A Random Thought

Someone dear to me lost his mother last week. It has shaken him up a bit and its but natural. I spoke with him yesterday and he started talking of spirituality. Not my cup. However, it intrigued me. I haven't read any scriptures. Not true. I tried Gita a few years back when my daughter was born but did not find it very engaging and I haven't thought about it since. Until now.

Anyhow, here is the thought. Most of the events around us are triggered by factors we have no influence over. Be it 8.9 tremor off Japan coast or 1984 Bhopal Gas Leak or the traffic jam during rush hour. As these are governed by nature or unintended consequence of human behavior, to me these are acts of God. And while I did not trigger them, I still need to respond to them as they affect me.

Here comes causality. As I understand my reactions are a combination of my nature and nurture / conditioning. Research shows, a man is mostly governed by his intrinsic nature. To me intrinsic nature is also an act of God as its mostly chance, largely random. Nurture is the only partially controllable variable. Even here, social environment, peer group etc.(external) have fair amount of influence compared to parental nurture(controllable).

So, with so much up to God / Chance, the responses to these externalities should also be random. Does everyone inherently have the same power to tune one's response to these happenings(nature once again)? If not, then has God has played dice with each of us and indeed some of us are blessed, while others are not and guess what, its random.

An then, if this were true, how do you explain the contrast in human behavior in the aftermath of Katerina and Japan Tsunami? Both were acts of God and yet in one place there was widespread looting while in another, there was none.