Regret

I've done a lot of things till now that i'm not exactly proud of. But given a second chance, I'd probably have done the exact same things over again. Which gets me thinking about the choices a person makes. And the choices that make the person. Are my choices a direct consequence of who I am, my inner self, the Jungian psyche (more on Jungian stereotypes later...)? Or am I the result of the decisions that I have made? Do we have a choice in all this at all? It gets very confusing sometimes, when people talk about destiny. It's all very romantic to think that there's this superpower that governs your life, and that you'll eventually end up becoming the same thing no matter what you do. But that would defeat the purpose of living, doesn't it? On the other hand, what about things that happen in which you have no choice at all? Like natural disasters. Or or bolts out of the blue. Is there an answer to all this? We do make decisions and stick to our choices without thinking about all this stuff, and of course it's all a lot easier to do it that way. But what if you do realize one day, that beyond all doubt, there is this destiny or fate which governs your entire life. Will that stop you from making choices? On the other hand, there you go, a normal person thinking about normal things, making decisions and choices based on rationale and the current circumstances, and you actually end up becoming nothing. Will that give you as much satisfaction, of being safe and secure, as opposed to what you would have become if you were an irrational impulsive freak obsessively following your own passions? And what if you don't end up safe and secure after all, even though you've made the correct (according to you) decisions all your life?

Should we be even thinking about all this stuff? The Vedas give an easy solution to all this:

कर्मण्यॆवाधिकारस्ते माफलॆषु कदाचन
karmaNyEvaadhikaaraste maa phalEShu kadaacana

basically saying that one should not think about the consequences of the action, but should perform one's duty. Then what is our duty? Oh no.. don't start that now. Go read the Bhagavad Gita (also available in your local language by now) and see if you understand the concept of कर्म, loosely put, "duty" in English.

So why am I quoting Scriptures here? Because I'd like to believe that age-old wisdom has been passed down to us, in the form of Scriptures (not only the Gita, Scriptures in all religions...), and that if you know how to search for it, all the answers lie in these Scriptures. Hell, even Schrodinger's concept of Quantum Mechanics is supposed to be influenced by them. In the meanwhile, before we understand what it means to read the Scriptures, we better do whatever we need to survive. It's a shame that Humanity, is simultaneously the cause and the effect of such wisdom. Or abstract thought. Call it whatever you wish. Humans will be humans, they will breed evil and seek evil for all time, until the fear of Final Judgement looms really large and inevitable. Until then, that's all folks!