Joy of the uncaused and the unpredictable || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)

Speaker: Pulkit is asking, ‘Is there a pre-determined aim of life or does it evolve with the circumstances?’ Pulkit, neither of these. For us anything belongs to either of these two categories. Right? It is either something pre-meditated or it is something spontaneous and random, that we have not thought of. Life is neither of these. Nobody has pre-meditated anything and nobody has left it absolutely random also. I will explain, understand this. What you call as the usual happening of life is subject to the constraints of cause and effect. For example, if you go and poke your finger in that electricity socket, with the switch on, with the power turned on, it is definite that you will get a shock. It is pre-meditated. It is cause and effect. What is the cause? You put in your finger. And what is the effect?

Listeners: The shock.

Speaker: You get a shock! Similarly, the moment you eat your food, it is pre-determined to a great extent that what will happen to the food. Food goes in, there are certain chemicals that get mixed with the food, and the chemical process of digestion begins. Whatsoever is mechanical and material is pre-meditated. For example, the day you are born, it is certain that you are also going to die. So you could say that with life, death is already certain. Are you getting it? These things are definitely pre-meditated and looking at these, one may feel like saying that a lot in life is actually fixed. Not really!

What is most valuable is not contained within cause and effect. Cause and effect is- if I am born a male, I have to be a bread winner. Cause and effect is- if I am born in a family of farmers, chances are, I too will become a farmer. Cause and effect does not always hold good. Cause and effect gets broken. The disruption of the chain of causation is intelligence. It is intelligence. But intelligence is not random either. Intelligence works in ways that only intelligence knows. Neither can you say that it works in pre-meditated ways, nor can you say that it is absolutely random. Nothing can be said about it. It is just spontaneous. There is no predictability associated with it. It is so unpredictable that you cannot even say that it is unpredictable. Because if something is totally unpredictable, at least that much becomes predictable about it. What? That it is…

Listeners (everyone): Unpredictable.

Speaker: Unpredictable. It is not even completely unpredictable. Neither predictable, nor unpredictable. But what is certain is that this intelligence is lot of fun. As young people you will not want to be constrained by causation. As budding professionals, as people who are out to enter a new phase of life, you will not want to remain within cause and effect. Cause and effect will tell you that if you have come from a small town, so there are only such and such kinds of jobs that you can get. Will you want to limit yourself because of this cause and effect? Will you want to limit yourself?

Listeners: No.

Speaker: No! You will say, ‘It is alright. The cause may be there, but the effect can be changed. I do not give any validity to that cause and effect’. Cause and effect will tell you, that in the entire world, going by human development index, one of the most backward regions is India. So cause and effect will tell you that you are destined to remain backward. But do you want to accept this destiny? Do you want to accept this destiny? How many of you have already reconciled to this, that we are destined to remain backward? Anybody? So while a lot in life is just causation; if this is there, because of this, this will happen, a chain of occurrences.

The real thing is not within this chain of cause and effect. The real thing is unreasonable. It has no cause. It is uncaused, (smilingly) and hence we are afraid of it. We do not know what causes it. We do not know how it operates. But one thing is assured, it is a lot of fun, it is the real thing. We talked of Love. Love is one such thing; uncaused. We do not know what causes it. And you also do not know what love will lead to. It is a very dangerous situation. First of all you do not know what causes it, and secondly you do not know what it will do. It is a kind of tree, whose roots are unknown, and whose flowering is also unknown. What love will do is uncertain. It can make you mad; it can make you do things you never thought of, absolutely insane acts. Truth, freedom are such things. Can you tell me, why freedom is so attractive? Is freedom attractive?

Listeners (everyone): Yes.

Speaker: Can you tell me what causes this attraction? Why are you so drawn towards freedom? Can you tell me? You will never be able to know the cause and you will also never be able to know what it will cause. You might die for freedom. And those are the real things, that are beyond cause and effect. Don’t look so scared; you might die for freedom, but that is also what is really lively. Even that death will be a really, lively death. (Smiles) Am I reaching you to some extent?

Listener: Yes, Sir.

Speaker: So it is alright that this cause-effect routine operates. Let it operate. Let it operate in all these small matters, but where things really count then let the other forces work, do not obstruct them. Do not obstruct them. Truth , Joy, Love, freedom; when they are to operate, do not hinder them. Yes? Scary! Afraid! Smiling, yet looking so scared. ‘My God! Freedom? We have to die for it? Cause and effect is better, at least it is predictable’.

Excerpted from a ‘Shabd-Yog’ session. Edited for clarity.

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