Cause and Causality to No-cause and Acausality

An event, an end result. What constitutes an event? Who is a doer? With whom or with what lies the accountability of action? “I have done it,” “We have done it”—how are we certain of the “I” and “We”? Is there a cause that precedes an event or action? Or is an action causeless?

Let us consider this through a story (anushasana parva, Ch-1, Mahabharata)

In classical physics, every event was thought to have a cause. Newton believed it would be possible to predict the entire course of the future if we knew the position and momentum of every particle in the universe. However, quantum physics became acausal. This shift is attributed to Heisenberg’s principle of indeterminacy. We cannot know both the position and momentum of a particle precisely. Even regarding the present, Heisenberg said, “We cannot know, as a matter of principle, the present in all its details.”

So what really is the cause—a push for an action? Does an effect become a cause for another action? What moves people and their actions?

The Mahabharata mentions different explanations to account for this.

The success or failure or the result is attributed to:

1. Providence or the unseen (Adrsta)
2. Human effort (Purushartha)
3. A combination of providence & human effort
4. To the turning of time (Kala)
5. Innate disposition of a thing or person (Svabhava)

Gautami was a calm and intelligent woman. Her child was bitten and killed by a serpent. Angry with this act of the serpent, Arjunaka the hunter vowed to kill the serpent. Gautami, with immense tranquillity, told the hunter that her son would not come back if he killed the serpent. In fact, the hunter would be committing a great sin by killing another being.

The hunter, unconvinced with Gautami's response, was determined to kill the serpent. Realising the danger it was in, the serpent pleaded that it was merely carrying out the instructions of Mrityu and it was not the cause of the death. Mrityu appeared before them and clarified that he had sent the serpent under the direction of Kala. Mrityu elaborated that all beings, animate and inanimate, worked under the influence of Kala and he was merely an instrument in the hands of Kala.

At that very moment, Kala appeared in the scene of dispute and said that whatever happens to a person is because of his / her own Karma. Just as man makes anything he wishes from a lump of clay, so does he mould his own life. The child died because of its karma and Mrityu and the serpent were the means of carrying out the task. Hence, no one is to be blamed. Gautami accepted this with serenity.

The Mahabharata takes up, in several situations and contexts, the question of accountability. It is easier for us to point fingers at others, at circumstances, or sometimes even at ourselves. A greater question to ask is: what is an action? What propels an action? Who am I—the doer?

Our apparent reality convinces us that we are an amalgamation of forces, habits, conditioning, beliefs, and ingrained tendencies—either acquired in this lifetime or carried through DNA and past lives. All of this comes together as a reaction to life situations. However, a deeper quest of the self-reveals that we are not our conditioning but a greater Self—the avyakt, the psychic being—perfectly capable of a truer action: an action guided and informed by Consciousness, not subjected to moral or intellectual interpretations of the human mind.

Every action can be taken back or mapped to its origin. Each action is equally guided by an understanding that the entire existence is a network of relationships, where each element influences the others—a realisation of co-dependent arising known as Pratityasamutpada-bodh.

The etymological meaning of the Sanskrit word karana (cause) is “that which acts”.

Let's explore the agent of our action.