20.SING WITH SHAKESPEARE-14

20.SING WITH SHAKESPEARE-14

Fortuna, goddess of fortune, with her wheel. Wikimedia commons.

Fortune

Fortune- who does not smile at the very mention of the word!
We use the word in the sense of good luck- something good that happens to us beyond our effort or expectation, beyond even our control. The Romans had  goddess Fortuna in charge of this. She was depicted as blind or covered with a veil, to show that she is unpredictable and unsteady. She was sometimes shown with two faces. She does not stick to the same place or person for too long! She can cause both good and bad luck, and bring about a reversal in status and state of prosperity! So they used to talk of 'the wheel of fortune' showing how unsteady life is. 

Stoic philosopher Seneca described it well.[ in the play Agamemnon]

“O Fortune, who dost bestow the throne’s high boon with mocking hand, in dangerous and doubtful state thou settest the too exalted.

Never have sceptres obtained calm peace or certain tenure; care on care weighs them down, and ever do fresh storms vex their souls. ... great kingdoms sink of their own weight, and Fortune gives way ‘neath the burden of herself.

Sails swollen with favouring breezes fear blasts too strongly theirs; the tower which rears its head to the very clouds is beaten by rainy Auster. ... Whatever Fortune has raised on high, she lifts but to bring low.

Modest estate has longer life; then happy he whoe’er, content with the common lot, with safe breeze hugs the shore, and, fearing to trust his skiff to the wider sea, with unambitious oar keeps close to land.”^[

So, it was after all good not to depend on fortune, but to be content with what was one's lot!

Statue of Fortuna at Vienna.
By Huberti (Own Work) CC By-SA 4.0 Creative commons via Wikimedia Commons.

Wheel of Fortune

This was before the rise of Christianity. Public sentiment and faith in Fortuna was so strong that Christian doctrine could not shake it, but had to accommodate it. They reconciled with it as the working of the will of God!

The Greeks had their goddess Tyche as the deity of fate. But she was more associated with the city and its prosperity. It was believed that when no cause could be found for events like floods, droughts etc, these could be attributed to Tyche.

Boethius teaching his students. 
14th century painting.

Many kings and nobles have seen the reversal of Fortune in their lives. One of the more notable ones we know from Western history is Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, simply called Boethius. He was  senator and a high official in the service of the Roman king, but was sentenced to death for suspected conspiracy against the king. While in prison awaiting his execution, he composed a treatise on fortune and allied subjects which we know by the name "Consolation of Philosophy". Ranked next only to the Bible in influence in the middle ages,this is still regarded as one of the best philosophical works of all time. This reflected the view that the good and bad turns of fortune were but the workings of the will of God; they were both inevitable and providential. It would not do for one to resist them. Boethius sees only the goodness of God in this troubled world.

[Seneca too faced reversal of fortune, and he was asked to commit suicide! It seems bad luck inspires great philosophy in great minds. Our own Bhadrachala Ramadas sang many kirtans on Rama while imprisoned by the Nawab of Golkonda. But he was freed by the intervention of Rama! Seneca, Boethius and Marcus Aurelius all advocate Stoic philosophy. ]

For us Hindus, the goddess of Fortune is Lakshmi (Sri ) She brings prosperity, happiness, good luck, good looks etc. The opposite of these is dispensed by her elder sister ! Our poets have also recognised that Lakshmi is unsteady in her affections! The popular saying is that no one is on a high for 30 years, or down for that long! Popular poet Shailendra expressed it  in just a single line:

ऊपर-नीचे नीचे-ऊपर लहर चले जीवन की

Oopar neeche neeche oopar
Lehar chale jeevan ki

Up and down, down and up
So the wave of life moves on !

In popular usage, fate, fortune, chance are often used in the same sense. But close reflection will reveal the subtle differences.

Shakespeare's birth place around 1900. Wikimedia commons.

Shakespeare has many illuminating passages on the subject.

Fortune favours anyone!

If Hercules and Lichas play at dice
Which is the better man, the greater throw
May turn by fortune from the weaker hand:
So is Alcides beaten by his page;
And so may I, blind fortune leading me,
Miss that which one unworthier may attain, [The Merchant of Venice]

Here the Prince of Morocco tells Portia:

If Hercules and his servant Lichas play at dice, it is not the better man who will win, but the one who is favoured by fortune! Likewise, in his case too, fortune may help  a less worthy person to obtain what he desires!

So we profess
Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies
Of every wind that blows.

[The Winter's Tale ]

Such people wait endlessly for 'something to turn up'!

