GOD LOVES CHAOS

“Chaos is a name for any order that creates confusion in our minds” -George Santayana.

Man has a basic resistance & hatred for chaos. He likes it simple & systematic. Want evidence? Look around. How good a man is at creating systems that are simple, identical & replicable. The quality, dimensions & features of the paper that you are holding right now have been identically replicated under mass production by man or man made machines. Also, look around and the bricks that are used in building the room that you are sitting in are the result of the similar intention & action.

I bet you will find this intent & effort towards synchronization, system, similarity & simplicity in almost everything that is man made or thought. Take for instance our schools, where we mass-produce students of similar skills, knowledge & attitude. Or our religious institutions where we cultivate faith & belief for mass adoption. Man is seeking system & order. And anything that is not order is chaos for him.

However, God (Nature or Creator) likes it complex & chaotic. Look at the living things that God has created like the trees (producing paper), leaves, flowers, animals, birds, insects, microscopic organisms etc. And, the non-living things like rocks (god made version of bricks), mountains, seas, rivers, clouds, soil, air etc.

Ponder over it for a while & you would know that none of the things mentioned in this list have an identical pair. No two trees look similar. Even the most similar looking leaves of plant are different in some way or the other. Have you ever eaten two such apples (or any other fruit) that look & taste same? Invariably the answer would be an emphatic no”.

The human desperation to seek synchronization also reflects in the concept called time. When man invented time, he might not have imagined that he was creating his own master. We have a fixed time for everything. The omnipresent master of the human race called a clock governs all offices, schools, railways, airplanes etc. On the other hand, try giving a fixed time for rains, earthquakes or even an everyday phenomenon like sunrise & sunset, and you will be wrong each time. That is how God governs his empire. He is as enigmatic as that. “God is not punctual”.

So, why is Man like that? Is he that careful a person or he is just trying to impress the God or is it that he just cannot be anything but systematic, synchronized & simple? I think its none of these.

And, why is God like that? Is he that careless a person or he is just experimenting or he just wants to have some fun or is it that he just cannot be anything but chaotic, asynchronous & complex? I think its all of these.

God, one might believe is a very careful person but I think he is not. There are a few evidences. Have a look at the way he has made human beings. He gave us almost similar bodies with congruently designed body parts even to the microscopic level of the body cells. Each body cell is the same in all of us. However he programmed them so differently that certain cells grow to become body parts while others grow to become a deadly disease called cancer. He installed a brain in all of us but that too with most dissimilar qualities, capacities & intentions. Hence, you have the difference between the two shrewdest brains of Mr. Albert Einstein & Mr. Osama Bin Laden.

If you do not agree with the above, then you must be the one who will agree that God loves experimenting. The proof for this line of thought is the constant flux that we are living in. The only thing constant is change. One ancient Persian saying means this “…there never has been, there never will be & there never is a moment repeated in the history of time”. To my very human imagination, this could either be a scientist at work or a playing child. So, either he is experimenting & still exploring or he is just aimlessly changing things to have some fun.



Still don’t agree! Then the last reason might satisfy you. GOD LOVES CHAOS. He likes the way we remember him, seek him whenever we are in midst of a chaotic situation. (please read the first line of the passage again). He seeks your prayer, your attention. We remember God when we loose someone, when we loose something, or when we are lost. So to say that we remember God for all that is out of our jurisdiction or control. We as a breed have realized this that things do work our way if we keep in touch with the “Almighty”. Over the period of human evolution, he has realized that only chaos & complexity can prevent him from being obsolete. Now, the next time you are late, loosing, or surprised, just think that God’s at work.

Finally, to sign it off,
“If it is of your wish, good. If it is not, better. That’s God’s wish for you”.

Why Sports?

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”, said the great philosopher Plato. And, this will remain true as long as the existence. Let’s ponder on why we need sports/play. I believe there are two chief reasons for this.

1. “Sports is like a war without the killing.”

Humans are nothing but an assembly of different kinds of energies. This includes positive & negative energies. The positive energies are our enthusiasm, hope, speech, emotions, sophistication, etc. And we cannot live without them even for a moment. The negative energies are the leftovers of our evolution from being an animal to a human being. These raw energies make one behave like an animal.
War is one of the results of this animal instinct or negative energy.

When we fight, attack, defend, counter attack, escape, save, run, jump, deceive, catch, hit, throw or anything that is considered wild or an offence in the civilized world, our negative energies are at work. All this and other characteristics like these are common between animals & us. And perhaps that is the reason we have called them negative side of our energies. That is why these characteristics are uncalled for in the modern world. They are against the grain of civilization. But a channel is needed to divert or convert these negative energies to our advantage. Hence, SPORTS. This is the first reason.

Let me put across the logic behind this. Where else we find these words appearing. It’s in sports/play. Say, for example in cricket we get this terminology of ‘attack’, ‘defend’, ‘run’, ‘save’, ‘catch’, ‘throw’, ‘hit’ ‘deceive’ etc. And these words not only form the sporting terminology, but also eventually decide how superior you are. These are precisely the characteristics needed to be a winner in sports. All these comprise of sports skill set. You do not see this skill set being appreciated often in your work life, do you? In normal life, you get punished for attacking, hitting, throwing, catching or deceiving. But, you are applauded when this skill set is used in sports. You are felicitated for this. You are a WINNER.

2. “Sports do not build character. They reveal it.”

Now that we have dealt with the origin of sports, as the first reason, let us focus on the merits of sports as the second reason. The main thing that any game does is giving level playing field i.e. equality to the competitors. This is the basis of humanity. In this progressively uneven & biased ocean of world, sports remain the only tiny islands of equality.

Another thing that it does is, inspire. One Kapil Dev from a small village in Haryana, just listening to the radio commentary on cricket got inspired to be a cricketer. And not many know that the first test match that Kapil played was also the first ever international test match he saw. This is the kind of aspirational value that sports have.

Apart from this, sports are the biggest uniting factor across cadre, cast, community, & country. People have used sports talk to break the ice between strangers. They kindle the kind of passion & unity among the masses that is atypical to soldiers of a nation. Even if it is sometimes momentary, it can always spark such emotions.

And off course, sports make sure that the society is physically fit & healthy. It is a the easiest way of increasing your life’s quality & quantity.

Finally to sign it off, that pretty old & famous Indian one liner,
“Padhoge, likhoge hoge kharaab,kheloge kudoge banoge nawaab.

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