes a Sansyasi

Where as

A loyal wife, after many years of marriage, longs for new kinky experiences in life, as she is bored with her vanilla hubby and eventually gets busted- defeating the very purpose of exploring the sensuality of her sexuality.

4.       An extremely talented lad breaks his back churning out ranks during his teenage but succumbs to worldly temptations at university-doing drugs and seeing pros.

Where as

A drug addict cleanses himself of all the toxins and through sheer will power and family support raises himself to the top most position- first citizen of his country!

5.       An ultra-liberal (nasty exploitative capitalist) supports unrestricted free trade, exploitation of labour through sweatshops and erosion of their rights. Thus, plunders the economy in a constructive way.

Where as

A hard-core leftist with his unpragmatic clinging to age-old antics of socialistic doctrines not only stalls the progress of the economy but also responsible for massive corruption in all walks of public life.

6.       College-mates  turn into lovers and run to fortify  a lengthy 6 yr relationship ,only to break-up  bitterly finding too many faults in each other though they have ignored them while in relation.

Whereas

Couple made out of arranged marriage learn to understand  each other and forge a life-long enviable relationship .

There are polar opposite situation in all of the above-mentioned cases .But the underlying human condition is the same where as the journey is different.

“pleasure” in case of the Buddha and the beggar

“health” ” in case of the second case

“Hedonistic indulgence” in one’s sexuality

“Worldly booby-traps” for the young

“Widening gap between Blue Collar and white collar”

“It’s easier to understand nuclear physics than relationships -whether successful or failed ones”

Whatever is the inclination or motivation for such a journey is clearly not known for the pilgrim .He/She acts according to the instincts in pursuit of something more meaningful in life other than what ‘is’ already present . Thus drifts from experiencing one thing to another hoping that tomorrow would be better than today and treading the path of destiny until he/she drops dead.

My 2 cents :

In 25+ yrs of my existence on this earth, I learnt to believe that decisions or actions are ought to be taken from our personal experience or intuition.

“There is nothing to be taught, but something to be learnt”.

There is something that may happen to us, but not if we await its coming from outside of ourselves. That is, we are the sole creators of our own and through will we can exert our wants and fulfil them.

Can we?

Bricks in the bottom of the pyramid:

Every day, I drive my bro to the office in a car (as Iam rotting at home with little work –Enjying my breakJ) . I have to yank the horn loud to scatter the street kids (playing on the road) living in nearby makeshift shed homes of the labour .They run hither-thither with playful mischief staring at the car with mocking smiles and jolly claps.

I begin to wonder how much will to power they can exert to break their jinx of their birth in a ghetto and make it to the top of the pyramid. Impossible is my pragmatic presumption. The precarious event of birth is defining the every step you make in life- pathetic but true.

Silver spoon Brats:

I opened that day’s newspaper and read on the front page the theatrics of a silver spoon brat, whose security personal beat civilians black and blue in broad day light for simple violation of a traffic rule. The arrogance of such people and the event lead to me to think: is it not that the birth deciding one’s ascent in life?

Reconciliation ??

How are we to understand such a complex life with apparent contradictions. I feel there is nothing to be understood.

Do we know why we need to sleep everyday ?

Do we know why humans have only two genders ?

Do we know why only humans pray to GOD ?

Do we know why India never waged a war in its history ?

Do we know what is the purpose of our life ?

Do we know is there any life after death ?

Do we know why out of all the animals only humans wear clothes ?

Once we are willing to give up the hope of being taught, one start to learn one’s own. There is no secret to enlightenment on universal truths here; if there is one then it is:When you are hungry: eat and when you feel tired: sleep!

“If you don’t have a problem, you create one. If you don’t have a problem, you don’t feel like living”

”------U.G krishnamurti

Why asking all these irrelevant dumb questions?  Pitting destiny against ‘Will to power’ is as absurd as asking above questions.

“You should be in a state of helplessness, then the answers will come”------U.G krishnamurti

If you are tired then just, sleep; don’t quest Why.

If you are a male, seek a female for pleasure/procreation and vice versa; don’t ask why there are no many genders.

If you are in fear pray to  GOD like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikZwSG1UMt4; don’t ask God present or not .

If you are an Indian then think Indians are impotent bastards! Don’t ask why no war!

If you think that there is purpose to life then tell me what is yours! Don’t ask what it is !

If you think that there is life after death;better die now as you are not ‘living’ it Don’t ask

Last one no need to say ..only humans wear clothes because of the virus called ‘thinking’ that hit the human species unlike other animals.

There is no secret ingredient in the soup we eat;Nothing is special unless we make it feel special!

Summarising the above BullShXXX with the below CDC(cow dung cake):

This is an excerpt from a book (read recently), which I felt apt here:

A master says- “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!” This admonition points that no meaning that comes from outside of us is real. The bhuddhahood has already been attained by each of us.we need only recognise it .Philosphy, religion and patriotism all are empty idols.

The only meaning in our lives is what we each bring to them .Killing the bhuddha on the road means destroying the hope that anything outside of us can be our master. No one is bigger than anyone else. There are no mothers or fathers for grown-ups, only sisters and brothers.

My personal motive to share these musings at this juncture is purely personal to my pilgrimage .But a metaphor can help you to decipher the script:

This is my favourite one ,learnt from the autobiography of RGV. “Naa Istam” in telugu  meaning ‘My whim’ in English) . I read it enthusiastically as RGV is a Telugu guy and has something to tell .

He thought of a metaphor , when he had rejected an onsite offer to gave up  his career as an engineer and to start a video parlour ,despite several free advice from his well-wishers.

“I run into a railway station and try to catch the train that I believe takes me to  my destination and see that it is leaving the platform moving faster and faster. I would prefer to run along and jump in it rather than ponder thinking whether I lose my legs  or lose my life on the rails slipping.”

“Better jump into the bright risky light on the bank of the river with a tiger in it rather than rot in the darkness of the mountain valley !”………….Venkata Mujje

Finally , I end this post with a urdu couplet . which will be cited whenever someone asks me what would you be doing is worthwile or not ?

In reply :

“Kya poochho ho haal merey karobaar ka

                                  Aaeeney bechta hoon andhon ke seher mein !!”

meaning : You ask me about my business, what I have  in mind is : I sell  mirrors in the city of blind.

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