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 The role of
fate-7
Be still sad heart and cease repining;
Behind the clouds the sun is shining,
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life a little rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
--Henry W. Longfellow (1807-1882), U.S. poet
VII. Fate and the supernatural element
Let us think for a moment about an airplane crash. An investigation after the crash may point out whether the cause is pilot error, mechanical problem, weather-related, or just plain fate (when no definite conclusion could be reached). To the western mind, assigning an airplane crash to fate is just too fanciful. There was a movie titled, "Fate is the hunter" (1964) which deals with a plane crash. The crash killed 53 people including the pilot. After ruling out various causes, the investigation team blamed the accident on the pilot who was reported to have been drinking the previous night. A close friend of the pilot and the director of flight operations of the airline does his own investigation in a test flight using a similar plane, by recreating the events leading to the crash with the help of the sole survivor, a stewardess. It turns out that a cup of coffee brought to the pilot and placed next to an instrument panel tipped over and the coffee spilled and short-circuited critical wiring causing the plane to nosedive. Is fate responsible for the crash? One might say, "No! it is the coffee!" But the broader question is, "Did fate engineer the coffee spill?"
If fate is the cause of a plane crash, is it a collective fate of all the passengers and crew of that plane? How is it that all the people who are fated to die in that crash come together in that flight? Is it pure chance that they all come together or is it by some design of fate? No rational explanation is possible. Is there a supernatural element that is instrumental?
MaNimEkalai's compassion
 MaNimEkalai, one of the 5 great epics in Thamizh literature, is held in high esteem for its literary beauty next only to silappadhikAram. MaNimEkalai, the heroine of the epic by the same name, was the daughter of KOvalan and MAdhavi (of silappadhikAram). After the murder of KOvalan, MAdhavi stopped dancing, became a Buddhist nun and raised her daughter too in the ascetic mode. When MaNimEkalai and her friend went to a garden to bring flowers, the sOzha prince, udhayakumAran, followed her having fallen in love with her previously. The goddess MaNimEkalA, a deity of the sea, in order to support the ascetic life of MaNimEkalai, carried her off and left her in the island of MaNipallavam. MaNimEkalai woke up in the island and sighted a Buddhist seat (pedestal) upon which she got a revelation about her previous birth. The goddess MaNimEkalA appeared at that moment and told her why she was brought there and taught her the means to transport herself aerially as well to metamorphose herself into another being when a need arose. In addition, the goddess also taught her the magic spell to alleviate hunger of masses of humanity.
MaNimEkalai then received a magic food bowl (amudha surabhi) from a pond in the island, went to PuhAr in the mainland and fed homeless and hungry people with limitless food from the magic bowl. The prince pursued her again passionately while MaNimEkalai avoided him by metamorphosing into the form of a maiden named kAyasaNDikai. By a quirk of fate the prince was murdered by the husband of the maiden whose form was taken by MaNimEkalai. MaNimEkalai gets arrested for the murder of the prince and later released through the intervention of her mother and preceptor. She then travels to vanjci city, has a conversation with her (god)mother KaNNagi in the temple and gets advice from her. Later she learns about the merits and faults of each religion from the experts, returns to kAnjci city, and gets instruction on Buddhism from her preceptor, aRavaNa aDigaL. She becomes a Buddhist nun and observes strict penance.
 Fate and
supernaturalism pervade throughout the narrative in MaNimEkalai. There are goddesses for various geographic units and specific functions who intervene in or govern certain people's actions. Since the author of the epic is a Buddhist, the concept of karma manifests throughout the work with a special flavor. According to the Buddhist faith, karma is a natural law that attaches to the soul of its perpetrator without the help of a mediating entity. It appears that the "die is cast" for certain individuals, sometimes for many births to follow. It is definitely so in the case of
MaNimEkalai.
MaNimEkalai got to know about her previous birth upon seeing the Buddhist pedestal. She was born in a royal family in her previous birth and married one prince Rahulan who was bitten to death by a snake. She immolated herself on the funeral pyre of her husband. She was reborn in PuhAr. So was her husband as udhayakumAran, the sOzha prince. The prince fell in love with MaNimEkalai perhaps engineered by karmic fate. However, MaNimEkalai's fate was willed otherwise. She was supposed to lead a life of renunciation. The goddess MaNimEkalA took her to the island of MaNipallavam to sever the bondage between the two and stabilize her mind against lustful life and steer her back to the ascetic life ordained for her. The goddess also instructed the prince to abandon his efforts to pursue MaNimEkalai. Apparently it is a coordinated fate with a master plan and timelines!
After MaNimEkalai's return to PuhAr from MaNipallavam, the prince still followed her (despite the instructions of the goddess and the transmuted form of KAyasaNDigai assumed by MaNimEkalai). The prince was murdered as a result of his fate. In his previous birth he killed a domestic servant with a sword for destroying (accidentally) the food that was supposed to be served to a sage. This information was disclosed to MaNimEkalai by the sculpture (which comes to life) in the temple. The author, cIttalaic cAttanAr, describes it thus:
"talaivan kAkkum tamporuTTu Akiya
avala vevvinai enbOr aRiyAr
aRamsey kAdhal anbinin Ayinum
maRam seyduLadenin valvinai ozhiyAdu"
(Those who think that God will protect them from the inevitable results of their bad deeds, just because they intended to do good, are ignorant. Even if the cruel action was motivated by goodwill, since a sin was committed, the miserable consequence will surely
follow).
The sculpture, kantiRpAvai, further declares:
"Angu
avvinaivan^du aNugum kAlait
tInguRum uyirE seyvinai marungin
mINDuvaru piRappin mILinum mILum"
(When the time arrives for delivery of the results of the bad deeds committed earlier, there will be misery by all means. Likewise, good deeds will also attach to the soul in subsequent births and could redeem the
individual).
Even MaNimEkalai's friend, sutamati, is subjected to the consequences of her karma. She was carried away by a celestial for carnal pleasure and then left in a Jain institution to fend for herself. As fate would have it, she rejoined her father who was administered medical care by a Buddhist monk, after being refused by the Jain monks. Such a compassionate act converted her to Buddhism. Of course the author, being a Buddhist himself, introduces some propaganda here. But here again fate and supernaturalism play their role as required.
It appears that the punishment meted out to one individual by another due to the former's fate becomes bad karma for the latter which will follow him for sure. KAncanan, KAyasaNDigai's husband, who killed the sOzha prince as a result of the fate of the prince, is told by the sculpture (coming to life again) that even though the prince got killed because of his fate, KAncanan himself has to carry his karma as a result of the murder he committed. When and where the cycle of karma/fate will get disrupted? When many individuals are involved in a common fate they are all trapped in a spider web awaiting the inevitable end.
We referred to collective fate at the outset. The epic also has an instance of collective fate. The guardian angel of the island of MaNipallavam tells MaNimEkalai that the city of PuhAr got submerged under the sea due to the curse of the goddess MaNimEkalA because the sOzha king neglected to perform the indra festival as a result of his grief over the loss of his child. That the sea would engulf puhAr was prophesied by the deity maNimEkalA before. The guardian angel also informs her that her mother, friend, and preceptor escaped from the disaster by leaving the city to go to vanjci. This is another indication that a few people may be spared of the consequences of the collective bad karma of others. Does this relate to the few people who may escape the tragic death in a plane crash?
Sethuraman Subramanian
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