Soul Soufflé: Psychobabble

The other day I was had a pretty interesting conversation which got me thinking and it really took on a wild mental roller-coaster, an intellectual bungee-jump with its attendant descent, the breaking of the fall and the reverse tug accompanied by apprehension, fear, exhilaration, and exultation.

A friend of mine SMS’ed me a question – Does fate decide everything for us or do we make our own fate?

I thought about it and something which came to me straight away was that the answer when posed to anyone would depend on his current state of mind. A person going through good times and enjoying a stint of relatively good fortune was bound to respond with an answer that we make our own fate while the same person when going through relatively difficult times would likely respond that everything is decided by fate. I have seen this happen enough and more number of times with different kinds of people.

So I really thought long and hard about it and I still don’t have a very convincing answer. But I tried to put my thoughts down. The way I see it: Fate ultimately is a result of the choices we make as we go along. There are zillions of permutations and combinations which take us on a certain path. Every moment we have multiple options and choices and the choices that we make affect the options that are made available to us in future which loosely can be described as fate.

Which means that fate is made of choices that we make today and it manifests itself in the quality and quantity of future options/choices made available to us. But what about timing? What about “when” those choices present themselves? It is extremely important when certain choices present themselves to us. There are options/choices which when presented to us when are in a certain frame of mind are no-brainers – but in the long term they wouldn’t probably be the most prudent options to opt for. Which leads to the question: What is it that drives us to make choices and decisions? We mostly are guided by short-term gains; by visibility of advantages in the short term.

Aren’t our judgments clouded by the visible, by what’s on the surface, by what we stand to gain “now’ rather than after “t” time? I have seen most people going the short term way. And I have realized that for all our education and purported intelligence we are still guided by “instincts”, “gut feel”, “today, now” and when our decisions are guided by instincts they tend to present the best possible state in the near present as the most optimal choice. So we are more dependent on survival, immediate satisfaction and gratification as the guiding principles of decision making.

It would seem that in this day and age of “instant karma”, “fast food” and “immediate communication” it is more than apt ….