WHAT IS FATE?

WHAT IS FATE?



ANSWER:


1. DEFINITION OF FATE—

Random House dictionary provides the following definitions of fate:

a. Something that inevitably befalls a person
b. Ultimate agency by which the order of things is prescribed
c. That which is inevitably predetermined; destiny
d. Prophetic declaration of what must be.


It is clear that these definitions have the following two components. ONE, that future is predetermined. TWO, that there is an agency that does this pre-determination.


ONE-- that future is predetermined. This will be adressed here in some detail. Available scientific information will be combined with possiblities based upon such information to consider the likelihood of correctness of this component.


TWO-- that there is an agency that does this pre-determination. This will not be discussed. It will be taken as a foregone conclusion. It is obvious that if something is done, there must be someone who has done it. That someone may be called God [Lord, Yehovah, Allah, Ishwar, etc.], Creator, or, even as a yet unknown or understood force or agency. The nature and attributes of that being, God, will not be discussed here.


2. IS FUTURE PREDETERMINED?—

This question can be answered only after we answer the question: What is future?

One would say that future is that which one cannot observe at present. But, then, the question arises, “Observing by what means”?

The fundamental importance of the question “Observing by what means”? would be clear when we consider certain possibilities.

POSSIBILITY ONE-- A thing may be present but we may not be able to observe it. This explanation of future events postulates presence of certain unusual perceptive faculties in gifted individuals. Such postulation finds support in the known occurrence and documentation of phenomena like clairvoyance, true dreams, premonition and intuition.


POSSIBILITY TWO—An event might have already occurred but we may come to know of it only in future. A classical example from every day physics is the thunder and lightning. The event is a single one, electrical discharge between charged clouds. However, the arc of light is seen immediately, while the thunder is seen to occur in future or subsequently, due to the fact that while light travels faster, sound travels slowly. This explanation of future events postulates the occurrence of a phenomenon whereby a number of events have occurred at one tme, but these become apparent or unfolded at differential time sequences. A parallel exmple is that of a TV serial, 30 episodes of which have been enacted and recorded on video cassettes in a single go, but one episode is telecast every week for next half year. In this situation, people watching the serial keep on guessing what would happen in future, though the ‘future events’ have been all pre-recorded!

If the above makes sense, it leads to very intriguing possibilities. We know that there is enough documentation and proof now of rebirth. Is it possible that differential time sequence revealation of events may be such that certain events unfold only in the next life! That would mean substantiation of the karmic theory, according to which what we experience in this life is related to our deeds in the past life.



3. NON-OBSERVABILITY OF PRESENT EVENTS—

What are the possible conditions when man may not be able to observe a thing that is present?

a. Observation can be through many faculties. Man has only five—vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Other faculties are known. Magnetism and gravitation are two such faculties. There might be others. Some humans have the capacity for ESP [Extra-Sensory Perception], which means perception by sensations other than the usual five mentioned above. The exact North-South direction of termite nests is attributed to their geo-magnetic sensory perception. The linear flight path of migratory birds is, by some investigators, attributed to their ability to be guided by the stars.

b. Within the five sensations found in humans, there are distinct limitations from which man suffers. Anything beyond such limitation would not exist for him, even though present. Let us discuss each:

i. VISION--

When the thing is beyond visible light spectrum for humans. It is well known that light spectrum of sun light as we know it is limited, the range being—violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red. The spectrum beyond violet is called ultraviolet and the spectrum below red is called infrared. It is also well known that though man can perceive only the sunlight spectrum, other animals can see beyond this. For example, elephants can perceive infrared waves and birds and butterflies can perceive ultraviolet waves. They can thus see what man cannot see!

ii. SMELL—

It is well known that the sense of smell is highly developed in many mammals, such as dog, but is poor in man. As a matter of fact, man, like other primates, had a sharp sense of smell, but lost it along the evolutionary path. Thus, a dog may perceive an object through smell, while man may not.

iii. SOUND—

It is well known that man can hear only a part of the sound spectrum. Human ear can normally hear sounds in the frequency range of 20 to 20,000 cycles per second or Hertz. Thus, anything below 20Hz is never heard. This would include, for example, the trumpeting of an elephant which starts at 5 Hz and is audible to other elephants and, maybe, other animals, but not to man. The trumpet spanning over a range of 5 to 50 Hz, it is audible to man only when it is in the latter part of the range. The same factor, namely, low range gurgling / murmuring sounds produced by tectonic movements and disturbances within the earth, may be responsible for the fact that certain animals, particularly snakes, can know about and earthquake in advance of man. The Chinese have done elaborate research on this and have even designed protocols to predict earthquakes on the basis of alterations observed in animal behaviour 1-3 days preceding the actual earthquake. Blue whales, on the other hand, communicate amongst themselves hundreds, even thousands of kilometres of ocean apart through infrasonic sound waves, almost like natural cell phones!. Bats perceive through ultrasound in the range of 15 to 150 or more kilo-hurtz, a phenomenon called echolocation. That is how they find their way in the dark. In fact, bats are blind!

iv. TASTE—

It is well known that some humans have highly developed sense of taste. It is on this basis that tasters are paid highly to taste various blends of tea and alcoholic drinks. Persons not having sharp sense of smell would miss what others can perceive. (Taste perception is, to a fair extent, dependent on smell perception.]

v. TOUCH—

Sense of touch may be highly developed in some individuals, who would perceive what others cannot. A blind man can identify a person he has met earlier merely by touching his hand or face.


c. Even within the five routine senses, man can perceive only upto a certain limit. Anything beyond that limit would not be visible to him, hence may not exist as per his observation. The moment he uses binoculars or telescope or microscope, it becomes visible.



4. TIME-SPACE RELATIVITY—

In 3 above, we posed the question: What are the possible conditions when man may not be able to observe a thing that is present?

One such condition is when the thing is too far to be observed. As per Einstein’s theory of relativity, man may be able to see future events if he can move ahead at a speed faster than that of light. This is a tantalizing concept. It throws open the possibility that a thing may exist, in so called future, but cannot be perceived because man cannot transcend the speed of light. It is possible to conceptualize that there may exist certain forms of energy transmitted through wave forms at speeds faster than that of light but not yet known to science. Once we hypothesize this, it would be simply a matter of some gifted persons being able to perceive such waves; such a person, then, would be able to see the future events!



5. CONCLUSION—

The question WHAT IS FATE may be answered by stating that which is predetermined to happen but which cannot be perceived by ordinary humans, though it may be perceivable by specially gifted persons endowed with unusual perceptive faculties.

* Initially written as as item 748918, deleted and substituted on 16 April 2005 with entry no. 343283 in book MISCELLANEA, "MISCELLANEA" . Posted as the present item on 30 March 2007



M C Gupta
10 September 2003