You fools of fortune 

[Timon of Athens]


But chance is blind- it makes no distinction between high and low.


The odds for high and low's alike.

[The Winter's Tale.]

Adrishtam!

In our languages, we talk of 'adrishtam' for fortune. It really means what is "not seen". In our philosophy, fortune is not due to blind chance, or whim of some deity, but the result of own good actions in previous births. The result we see here, but the cause is unseen.

Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.

[Cymbeline ]

But people who are balanced should not depend on blind chance.

A man that Fortune’s buffets and rewards

Hast ta'en with equal thanks. And blessed are those

Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,

That they are not a pipe for Fortune’s finger

To sound what stop she please. Give me that man

That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him

In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart,

[Hamlet]

Here, Hamlet is talking to Horatio.  He compliments Horatio as a man who has taken good and bad times in his stride. People who are balanced in their emotion and reason do not fall victim to fortune's play. Hamlet says such a man is dear to him.

Therefore,

Yield not thy neck 

To Fortune's yoke.

[Henry VI, part three]

For, fortune is whimsical and unsteady.

O You gods!

Why do you make us love your godly gifts,

And snatch them straight away?

[Pericles.]

So we all yearn for the good times to come back!

Fortune, good night;

Smile once more, turn thy wheel. 

[King Lear]

18. SING WITH SHAKESPEARE -12

18.SING WITH SHAKESPEARE-12

controllers of fate in Greek mythology

Fate V Free will

FREE WILL OR FATE?  The debate will never abate among our theologians , philosophers and other pundits. There are strong arguments for either side; it would be amusing to follow them, but for their inability to resolve the conflict!

The weight of orthodox opinion seems to be that fate or destiny prevails in the end, though that is no reason why a man should not exert his best towards the desired end. After all, one does not know what is fate, until after the event.

Reading and controlling fate?

Astrology and such other systems flourish on their claim to unlock the secrets of fate and outwit  or alter its course, but in the end they are not infallible, and do not work in all cases. 
Whatever may be the truth of 'the science of astrology', most of its practitioners are cheats or charlatans, or half-baked at best. Especially in India where the 'readings' are a prelude to remedies, and that is how bucks roll ! And then how do we know that what they do is not overcoming fate, but that what prevails in the end is what is ordained? The language of astrologers and soothsayers  like Nostradamus is couched in ambiguity and we can exclaim with Macbeth:

And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd,
That palter with us in a double sense,
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope.

Tiruvalluvar on the might of fate

Tiruvalluvar condenses the orthodox Indian view in ten couplets on the might of Fate or Destiny.

ஆகூழால் தோன்றும் அசைவின்மை; கைப்பொருள்
போகூழால் தோன்றும் மடி.    371

Resolution comes to a man when Destiny is about to bring good fortune.
Indolence appears when fortune is about to leave.

பேதைப் படுக்கும் இழவூழ்; அறிவகற்றும்
ஆகல்வூழ் உற்றக் கடை.        372

Evil fate makes the faculties dull; but when fate brings good fortune, she first
expands his intelligence.

நுண்ணிய நூல்பல கற்பினும் மற்றும்தன் 
உண்மை அறிவே மிகும்.    373

What does learning and all its subtleties avail in the end?
When Destiny drives, it is one's native wisdom ( or the lack of it, ordained by fate) that prevails.

நல்லவை எல்லாம் தீயவாம்; தீயவும்
நல்லவாம் செல்வம் செயற்கு.    375

When the tide of fate is against one, even good things turn evil;
and evil things turn to good when the tide is on!

பரியினும் ஆகாவாம் பாலல்ல; உய்த்துச்
சொரியினும் போகா தம.        376

What destiny denies, one cannot keep even with utmost care.
And what destiny makes yours will not go away even if you throw them away wilfully.

[ Sri Tyagaraja sang:
" Raa nidhi raadhu surasuralukaina
Po nidhi podhu bhusuralukaina"
Even for Devas and Asuras what is not destined to come will not come.
What is not destined to go will not go even for Brahmins.]

வகுத்தான் வகுத்த வகையல்லால் கோடி
தொகுத்தார்க்கும் துய்த்தல் அரிது.  377

Except as the Ordainer has ordained, even one who has amassed millions cannot enjoy his riches.

நன்றாங்கால் நல்லவாக் காண்பவர் அன்றாங்கால்
அல்லற் படுவது எவன்?                   379

They that rejoice when good fortune comes, why should they fret when they encounter evil ?

