Predicting the future..the science of self-fulfilling prophecies..

Quite a few of us have, at various times, been tempted to know what is in store in our futures. Maybe we will not care to admit it, but we are sorely tempted to know what is coming.

And we are not alone..people are so desparate to know what is in store for them in their futures, it has spawned a thriving industry in the so-called science of fortune-telling. Also known as divination, and astrology, it is becoming increasingly popular than ever before, what with the break-neck speed at which the world seems to be moving these days.

Now, this begs the all important question..are these so-called predictions really true? Are the celebrated examples of divination and predictions just flashes in the vast pan of astrological predictions? We are treated to this example of a wonderful temple in Tamil Nadu, where supposedly the history of your life and your future is written in "olai chuvadu" (engraved palm leaves). We are shown spiritual gurus who, supposedly, just by looking at your face, and by holding your hands near your wrist, can tell you what has happened in your life and what is coming. Sometimes it just goes beyond the realms of normal understanding for a human mind. I mean, come on, there is only so much logic you can attribute to the fact that an absolute stranger has just recited your family history.

But, with all these examples, there is the cynical mind in me that still asks the question..arent most astrological/divinations just the beginning of what must be called a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Let us take an example of an oft-heard prediction..you are bound to have success when you are &* years old. Now, it is ingrained in your mind that you are bound to be successful when you reach that age. And boy, Lady Luck and Senorita Success do smile on you at that time, and you end up believing that it is the prophecy that rang true. Or is it? Isnt it just as likely that you heard that prophecy, and you believed it to be true. And hence it found a place in your subconscious mind, where it kept driving you toward this "goal". Yes, I am saying that your hearing this prophecy actually caused you to set that as your goal. And your every day actions and reactions that followed it, were just your actions gearing you toward achieving that goal.

Like that street-smart song in Rangeela "Yaaron sun lo zara.." which chides people for believing in the fate as predicted by lines of the hand (palmistry) as opposed to their own hard work, I just wish people would quit trying to "see" what is coming, and instead, plot their own strategies and plans for the future.

The future is what we make of it, and not what is purportedly written in the fate. Afterall, fate is what we make of our lives and the lives of people around us. So instead of indulging in the inexact science of fortune-telling and then trying to gear our lives toward what some stranger predicted, let us, for a change, try to re-gear our lives to achieve what we are truly capable of.

Like Lord Krishna tells Arjuna in the epic poem Mahabharath, we are not here to question our existence and to worry about consequences of our actions. We are here to do a duty, and to do our duties to the best of our abilities. Let us not get our capabilities muddied in the predictions based on the lines drawn up in our hands and on our heads. And then, the future will be what we want it to be..