3 Forces & 3 Peace Chants

We have seen sportsmen do this when they win, they look up to say thanks. We do the same daily or before big moments where we ask for that “extra help”. This ask frequency may increase as we hit head winds as there is a tendency to pray a lot more during such times. So somewhere across faiths, we know that to succeed, we need 2 factors

1. Human effort (just sitting around wont get things to us basis destiny)

2. Divine sanction (That extra help)

Hindu scriptures speak about this a lot. A lot of people try and blame “luck” which is something I haven’t yet understood or fully quantified. So what are the forces? There are 3…

1. The first and the obvious one is our own actions out of free will. For humans, when this is the maximum, we feel in control of many things. Animals do not have free will.
2. The 2nd is the actions by other living beings — humans or non-humans which influence our actions (through friends, relatives, strangers, government, animals and many others). Even here, we can start to convert it to choice and free will, rather than make it seem like lack of control and choice.
3. Interventions by super natural forces– acts of nature, acts of gods, unintended causes etc. This may be less than 5–10% over a lifetime (although in a year like 2020, many may disagree to that). Again in this, how we react to it brings it back to choice and free will.

So the more we believe we have free will to choose, to react and to seek, we feel better about ourself.

Interestingly, even the Hindu prayers allude to these 3 forces. All the mantras (hymns) in the Hindu religion end with uttering Om Shanti thrice. (which is basically Peace Peace Peace).

Now you know why we utter this as we want peace and protection in all 3 forces that make us who we are.