ஊழிற் பெருவலி யாவுள ? மற்றொன்று
சூழினும் தான் முந்துறும்.               380

What is there that is mightier than Destiny? Even as one plans to outwit it, it forestalls him and brings him down.

These are so direct and simple in meaning, we need not bother to have them commented upon. The inexorable nature of destiny as presided over or manipulated by the gods was the theme of the Greek Tragedies that were staged in ancient Greece as part of a religious festival, sponsored by the State!
Shakespearean tragedies do not go to the same extent but the message that we are toys in the hands of a destiny or divinity is unmistakable.

As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods.
They kill us for their sport.

(Gloucester in King Lear.)

And praised be rashness for it: let us know

Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well

When our deep plots do pall, and that should teach us

There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will—

[ Hamlet ]

There is a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough hew them how we will- no matter what we try, it is destiny that prevails!.

Our wills and fates  do so contrary run
That our devices are still overthrown;
Our thoughts are ours; our ends none of our own.

[Hamlet]

Let Hercules himself do what he may,

The cat will mew and dog will have his day.

[Hamlet ]

No matter what the mightiest of us may do, things will happen according to destiny- that can't be changed.

As the popular song in the Hitchcock movie 'The Man Who Knew Too Much'  (1956) said

Whatever will be, will be
The future is not ours to see
Que sera sera !

O God, that one might read the book of fate

[Henry IV, part two ]

 O, if this were seen,

The happiest youth, viewing his progress through,

What perils past, what crosses to ensue,

Would shut the book, and sit him down and die.

There is a history in all men’s lives

Figuring the nature of the times deceased,

The which observed, a man may prophesy,

With a near aim, of the main chance of things

As yet not come to life, which in their seeds

And weak beginnings lie intreasurèd.

Such things become the hatch and brood of time,

And by the necessary form of this,

[Henry IV, part two ]

There is a suggestion here that it is our past deeds  which shape our future, and we may prophesy such things which are yet to come!  Yet, the earlier part says that even the happiest youth would close the book if he read in it the kind of troubles seen!

What fates impose, that men must needs abide;

It boots not to resist both wind and tide.

[Henry VI, part three]

Sometimes we assert that anyone can achieve anything, that the key is with us. The American Dream is based on that idea.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars

But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

[ Cassius in Julius Caesar ]

Yet at other times, we realise that we cannot  fight the unseen forces of life, alone!

The stars above us govern our conditions.

[King Lear ]

Who can control his fate?

[Othello ]

Are these sentiments conflicting? 

Not at all. Man must try his best according to his lights, and not sit idle. But  such lights are also provided by destiny or fortune.

Men's judgments are

A parcel of their fortunes, and things outward

Do draw the inward quality after them

To suffer all alike.

[Antony And Cleopatra ]

Fortune reigns in the gifts of the world.

[As You Like It]

But overall, there is the firm hope that providence will aid the man who is right.

If angels fight,

Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right.

[Richard II ]

Is there hope against destiny?

Is the message depressing? If things happen according to fate, why should man bother to strive at all? But no one knows what is destined, until it happens! So man must try his best according to his intelligence and circumstances. Fatalism is not  true religion or philosophy.

Kanchenjunga. tourmet.com. thanks.

Tiruvalluvar says in the Kural :

தெய்வத்தான் ஆகா தெனினும் முயற்சிதன்

மெய்வருந்தக் கூலி தரும்.    619

Even though the gods may be against, hard work is bound to attract

the wages it deserves.

ஊழையும் உப்பக்கம் காண்பர்  உலைவின்றித்

தாழாது உஞற்று  பவர்.          620

Those who labour hard and not succumb  will get the better of destiny.

Throughout, we may discern that fate or providence is not a blind force but is driven by divinity. We may leave those who have no faith in God to their devices, inclination or sad choice. But for those of us who believe in a divinity above destiny, there is still hope. As the Tamil saint Jnanasambandha sang:

அவ்வினைக்கிவ்வினையாம் என்று சொல்லுமஃதறிவீர்

உய்வினை நாடாதிருப்பதும் உந்தமக்கூனமன்றே

கைவினை செய்தெம்பிரான் கழல் போற்றுதும் நாமடியோம்

செய்வினை வந்தெமைத் தீண்டப்பெறா திருநீலகண்டம்.

You all know to repeat well that you have brought on your present fate by your own past actions.

Are you not ashamed that you are not seeking a remedy?

We will serve the Lord our God with all our faculties.

So shall we worship at His feet.

Then the evil effects of past actions will not touch us.

So we order in the Name of the Lord.

So, in this fight against fate, we are safe with the Sages and Saints.

