It is difficult to understand life. People read books of scriptures, sciences, arts and philosophies to understand life but rarely succeed. Sometimes they succeed in achieving their objectives in life and they gain confidence that they have understood life. Yet they lose all the confidence as soon as they encounter defeat and find that their understanding of life was wrong.

Let us try to understand this mystery of life with a few examples. One of the most important principles accepted in all scriptures and all sciences is the principle of cause and effect or Karma which means that everyone has to reap what he has sown. Therefore, a person doing good karma must be rewarded and a person doing evil karma must be punished. Yet everyday, we find people who lead a happy and successful life even after doing many evil deeds while there are many who lead a life of pain and misery despite doing all good deeds.

It is often believed that God is all powerful and one can get what he desires by prayer and worship. Yet there are millions of believers who lead a miserable life despite praying God everyday while there are millions who lead a happy life despite ignoring and even condemning God. Every believer therefore often wonders if there is any benefit at all in payers and often doubts the existence of God itself.  People often follow a life of honesty and integrity as they believe that honesty is the best policy. Yet they can see everyday a large number of dishonest people succeeding in their life.

It is clear that life is not easy to understand. We need to understand the mystery of life with some example of real life.

The Game of Cards

The mystery of life seems to closely resemble the game of cards. There is no way one can be sure about his victory. Even when a person has just learned to play the game and he is pitted against an expert of the game, he can still defeat the expert.  

It is therefore, no surprise that most people consider cards as a game of chance where winning or losing depends purely on luck. Yet all players of cards know that card game is not only a game of luck but  also a game of intelligence an technique.

If a person pays close attention to all the matches he won or lost, he start noticing the trends and hidden knowledge in the game of cards. For example, he closely monitors the cards played by other players and understands from his calculations as which cards had been exhausted and thus he gets a good idea of the cards which may be held by other people.

Imagine that somehow you can know the cards of all your competitors by some magic. There is no doubt that you have much better chances of win.  It is for this reason that people try to peep into the cards of others which can give them fair idea of the strength of the opponents and help them device their strategy. Since everyone try to conceal their cards, an intelligent player tries to know these information from logic and reasoning.

The Art of Card Playing

In many ways the game of card is quite similar to the game of life. In order to win, you have to prove yourself smarter than others. Just imagine that somehow, each player could know the cards of others, the knowledge of knowing the cards of others would serve no purpose. So you must know the cards of others without letting them know your own cards.

However, in real life everyone try to keep their cards a secret and you have to only make a guess of what other person may have. In this venture, logic and reasons helps only a bit and there is large number of possible cards that your opponents may have and he may play his cards in millions of ways.

Therefore, you have to understand the mind of your opponents also which can predict their moves and thus decide your chances of victory. Hence good players try to learn the thoughts of others through their facial expressions and their past records. Yet when you are playing with experts, everyone is trying to do the same. Hence you have to often conceal your thoughts by giving no expression or even by giving the opposite expressions to disguise your opponents.

Thus winning a game of cards is not purely a matter of luck. It is also not pure science based on logic and reasoning but also an art as it tries to capture the mind of others through your own mind. A good card player must, therefore, has a logical and reasoning mind with strong intuition to capture the thoughts of others. It is by these skills, he can win even in adverse situation.

Winning the Game of Life

Just like is a game of cards , in real life also, even an expert can never ensure wining all games as there is always a factor of luck or randomness in getting the cards. No person can ensure his victory purely by intelligence or intuition. Every person must be, therefore, prepared to lose some games in life. Yet one must never forget to learn the lessons from his defeat.  If one learns all the lessons and he pays attention during the game, he improves his chances of winning by many folds in the game of cards as well as in his life.