New Delhi Times - Gaurav Bhatnagar reporting from New Delhi, India

Cool philosophy!
Especially the funda tht everything good/bad event is purely random.
Will surely try to follow it..

Actually, this is how every person who doesn't in religion and god think about it. Especially those who believe in the scientific approach think this way.

Although I am not religious, I do belive in cause and effect, action and reaction... although we might not come to know what was the effect of which deed or action. In that way I believe that things ARE random and uncontrolled but at the same time, everything is linked.

However, this approach that you have mentioned here sounds interesting :
"If you really follow this philosophy, then you would do your good deeds never expecting anything in return. Similarly, you will not hold yourself accountable for an occasional little sin you might commit."

Isn't it said that it's all in the mind !!

Oh enlightened being, blessed are those who visit thy blog and gain from thy wisdom. hehe.

I like your philosophy. But why will anybody do any good deeds if he/she were to follow this philosophy? If everything is random anyways, why not just be mean and greedy.

What happens to us good or bad is ofcourse random .It is certainly not dharma or karma especially karma in previous births coming to visit us .If we do good deeds we do to please our selves .And so called sins that we try to avoid ,that too to please our selves .It is our ego and our conscience that regulates our actions .

Glad to see my philosophy finding some takers :)

Sorav - I knew this question will come up. Fact of the matter is that you dont do good deeds only because you want good things to happen to you. Doing good (or evil) comes from inside. Yes, we do get disappointed when we do good things and yet shit happens in return. But think for a moment, even if you knew that not doing good will not hurt you - would you still go ahead and be evil? I dont think so.

Gaurav, I think this is a very frivolous article that you wrote perhaps more thinking out aloud rather than saying what you really believe in. But then again, its a good idea to start a debate around this issue.

I agree with Sorav Bansal- "But why will anybody do any good deeds if he/she were to follow this philosophy? If everything is random anyways, why not just be mean and greedy." This is likely what most of the people will start to believe in if our actions were not tied to consequencies or if were not taught to act responsibly since everything is so random! I am not a religious person at all but I do believe in God and the relations between good and bad. Religion and belief in Karma/consequencies are entirely separate things. Religion, unfortunately, has become more ritualist and conservative (including Hinduism, Islam and Christianity). I think there is a major reform needed but religion as such may in fact be a good thing to have, after all.

I don't think life is just a bunch of unrelated things that happen. It definitely is tied inexplicitly to the things we do and the decisions we make. Although, we see good things happening to bad people and vice-versa- these I believe are unfortunate exceptions (though growing in number). That being said, I am not saying that I do good things because of fear of being born a monkey in my next life (if there is any next life). Its purely because I have strong conviction in doing the right thing.

I think what we need to do (especially as Indians) is to retain all the good things about our culture and religion and at the same time keep an open mind to alternate explanations and eventually choose a way of life that we will not be ashamed to live.

Deepika, I was not trying to be frivolous in my post. I am only trying to provide a contrary point of view which, based on evidence, could be a plausible explanation for life. As I said, I dont practice this philosophy myself. However, at the same time, it is incorrect to think that if life is truly random, then people will stop acting good. We do good deeds because of the inherent goodness inside us. Even if I knew that doing needn't have any consequence, I doubt I will be able to get myself to act evilly (sic). That is true for all of us.

In Gita, Lord Krishna says the exact same thing - "One has a right to act (karma), but no right to demand results (phal)". Doesn't that mean actions may or may not lead to results?

Based on evidence? What evidence are we talking about? As far as "However, at the same time, it is incorrect to think that if life is truly random, then people will stop acting good"- I agree with you on that, I myself admitted that I do good not because on any expectation of good reward or "phal", its only because those are the values that were taught to me growing up. I have absolutely no issue with people taking alternating or opposing view because we are all trying to find answers. My only concern was that you seemed to have touched on a very important subject and did not seem to be very serious about actually trying to find any answers. It seemed more like something you just scribbled without giving it much thought. Again, I may be wrong in inferring that from your comments. I have no intention of implying that you don’t know what you are talking about- but just felt that this topic deserves more respect and deep thought than is apparent in the comments. I respect everyone’s opinion as we are all equally entitled to say what we want to. For your question: "One has a right to act (karma), but no right to demand results (phal)". Doesn't that mean actions may or may not lead to results?- I don’t think Krishna meant that actions don’t lead to results. He meant exactly the opposite- if you want good to prevail you have to act- and fight- even it means fighting with your brothers. What he meant was one should do what is right irrespective of the consequences/results- good or bad. But our actions do lead to results- may not be the results we are looking for, but results for sure. Arjun’s participation in Kurukshetra was a very big factor in the end result- the victory of the Pandavas. So it did indeed lead to a result- that was the victory of right over wrong.

Deepika, I agree that this topic is worthy of respect and deep thought. I wrote my post after lot of thinking. It is impossible to provide logical explanation for everything that happens around you. For example, if we say that God does everything for good in the long run, how do we explain innocent victims of a terrorist attack? At the same time, there are occasions when life does play out beautifully and you look back and think that what seemed bad before actually was for the better. So, the only possible explanation seems to be that events happen in a random fashion - sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. It reminds me of a shloka from Gita which says that Work and Destiny are like two wheels of the chariot of life - the chariot wont run without both of them together. Maybe thats a better explanation of what I was trying to communicate.

Man Gauraav,

chill out dude. Relax - ever heard of Scientiology : go for it. Try it !!! even you can get Penelope. Have fun. Dont think so deep. Just do it.

Hey man, thanks for dropping by. All I know about scientology is from that South Park episode. Anyway, I will catch up with you when i am in L.A next. Say hi to Penelope bhabhi ;-)

Bhatnagar, seems you have changed your views on this topic drastically in the last couple of years. I remember in a previous conversation, you being a strong supporter of the theory that life is like a binary tree and decisions you make lead you on one path or the other. The suggestion that it might be a series of random events was made by someone else who is now crying plagiarism and suggested I read your blog as proof. At least you should have acknowledged that person for the idea in case you remember who it is ;-)

Dude Ryan, what I am saying here is perfectly consistent with the B-tree theory. All I am saying is that the nodes of B-tree are laid out in some random manner. You go left or right, what the next node is doesnt depend on the parent node. Got it? So acknowledging "that person" is out of question.... ;-)

Easy to believe but tough to follow :-). There HAS to be a reason to life, maybe its just not found yet...