10.SING WITH SHAKESPEARE- 4

10.SING WITH SHAKESPEARE-4

Body and Soul: traditional views

Life and Death- these are the ultimate questions. Like sunlight and shadow, they are two sides of the same phenomenon. Yet western civilization considers the subject of death taboo. In India we have no such fear or prejudice. In the Upanishads, we have the story of the boy Nachiketas who encountered Death and extracted from Yama, the Lord of Death, the secret of Life! We have the story of Savitri who argued with Yama and restored her dead husband to life, which is still celebrated as an annual festival by married Hindu women! In historical times, we have the story of the Prince Siddhartha who witnessed disease, decay, old age and death and meditating on them for a solution, became the Buddha, the Enlightened. Recently, we have the instance of the boy Venkataraman , who as a robust lad of 17 was seized by sudden fear of death. Not avoiding the subject , he boldly inquired into it according to his native light, and emerged as Ramana Maharshi! [Ramana-the conqueror of marana!] This tradition shows that the secret of life is embedded in the mystery of death .

The pre-modern world held definite 'knowledge' on the subject. It was more or less the same , with variations, across cultures all over the world. Very simply, it can be stated as under: 

• Man is an infinite being - Spirit; he continues beyond bodily death.
• What comes after physical death is even higher or more important than life in the world, here and now.
• The quality of that afterlife will depend on our actions in this life, and we would be judged accordingly. Life in this world is therefore a preparation for a higher life. [Hindus have the theory of karma accounting for rebirth.]
• People may live in heaven or be consigned to hell depending on their life here. [ Hindus do not believe in permanent heaven or hell. Man's ultimate destiny is Liberation- freedom from the cycle of birth and death.]

Modern uncertainty and confusion

Since the 17th century, with the rise of science, focus has shifted almost exclusively to life in the world, and the age-old higher truths are denied. But modern science or philosophy has no definite view or consolation to offer! All our attention is turned to the physical body and its comforts,in the name of humanism, though no method yet known to science can take away its perishability.

Psychosynthesis. Charles Smith.Bastyr University

Measure for Measure

We have several passages in Shakespeare's works reflecting on the question. 

In 'Measure for Measure', Shakespeare questions life and demolishes the general belief that it is  unmixed good! Here, Claudio is condemned to death, and the Duke of Vienna, disguised as a friar, consoles him that death may not be as unreliable as life!

CLAUDIO.
The miserable have no other medicine
But only hope:
I have hope to live, and am prepar'd to die

DUKE VINCENTIO

Be absolute for death; either death or life
Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life, — 
If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art,
Servile to all the skiey influences,
That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st
Hourly afflict; mere'y, thou art death's fool;
For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,
And yet runn'st toward him still.

 Thou art not noble;
For all the accommodations that thou bear'st
Are nurs'd by baseness.

Thou art by no means valiant;
For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,
And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st
Thy death, which is no more.

Thou art not thyself:
For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains
That issue out of dust.

Happy thou art not;
For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get;
And what thou hast, forgett'st.

 Thou art not certain;
For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,

After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor;
For, like as ass whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear's thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee.

Friend hast thou none;
For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,
The mere effusion of thy proper loins,
Do curse the gout,serpigo, and the rheum,
For ending thee no sooner.

Thou has nor youth nor age,
But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,
Dreaming on both, for all thy blessed youth,
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich,
Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,
To make thy riches pleasant.

 What's yet in this
That bears the name of life? Yet in this life
Lie hid moe thousand deaths: yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even.

CLAUDIO.

I humbly thank you.
To sue to live, I find I seek to die;
And, seeking death, find life. Let it come on.

Here, the Duke is trying to argue that life is more threatening than death! Life ebbs out one day, only fools get attached to it! One may run away from death, but cannot avoid it! One is attached to life not out of nobility but base considerations. One is not brave, as one fears even the smallest thing in life! The best rest in life is sleep, but even that is disturbed. Yet, is not death itself like sleep? What are we but the food we have eaten? One is not happy, striving for all that one does not have! One cannot be certain of anything in life. Even if one is rich, it is like a donkey carrying a load, for one will have to leave everything when one goes! One has no true friends here, even one's children will consider one a burden, when one becomes old and ill! The body gets infirm, one cannot enjoy the riches. What is there in this that you call life? Life hides death, yet we fear death. Better to resolve once for all!

These arguments may not be taken as the absolute truth, valid beyond the immediate context.  They make a kind of sophistry, as the Greeks would call it, but  they do make some sense, to balance things!

