Randomness

Every religion makes out its respective God to be omnipresent and omnipotent. Of course, some Gods are angry, bossy, vindictive and come up with random rules and apply punishments. I have always grown up knowing the Gods to be ever-benevolent, protector of the weak, friend of the needy amd always maintaining equanimity.

In my mythology, the only time Gods or Goddesses get angry and unleash their powers of destruction is when evil, demonic forces take over the seven worlds and destroy all righteousness in it.

Krishna says that he – as Vishnu – creates himself in various forms to destroy evil – “अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम” – whenever there is a complete depletion of righteousness – “यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति” – Chapter 4, Sloka 7 of the & Gita.

But if this God, this primal-energy, this ever-pervading and all-permeating force, is in every little and big thing, in every sub-atomic particle and celestial body in the universe – and He/She/It is so benevolent, then how is it allowed that an innocent child, only 9 years old, suffers the most horrendous of diseases, withers and vanishes in a few days?

Is there any justification to this? Is there any meaning to this? Scientific, spiritual, super-natural, astrological, emotional, fatalistic, all escape routes for the mind to try and make sense out of the situation, fail. The brain is left grappling at nothingness – trying to find a reason where one does not exist.

When Hiranayakashipu asks where his Narayana is, Prahalada tells him, among other things, “ஓர் தன்மை அணுவினைச் சத கூறிட்ட கோணினும் உளன்.” - Yuddha Kandam, Kamba Ramayanam.

If you take an atomic particle (aNu) of a single characteristic (indivisible) and make a hundred parts of it, he exists in each piece. If he does, then he existed in each cell of this precious child. He pervaded each protein of each strand of her DNA. Then why would the cells mutate and start attacking its own? Why would they grow uncontrollably malignant and cause immeasurable pain to a guiltless baby?

I still feel that she is going to ring the doorbell and play “the floor is lava” with my daughter once again.

When my kid goes downstairs to play at the swings, she acutely feels the other swing beside her bereft of her best friend, gets off, climbs and sits on top of the slide to think.

Other kids rally around. Smaller ones who never played with her come around and try to get her to run around and play. They acknowledge the situation briefly, say “I don’t want to talk about it”, and then they keep themselves occupied.

There is God in these kids who instinctively know how to get over their loss, support each other and move on.

There is God in the older kids who have made the older brother come down and play and keep him engaged.

There is God in the neurosurgeon who spent 14 hours on surgery on the little one and still kept with her and the family throughout. She must also have a family and her own life, but these people dedicate their lives to save and give better lives to others. How tough she must be to be a peadiatric neurosurgeon!

There is God in friends who are trying to spend time with the parents and distract them, albeit an impossible task.

So, the God is in the humans.

Kabir says:

जैसे तिल में तेल है, ज्यों चकमक में आग, तेरा साईं तुझ में है, तू जाग सके तो जाग

Like there is oil in the sesame seed,
Like there is fire in the flintstone indeed.
Your God is inside of you,
Wake up if you can, do!

There is God in these humans, sure. There is God in nature too.

Voltaire wondered about the clock existing without the clockmaker, but it was rather the work of Dawkins’ blind watchmaker. Nature itself is this God which self-created all these wonderful things.

And the essence of evolution itself is randomness, isn’t it? Then if it is not an all-seeing watchmaker but a blind one stumbling through millions of years of trail and error, it makes more sense to me.

All these Gods exist. But that all-seeing, all-knowing, all-pervading, all-benevolent one, does not. Life is just a series of random events. A random cell mutates and causes havoc. The child ceases to exist. That’s all there is to it.

There is no meaning to any of this. There is no higher power who has any control. There is no fate which is pre-ordained.

 It is all random set of events which occur by themselves, and nobody has any control of what has happened or will happen.

 Sage Jabali says to Rama:

स न अस्ति परम् इत्य् एव कुरु बुद्धिम् महा मते |
प्रत्यक्षम् यत् तद् आतिष्ठ परोक्षम् पृष्ठतः कुरु ||

- Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 108, Sloka 18: Valmiki Ramayana

There is nothing beyond the visible universe. There is nothing apart from the perceived reality. Turn your back on anything else that is beyond the knowledge of our senses.

Just like the Bruhadaranyaka upanishad’s reality argument that the scholar Gargi poses to Yagnyavalka.

 Everything happens at random.