In India there is a large section of the people who are firm believers in the law of Karma and their belief is so profound that it almost borders on a kind of dangerous fatalism. The subscribers to this predominant belief propound that all our actions and drives are conclusively circumscribed by the diktats of destiny. This explains the mushrooming of astrologers' clinics all over the country, existence of so-called gurus who are believed to possess super natural powers divine powers to guide us in this mortal journey which we call life.
In our personal lives, whenever our efforts end up in failures the most natural reaction in most of us is to go into a few bouts of depressive feelings. Such feelings come in the way of our doing a rational dissection of the causes behind such failures. The most tempting thing to do in such moments to visit an astrologer or soothsayer to listen to his bizarre explanation with the help planetary positions of the knowledge of which he claims to be a master, to wear a few stones of his recommendation. All these we follow like a person possessed!
The efforts to establish of validity of such astrological treatment face further hurdle, when some highly educated and refined minds amidst us grow soft on this line of thinking. When one of my friends who is a professor held forth that the basic pattern of an individual's life is predetermined and he added further that some of us have the power of clairvoyance to foresee what is predetermined which defies all scientific explanations and our spirit of inquiry. He even illustrated his point with a dog on a long leash- it has freedom to move about as far as a long leash. I was impressed with glib talk but could not accept his point. The world has progressed too spectacularly in the realm of science and technology to accept such weird arguments. The only thought that made my mind heavy if this could be the state of mind of a professor, why are we blaming our less educated people to fall prey to this dangerous fatalism?
The other day I visited one of my close relations and after exchanging usual pleasantries we sat down to have a long chat as my visit was after a long time. To my utter surprise and discomfort I found her eyes glued on her TV set with a bearded astrologer in his all-knowing ways solemnly grinding out prescriptions for happiness and prosperity to all the callers who turned to him all their real and imaginary problems. And she appeared to me to be in a trance