Quick Links

The World you believe in, is the world you will create for yourself and others…

However much you want to believe that there is nothing you can do about what is happening around you, you could well be wrong! Our outlook of the world is often perceived as determined by some external source or what we might call destiny, which what fatalistic or deterministic theories state. The other outlook that governs all we do in our world, is based on the perception that we believe we have free will, we act freely and plan our present and future according to what we decide to do with free will. When we launch our satellites to the space and land our capsule in the moon, we do it by meticulous planning, based on scientific calculations, arrived from millions of telemetry data that we have gathered, and decide what speed the rocket should have, at the what time and distance, other rockets should be fired to change direction, and for how long, and when the backburner would be fired if need be to reduce speed, all by design, and free will and never because we think that whatever we may do, it will end in a particular way.

A neuro surgeon who carries out a difficult, complex and delicate surgical intervention on a person, does so, after meticulous planning and study, and not by flipping coins. Nothing that we do, consciously and with a final objective in mind, is left to destiny (whatever it means) . Our entire planning, technology, economic theories and investments are all carried out, out of certainty as perceived by us, and not out of certainty that destiny will give. Were it not so, our whole world would have to survive from day to day, based on what destiny ( whatever it means to those who believe in it) will decide, and our day to day lives would be shrouded with complete uncertainty. Of course you decide which team will bat or bowl first, because that decision is essentially based to establish uncertainty, or in other words to ensure that no one has been given undue advantage.

It there were no certainty, the coaching institutes would not be able to charge so much from young aspirants for IIT and MBBS. They charge you a lot of money, because they want to state that if you study what they teach you, in a manner they want you to study, and answer in a way they taught you to answer, you are sure to pass, although that seldom happens. Lots of students who attend coaching classes crack the IIT or NEET, but equally others do it, without ever attending coaching classes. Destiny plays no role here, it is the combination of hard work, a cool and confident mind, and the fact that in whatever questions students give chance answers, some click and others do not click. Once again it is not destiny, but the chance that one takes, without knowing what is the right answer, the right chance clicks for those who took the right chance, as well as for those who answered knowing what is the right answer. No destiny here too.

ME AND WHAT I WILL BE TOMORROW

The problem that haunts us, is what kind of a world will our children inherit tomorrow, since destiny will play no role in it? Differently put, can we ensure that we and our children will be able to breathe free and grow healthy, have a safe environment to live and enjoy, grow and pursue our careers in safe and comfortable environments, in other words, will we be able to dream dreams and be happy, chasing those dreams? Is it possible to project a scenario which is more or less predictable without any astrological inputs. A lot of physical and as a consequence, economic disruptions are predictable due to what we have done to our planet, caused by climate change – floods due to incessant rains, droughts causing famines, and economic distress following large scale destruction and disruption. Wars and subsequent economic distress will follow due to human greed and unwillingness to solve problems amicably, through give and take, and trust deficit and fear or military might. Large scale social disruptions, riots and violence can happen when governments and power groups create distrust between communities and incite uncontrolled violence. Large scale social unrest and violence can happen when democratic rights are controlled or denied, social discrimination happens as part of official policies and resultant unrest is let loose.

IS THERE A RECIPE FOR A GOOD FUTURE, CAN IT BE CERTAIN?

This undoubtedly is a good question. Were we to proceed from where we ended in the last para, it is obvious that it is possible to obtain certainty, leaving aside acts of God, such as earthquakes, lightings or unprecedented floods. I have purposely omitted famines because although these were considered acts of God in the past, they are no longer so now, since technology has the capacity to feed the world many times over.

If uncertainty is reduced to only acts of God, it is possible to predict a future of certainty. The only factor that can turn this power that mankind possesses, to ensure certainty, is the man (woman) and his desire to be less human. A nuclear war can destroy our planet many times over, biological weapons of mass destruction can decimate mot of mankind, and the depredation of our planet can cause indescribable misfortune to our planet.

Mankind had the certainty of a happy future, exactly because he (she) has the free will to choose right and decide what will preserve and nourish humanity, against deciding to do the opposite. How can we prevent humanity or individuals from turning ‘rogue’. Being ‘rogue’ is the outcome of a false perception, that one cause harm to others, and remain immune from that harm and damage one causes to others. Acts of hate, discrimination against others, and insensitivity towards others, arise out of a mental arrangement that decides in the first place that causing harm, depriving others of their rights, is normal. Every step in his process of deciding in this manner, is person neutral, i.e. when you hate, you do not need a person, you familiarize with the idea that causing harm, pain, death to others is fine. Only when this perception in embedded in the human mind, the object is selected, and by design the desire to harm, main and kill does not end with one object/person because becomes embedded and will always seek more victims.

To ensure a future to our families, our communities, our school and our villages and towns, it is absolutely essential that the idea of hate/discrimination/ideas of superiority and inferiority are not allow to be embedded in our minds. This does not mean, that we will not have divisions, misunderstandings and fights, but they are instances of lack of control, self defence, etc. Hate that conditions our mind to hate, suspect, discriminate, etc against others, is a result of self inflicted or socially acquired indoctrination. It needs to be based on an argument (although false), which means, a sub-conscious approval system is created within us.

THERE IS URGENT NEED TO CREATE A SANITIZED MIND THAT REJECTS HATE, ACTS OF VIOLENCE, DISCRIMINATION AND REVENGE!

It sometimes appears that anything that is spoken of as ‘good’ is a religious connotation. Good ness is a natural conditioning of the human mind. That is why even a child, shrinks and gets frightened when someone is in pain or cries. Causing pain to others or to oneself is contrary to us, to our way of thinking and by the way even to animals. Our common effort for ensuring a future for us and our children and our communities, our villages and towns, is to ensure that we do now allow our minds to be conditioned to hate, causing pain to others, etc. When all of us, men, women and children, including infants, decide to be human, to hold fast to what we are, humans, our future is secure for us and for our kids, because the man-made mass scenario can never happen.

We, as adults, and you, the young can create a world of our choice, provided we decide to do it, because the ‘World belongs to the Brave’, and to be brave means the refusal to be moved out from where you belong – a Brave Mind that is able to see what is right, what is essential for our survival and the courage to negate hate. You are a Big Heart because you are able to see not someone, you need to hate, but someone who is asking him to help out reach somewhere. The world will be safe, as long as there are Advocates of Hope, and Hope has a name – yours and my right to be what I want to be, what the Master created me to be. That is our greatest hope, such that defies our limited human understanding – what Adi Sankaracharya class ‘ Aham Brahmi Asmi’, or ‘God abides in you’ (Bible).

Fr. Jose Alarico Carvalho