Cause & Effect

The cause-effect relationship is an inevitable part of life in any situation. Every happening is a consequence of something that did happen. Everything that happens in life is having a cause behind it and that happening is a cause for some future event.

Like a gun, the matter is about firing of the bullet because something or someone rather triggered it to fire.

Trigger--Firing Pin--Firing of bullet

This mechanism works in real life too,

Someone says something to you -That’s the trigger being pulled,

The thing which is said fires up emotions in your mind -Working of firing pin,

Then your reaction occurs- It is the bullet being fired.

The problem here is that the bullet doesn’t come back into the barrel if it was not supposed to be fired, we have seen bullets curving along their path in movies but that’s not real life. In real life the damage happens and you have to figure out the aftermath.

Sometimes you only see the effect of it, but not the cause and also in many situations you yourself are the cause of some future event, it is this wonderful occurrence called life in which every happening has multiple amounts of factors affecting it, some “on the stage” and some “off the stage”.

If we equate occurring of an event with a dish, there are many types of vegetables, spices and different ingredients which go into it, also the cooking time and temperature have an effect, and the end result is a perfect blend of all those ingredients cooked to a perfect time and temperature. Similarly, an event occurs and its end result is dependent on various factors. A slight overcooking or undercooking or imbalance in ingredients will result in deviation from perfect taste. Similarly, if one factor influences more than others, the result can be completely altered.

You cannot knowingly control every factor influencing the situation but you can at least control your influence upon it. And that is possibly the best we can do as a conscious and intelligent being.

So, the result depends on the influence. In many cases you are the influencer and, in many cases, you are the one being influenced. When you influence someone, it is better to influence them positively, but by that one positive thing that you did, do not expect the result to be positive, because it is not entirely in your hands. Might be the same thing being told by the cliché “कर्म करो, फल की चिंता मत करो” because one should consider different factors affecting the situation. This is told for the reason being if one has expectations for results and the actual isn’t the same, it leads to depression and reduction in confidence, but that doesn’t mean we should stop doing our bit because,

One shouldn’t need a reason to do the right thing

If this particular cause is followed then its effect will be more on the internal side than the external side. One will start feeling positive and that will be visible in his behavior, his substance of talking, his delivery, which is likely to be more affirmative, and keeping this on, a wonderful trait will be developed of being positive and also self-motivated.

One word of utmost importance regarding this subject would be “PROVOKE”. Because this is the word which is a primary cause of all the turmoil and sometimes surprise as well. 21^st century is a place where people are more provoking than incidents and it is partly if not fully because of the technological developments.

We live in a world where texting has become a major mode of communication where you only get the content of the talk and not the context of the talk. This gap of context is on the receivers end to be filled which is done by making assumptions. Even though emoticons/emojis are there to help, they only make matters worse, because everyone uses different emoticons for conveying same emotions and there is sheer mis-communication. In this situation making assumptions is what we do and that provokes you to act is a specific way.

So, everyone gets provoked and acts foolishly but there is something we can do about it. And that solution is obtained from the gun example itself. One vital part of the gun is a safety catch which prevents from accidental firings.

Now isn’t that something we should do? Before influencing or provoking someone or something we should think about what is causing us to act in this manner and what will be the effect of it on the other person. This holding back before acting or re-acting is indeed our safety catch preventing us from accidentally firing the wrong bullets(words) at the wrong time towards the wrong person.

Because when these bullets are fired…

they injure, not physically but emotionally causing much damage to relationships as well as situations.

So, be less sensitive to provocations because you are a human being and not mercury in a thermometer which has to rise by centimeters because of a mere fluctuation of a degree or two.

This world is a small place they say, well I don’t know about small but it is definitely round so the “effects” you influence now will surely be “causes” of conditions around you in future. Hence, it is advisable to acknowledge this cause-effect law and think before we act, so that we act wisely and become a positive influence.

When I talk about influence, I don’t mean to relate with the ongoing trend of social influencing and spreading ideas among the large section of socially active population but I am talking about the influence that a parent has on its child,

the influence that a child has on its parents,

the influence between life partners, business partners, friends, etc.

It’s not about the influence on “Social Media” but the “Social Circle”.

So, in this warfare of cause-effect,

Be cautious because many would be firing bullets at you, make sure you have your Kevlar on, so that you stand erect and fire the right bullets (positive words), on the right people, at the right time.

By:

Nihar H. Mehta