Fate and Freewill – Part III

Albert Einstein who was awarded Nobel Prize went to India during his journey to the orient. He met the famous poet Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore was awarded Nobel Prize for his monumental work Gitanjali.

Both are Nobel laureates. One was a ‘literary giant’. The other was a ‘science genius’.

An interesting conversation started regarding chance and casualty.

The discussion was recorded fully. (Please refer My Views by Einstein)

We can go through the discussion carefully.

Tagore: I was discussing with Dr Mendal today the new mathematical discoveries which tell us that in the realm of infinitesimal atoms chance have its play: the drama of existence is not absolutely predestined in character.

Einstein: The facts that make science tend towards this view do not say good-bye to casualty.

Tagore: May be not; but it appears that the idea of casualty is not in the elements, that some other force builds up with them an organized Universe.

Einstein: One tries to understand in the higher plane how the order is. The order is there, where the big elements combine and guide existence, but in the minute elements this order is not perceptible.

Tagore: Thus duality is in the depths of existence-the contradiction of free impulse and the directive will which works upon it and evolves an orderly scheme of things.

Einstein: Modern Physics would not say they are contradictory. Clouds look one from a

distance, but, if you see them near, they show themselves in disorderly drops of water.

Tagore: I find a parallel in human psychology. Our passions and desires are unruly, but our character subdues these elements into a harmonious whole. Does something similar to this happen in the physical world? Are the elements rebellions, dynamic with individual impulse? And is there a principle in the physical world which dominates them and puts them into an orderly organization?

Einstein: Even the elements are not without statistical order; elements of radium will always maintain their specific order, now and ever onward, just as they have done all along. There is then, a statistical order in the elements.

Tagore: Otherwise the drama of existence would be too desultory. It is the constant harmony of chance under determination which makes it eternally new and living.

Einstein: I believe that whatever we do or live for has its casualty; it is good however that we can not look through it.

Tagore: There is in the human affairs an element of elasticity also – some freedom within a small range, which is for the expression of our personality. It is like the musical system in India, which is not so rigidly fixed as is the western music. Our composers give a certain definite outline, as system of melody and rhythmic arrangement and within a certain limit the player can improvise upon it. He must be one with the law of that particular melody, and then he can give spontaneous expression to his musical feeling within the prescribed regulation. We praise the composer for his genius in creating a foundation along with a superstructure of melodies, but we expect from the player his own skill in the creation of variations of melodic flourish and ornamentation. In creation we follow the central law of existence but if we do not cut ourselves adrift from it, we can have sufficient freedom within the limits of our personality for the fullest self-expression.

The discussion continues.

From this discussion, we could understand there is a predetermined factor everywhere.

But there is also a freedom to play with.

Let us further analyze fate and free will in the next article.