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 The role of fate-5
Our wills and fates do so contrary run (in the play Hamlet)
--William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English poet & dramatist
V. Fate versus free will
It is said that Fate is like a game of cards. You sit down to play and cards are dealt for you. The cards that you get are the ones with which you have to play. You cannot exchange the cards either. The only thing you can do is to decide how to play the cards. If you get good cards (call it your reward) you feel lucky. But that does not guarantee you will win the game. Bad execution of the play can nullify the benefit afforded by the good cards. Conversely, even when you get bad cards, through a deft strategy one can win the game notwithstanding the poor cards.
Fate is just a roadmap and one does not know what is ahead until one actually is on the road. While on the road when a crater appears, one can either run into it or go around it. Those who run into it blame their fate. Those who are watchful take preventive measures and avoid the detrimental results. Likewise, when opportunities are presented by fate, it is “the road that is taken” that counts. In Mahabharatham, both Duryodhanan and Arjunan go to Dwaraka to seek Krishna’s help in the ensuing war. They wait until Krishna wakes up from his slumber. However, when Krishna asked them to choose between himself and his army, Arjunan chooses Krishna’s personal help while Duryodhanan chooses his army. Perhaps Arjunan’s choice of Krishna over his army, although done out of free will, was aided by fate too in that he had the privilege to choose first.
Let us look at some legends where the apparent detrimental effects of fate have been overcome through divine help
(Markandeya), or even adherence to one’s principles (Harischandra) in order to get redeemed.
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Lord Shiva killing Yama
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Sage MrikaNDu yearned for a son for a long time and got a boon from Lord Shiva. While his wish was granted, the condition was that he should choose between a short-lived gifted son or a dunce with a long life. He chose the former and named him MArkaNDEya. MArkaNDEya was destined to die at age 16. He learned all the scriptures and became a devotee of Lord Shiva. When the time approached, Lord Yama came with his noose to take the life of MArkaNDEya. MArkaNDEya embraced the Lingam he was worshipping. When the noose was thrown it grabbed the Lingam too. Lord Shiva appeared and killed Yama and protected his devotee. Yama was revived later only on condition that MArkaNDEya would be allowed to live forever.
We recognise, from this legend, that fate can be conquered by several ways one of which is to have faith and pray. Prayer, in this case, was the offshoot of the manifestation of free will or determination. One could call this an “assisted effort” – assisted by a divine agent. Can a human being avoid death by self-determination alone? Not in reality. Perhaps the Lord’s rescue of his devotee was also ordained as a package deal when the sage sought the gifted son with a short life span, apparently as a reward for not being greedy.
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King Harischandra
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King Harischandra ruled over Kosala kingdom from Ayodhya. Righteousness and truthfulness were two of his virtues. That virtue can itself be subjected to severe test is perhaps a decree of fate in his case. A discussion between Vashishta and VisAamitra about whether incorruptible virtue is possible ensued and Vashishta held up the example of Harischandra. ViswAmitra contested that position and challenged Vashishta that he would prove him wrong and set out to experiment with Harischandra. First he sought his wealth and kingdom in the guise of a Brahmin which Harischandra gave willingly. Later he demanded fees for a yagna which the king was hard-pressed to oblige. He bought some time and eventually sold his wife and son as slaves. Still not meeting the monetary target he himself had to be sold to a cemetery keeper to pay the debt to ViswAmitra. It so happened that his son died of a snake-bite and had to be cremated at the cemetery. His wife couldn’t afford the fees and was sent back to bring the fees. She was accused of robbery and condemned to death. The execution duty fell on Harischandra, which he was about to do. At that moment ViswAmitra relented, accepted his defeat, and restored Harischandra to his past glory.
This episode is held up as an example of virtue being its own reward. It was a quirky fate that the two sages had to play with the life of the king and his family. Did Harischandra know what was in store when he decided to keep his word at all costs? His unswaying adherence to his virtues was of foremost importance to him. In doing so he went through so many tribulations. If fate had its way he would have surrendered to the demand of ViswAmitra to retract his promise. By holding on to his virtues, the episode demonstrates, he was able to overcome the decree of fate. The corollary of this hypothesis is that it is a composite fate that he would be tested, and he would stand up to the test and come out victorious.
Arguably such episodes are more likely to be didactic concoctions than real life situations mainly intended to instill the sense of holding on to one’s virtues in the minds of readers/listeners. Nevertheless, these are instances of fate’s decree and human efforts to counter it.
Sethuraman Subramanian
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