My nephew, who met with an accident and is paralysed for the past ten years on the left side (and cannot speak freely) said in a whisper: 'the unfortunate people say that he plays with human beings'. It was shocking. I have been exercised over the issue of 'accidental casualities' over 20 years now (another nephew was born with cerebral palsy in 1989). God may not have a handle over the deeds of the devil who pushes people to kill and maim others deliberately (they are all under the influence of some drug or the other - hashish, mainly - hence the word assassins.) When you discount the acts of willful evil doing, there are still 'accidents' that need not have occurred. Is god napping?
I don't have an answer. My engineer brother says these things occur one in a thousand or one in a million and we have to take the risk. Isn't risk the most vulgar expression invented by humans? Is it not a shameful that you let loose thousands of lives knowing well that once in a million, the signaling would collapse and people die? Is there no 100% guarantee to the lives and limbs of people?
Do we still have to advance? Can't we say we have enough comforts, gizmos, and stuff and stop all further 'progress' and try and go back to the ones we have and make them failsafe?
I've always comforted myself with the belief that such things are a consequence of free will. When, collectively as a people, we chose the path of free will rather than dependence on God (in the West) or gods* (elsewhere), everything in the world changes.
ReplyDelete* Note that using caps only for God isn't Western chauvinism. It's following the English grammatical rule that proper nouns are capitalized. Outside of the Judeo-Christian world, where our deity is named "God", gods have specific names, and are referred to by those names rather than "god". It's a bit more complicated than that, but that serves as a good rule of thumb.
In this sense, I feel that at some point in our growth as humans we made the choice of living free rather than subjugating ourselves to divine rule, and this decision was made by and for everyone: this is an all or nothing choice. Once the decision has been made, bad things happen to good people purely by accident, not by divine intent.
The modern relationship with God and gods seems very similar to a parent-child relationship: once you've left home, you're on your own. You can ask for favors or emotional reassurance, and often it's given. You can return home now and again to partake in the comfort and joy of the family. But in either case, good parents will not hover over you and control your actions when you have achieved independence.
kadam kadam pe jahan maut intezar karein
ReplyDeletebada maza he agar zindgi ki baat karein