Death and sleep

Shakespeare says that "the best of rest is sleep".  Sleep is indeed like each day's death! Thus in Macbeth:

the innocent sleep,

Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,

The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath,

Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,

Chief nourisher in life’s feast.

In the Indian tradition too, death is regarded as a kind of sleep. Tiruvalluvar says:

Death  is like unto sleep; and life, that is waking after that sleep.  Kural,339

Our scriptures go even a step further and say that sleep is daily pralaya- that is dissolution of the universe, for in sleep we are not aware of the world!

Hamlet : To be or not to be !

The subject of death as sleep gets further consideration in Hamlet, in this famous passage:

HAMLET: To be, or not to be--that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--
No more--and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. 

To die, to sleep--
To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin?

 Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprise of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action. 

This is one of the most significant passages in the whole of English literature. Here, Hamlet is contemplating suicide. Life is so full of troubles; it looks better to die , which looks like no more than sleep. But then, we may get bad dreams and find greater misery there! " It is an undiscovered country." May be, compared to these unknown ills, the troubles we face in life are bearable!  So, when we think deeply we become a bit of cowards, "conscience does make cowards of us all", and cannot be certain of the action. Here, Hamlet is thinking or talking for all of us.

Edwin Booth, Hamlet 1870. By Andrew Smith

CC BY-SA 2.0

 To be, or not to be- life or death! The ultimate unresolved question of modern philosophy! Modern philosophy is no more than verbal jugglery and senseless speculation. Modern systems like existentialism  are in the end  plain nihilistic jumble. They make of man a finite being, without connections, alienated even from himself. What can such a system offer to man by way of advice or guidance to face life or death?

The old philosophies were all better. They considered man as a greater being than his body, grandly connected. He was not alone, though he was not aware of his connections! It was the duty of the philosopher, and function of religion, to remind him of his connections in the cosmos and show him a path to realise this fact in his life. This was the one practical end of all religions and old philosophies, whatever may have been their verbal formulation and ceremonial and other details. Shakespeare is such a universal  spirit that he cannot miss this point or mince his words. He reiterates the old view that the soul is greater than the body and does not die. This realisation  alone makes us conquer death!

From You Tube.

Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth,

[Thrall to]these rebel pow'rs that thee array,

THRALL TO

Due to a printer’s error in the earliest edition of the Sonnets, no one knows what Shakespeare intended for the first two syllables of line 2. The guesses editors have made over the centuries include “Thrall to,” “Hemm’d by,” “Fool’d by, “Foil’d by,” and “Feeding.”[Thrall to] these rebel pow'rs that thee array,

Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,

Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?

Why so large cost, having so short a lease,

Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?

Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,

Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body’s end?

Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant’s loss,

And let that pine to aggravate thy store;

Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;

Within be fed, without be rich no more.

  So shalt thou feed on death, that feeds on men,

  And death once dead, there’s no more dying then.

We spend so much time and bestow so much care on the body even though it lasts only a short time. The body is pampered in all possible ways, while the soul starves! Yet the body is eaten by worms in the end!  Is this supposed to be the destiny of the body? Rather, pay attention to the soul. This way, we may eat up death, which eats up the body! Once the immortality of the soul is realised, where is the question of death then?

Conquest of death

Sri Ramana Maharshi

This matter is entirely sidetracked by modern authorities in any field. The established religions are unable to assert themselves. In modern times, it is Ramana Maharshi who stated this clearly: that realising one's true identity as not the body, is the way to conquer the fear of death. This can be done theologically, by believing in God, and also by realising the formless Self or Absolute.[Care: this is not mere intellectual conviction but spiritual practice.] In the second invocatory verse to The Forty Verses on Reality, he wrote:

மரணபய மிக்குள அம்மக்கள் அரணாக
மரணபவ மில்லா மகேசன் - சரணமே
சார்வர்தஞ்  சார்வொடு தாஞ் சாவுற்றார் சாவெண்ணம்
சார்வரோ சாவாதவர்.

Those who are in fear of death seek refuge at the feet of the deathless, birthless Lord Supreme. Then their egos and attachments die.[ The "I am the body" idea dies: They no more confuse the body with their real Self.] Attaining deathlessness thus, they are no more afraid of death. [ In the earlier Invocatory verse, Ramana spoke of the formless Absolute.]

We do not generally  think of Shakespeare as a religious or moral philosopher. But here he states clearly the traditional wisdom that the soul is eternal, and identification with the soul is embracing immortality!
Is this not a happy and hopeful thought, as against the mournful  sophistry of  modern philosophers and scientists?
May their tribe decline!