ACTION REACTION

Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Though he meant it the realms of physical science, I am more inclined to think that this is very true in metaphysical terms too.

Many philosophies stress on the theory of Karma. Karma is the basis of all results, that is. One’s own action or attitude manifests in a way the universe reacts to it. I call it action-reaction. In the olden times the reaction used to take time. Things are much swifter these days, going well with the nanosecond times of the present.

I would like to list some cases to bring the point home:

Let me take you all back to times when India produced a Miss Universe and Miss World the same year. It is said that Miss Universe has a better edge than Miss World in the global rating. The candidates to these pageants are selected thru the Femina Miss India contest. In the last round of the same, Sushmita Sen outwitted Aishwarya to win the Miss India Crown; this facilitated her to contest Miss Universe title and relegated Aishwarya Rai to the Miss World pageant. Throughout the Miss Femina contest, which is long drawn process of grooming the girls, everyone associated with it had decided that it would be Aishwarya who would win the title. In the end it turned out to be Sushmita. How come? It was said that throughout the Miss Femina grooming process, Aishwarya held an attitude of disdain on the fellow contestants and showed cocksureness of winning the title. The universes around it did not like the attitude of Aishwarya and lo, she lost the Miss India Crown.

I had already made a post here earlier on Tiger Wood, the legendary Golfer. It is a typical case of action reaction. For quiet some time, he had been cheating his wife and had been having affairs with many girls. He had an attitude of invincibility about whatever he was doing, morally wrong though. The universe didn’t like it and, you all know, he practically lost his family.

I recall an action reaction that had occurred to me, in a positive way. Having scored close to ninety percent marks in CBSE plus two, my daughter earned to study in Stella Maris college at Chennai. We attended their interview call but due to whatever reason, did not make it to the first list. The marks were more than sufficient and she had attended the interview well but alas, she didn’t make the cut. I was with her there and was quiet shocked of the results. I stayed back to see what could be done to get admission for my daughter in this prestigious college. As I was standing on the premises the next day full of disappointment, I got a call from a friend at Kottayam thanking me for the help rendered to his niece to get her an admission to the YWCA hostel in Cochin. Ten minutes later, we were called by the admission office asking us to enrol. What a pleasant action reaction!…..

I have a close friend who had now settled at Cochin after living out side Kerala and India for long. Though they are well meaning people, my friends wife has some unexplainable traits hovering around confusion, non acceptance combined with a persecution complex. That has been bringing quiet a bit of tumultuousness to her life. However, she still has not realized the necessity of changing this attitude and later went into heavy physical distress too that came in the form of skin allergy. She is still fighting it.

A very senior person that I know for a long time, an accomplished one, both in work and professional front, recently landed in a major career mess up that had resulted in him resigning the job and getting lots of negative publicity. While I have high respects for him I have not been very comfortable with his attitude of ego and mistrust of people. The reaction of the universe could be pretty terse too. He may have to do years of mending before he gets back to normal level of living, socially and professionally.

I have been a recipient of many actions reactions that the universe had bestowed on me. It had been both positive and negative. Whenever I had dwelt on it to understand it, the learning had been very solid. With change management properties, one took the message and worked on removing the attitude or undo the actions that were done. I had several times seen positively changed results.

Let us complete this with an exercise which I will leave as a home work for the reader.

The very famous Amitabh Bachchan, who was elected as the actor of twentieth century, legend of his times, revered and liked by people, particularly Indians, all over the world is also a person who had undergone highest levels of tragedies and difficulties in his life. By the simple theory of action reaction, will you be able to decipher as to why he underwent all these tests in his life?

Yes, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction and these days the reactions are pretty instant. Cheers!