Coincidence Or Cosmic Fate?

What is a coincidence? How and why does it happen? These are some of the questions that we often ask about co-incidences. So far nobody has been able to fathom the reasons behind them. Yet almost everyone has experienced the consequences of this phenomenon in his or her life at one stage or the other. And, surprisingly enough, co-incidences occur in the most trivial things of life.

A young aspiring actor was to appear before an interview board. It was a golden chance for him to prove his mettle. But the book for which he was to prepare his role was not available to him. He looked for the book all over, but he could not find it. Ultimately, with great disappointment, he boarded the city bus to return home. On the bus, a middle-aged man, who was carrying some books, stood by him. As the bus became overcrowded, he requested the young man to hold some books for him. But when he got down, he just forgot to take back those books.

At first, the actor didn't understand what to do. But eventually, he took out the first book and, to his great surprise, he found it to be the drama book “Tughlak”, he was so desperately looking for. The next day, when he appeared before the examining committee, there was another surprise for him. The middle-aged man whom he had met on the bus, was one of the Committee members. The young man returned to the owner and thanked him. The member of the Committee was also non-plussed.

Two European minds combined their efforts to conclude that co-incidences were nothing but “the visible traces of the untraceable principles”. A single mysterious force is working in the universe which tries to harmonize the disharmonized life. Thus it imposes its own discipline over the confusion and chaos of human life.

More recently, Arthur Koestler, a science journalist, also extensively researched the phenomena of co-incidences and explained them as “puns of destiny”.

Whether a coincidence is a “pun of destiny” or not cannot be scientifically proved. But the fact is that the entire exercise has an air of mystery about it. It is so difficult to know what exactly co-incidences are, especially when so many peculiar and important incidents do happen together and often unexpectedly. In fact, all explanations touch merely a fringe of this problem. But we cannot reasonably dismiss sudden meaningful incidences as mere co-incidences. They have a purpose to fulfill in the cosmic realm, which has to be deciphered.

So would you still say they are mere coincidences or our cosmic fate?