Inequality and the hidden role of ‘Chance’

I always observed that many people cry about the world. Some people complain about the inequality in the world, and some people do their bit to bridge the gap.

A few years ago, I was also one of them who were deeply thinking about the existing inequality in the world. A lot of my thinking was triggered by one uttering of my friend, Krishna Survi, who once said “If all the people in this world adhere to perfect truth, then there are no problems in this world.” The thought behind this sentence lies in the single most powerful word Truth. We concluded that almost all the problems in this world arise only because someone doesn’t adhere to the truth. It may be bribery, war, exploitation, anything that causes problems to humanity.

Most people think it is the hierarchy in the society that is creating the problems. No, it is the exploitation (not adhering to truth) of the people is what that people don’t like. Most people are willing to work very hard and truthfully if there work is heard and done justice. So, we thought of imagining an ideal world, where everybody is adhering to truth. People get exactly what they are to get for their deeds.

The Hidden Role of Chance

We could conclude that even this ideal world completely adhering to truth will not survive for a long period. Because in life there is some randomness, chance or fate that imbalances this system. For example, assume the ideal world is adhering to perfect truth. So two boys from a rural area are practising for a running competition. As these boys were walking together, a car bumped on one of the boys and in the process he lost both his legs. This is a chance or randomness or fate happening. The problem is these things create jealousness, vengeance, and other emotions which disturbs the ideal truthful world. Though the world is working correctly, the underlying carpet of chance/randomness/fate still disturbs it. One may say that these emotions like jealousness, vengeance are emotions of untruth and falsity. So how can these emotions come in the first place in this ideal world. But remember these are emotions, reaction to a stimuli, if you say these should also be controlled. What we are essentially asking is not a world of people adhering to truth but a world full of Buddhas.

In this world, you will always have somebody crying. If you want to cry along with them, you will always have somebody to cry with. It is better to do your part in life for justice and help the people than to cry for people at the bottom.

2 thoughts on “Inequality and the hidden role of ‘Chance’

  1. I loved your argument here , and I loved the way you brought the role of chance and randomness into this. Nevertheless I do not accept that all this is chance and randomness.

    The karma sidhdhanta of Hindus offers an explanation here, the fate which you see in your lives is nothing but the fruit of your past actions in your previous births . That’s why we see that a person gets a lot of luck in what ever thing he does while another man just like him would be suffering very bad luck . “As you sow so you reap” hence it’s not just chance or Randomness.

  2. Ya true. But the focus here is more about its role. Whether it is randomness or fate depends on the individual’s belief systems and is a subject of debate I don’t want to get into.

    -Sai

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