Destiny and free will

Direction of your choice is not from God:: The horse is the vehicle for your journey. But, using the horse, whether you are traveling to a forest to be robbed by thieves or traveling to the house of a friend in the city depends upon the direction of your free will. If you go to a forest, you are robbed. If you go the city, you are honored by your friend. The horse is one and the same for both purposes. But, the resulting directions ending in different fruits are based on your psychology developed due to your freedom of will. This freedom is given to all souls and each soul develops its own direction based on the freedom of will given by God to the souls in this world. This world is called as karma loka or world of doing actions as per the freedom of the will of a soul (svabhaavastu pravartate… Gita). The upper worlds like hell and heaven are called as bhoga lokas or places for enjoying the fruits of past deeds without any freedom of the will.

You cannot blame God for giving such free will to souls in this world because due to this free will, all souls are not spoiled. In spite of this freedom of will, there are several souls, which are benefited much. If you remove this freedom of will from this world, there is no real enjoyment of the fruits resulting from actions based on free will. This creation is not only created by God for His entertainment, but also for the entertainment of souls. Hence, the present system of actions yielding corresponding fruits (there is no freedom for you to change the fruit of a specific action) having freedom in selecting a specific action is a mixture of hot and sweet for entertainment. 


If you put finger in fire, it will burn. If you put your finger in water, it will be cool. There is no freedom for you to change the specific fruit of a specific action. But, there is full freedom for you to put your finger in fire or water. If this freedom is also absent, the souls become inert robots only. In such case, God has to enjoy the good or bad fruits of all actions. In the present system, God does not enjoy the fruit of any action done by you. God is completely free from the blame since He propagated the right knowledge of fire and water from the beginning of the creation. Therefore, release of energy from matter is by God and the direction in which the energy is used (karma) and enjoyment of its destined fruit (bhoga) goes to the soul only.


Hence, God is doer (karta) and enjoyer (bhokta) up to the first stage of release of energy from matter. The same God is entertained (bhokta) by this first step only. From the second step onwards (process of using the released energy), the soul is doer (karta) and enjoyer (bhokta) of use of energy. You cannot fix God as doer and enjoyer for both the steps. You are only responsible for your good and bad deeds for which heaven and hell are related places respectively. Hence, the use of energy (karma) and its enjoyment (bhoga) are totally related to you only.

This world is called as karma loka, which means that nothing is predetermined and you have free will in complete reality. You can change your destiny by your will and effort as said by Swami Vivekananda. Gita also says that God is not interfering in any activity or fruit of the deeds of any human being and some people think otherwise due to their ignorance (Naadatte ...). The upper worlds are called as bhoga lokas in which you are enjoying the deeds of your fruits and you will not have any freedom there. When you come back to this earth, you take birth in a specific family with certain set of conditions and your such birth is the end of bhoga loka or the last fruit enjoyed by you in the name ‘Prarabdha’.

Of course, the balance of your deeds in the form of a set of qualities (samskara or vasana) accompany you in the name ‘Sanchita’ from the upper world and influences you in the activities of your life here. Such sanchita is not the will of God, but the balance of your will only after coming from upper world. All the deeds done by you on this earth influenced by your own set of qualities (Sanchita) form the basis for the future fruits in the upper world in the name ‘Aagami’. Thus, you are determined by your own inner qualities, which are called as destiny. These qualities are in the phase of knowledge only and hence, can be rectified by the right knowledge received from a right preacher. Thus, you can change your destiny with the help of the right knowledge and hence, you have the full freedom here.

Never say that everything happens as per will of God. It is true, but, the direction of everything is as per your will only, which decides the fruit. Freedom is given to soul to decide the direction of any action. Hence, you are responsible for everything as I am not responsible for any fruit attained by you. You should not throw responsibility on the cycle of deeds (karma) also. Your past balance (Sanchita) is put in the closed cover. The reason for the present birth (Praarabdha) is exhausted after giving this birth. The fruits of present deeds to be enjoyed by you in the future (Aagaami) are entered in a list, which is also kept in another closed cover. No form of the deed (karma) is interfering with you in your present life. You are existing in full free state in this world to receive the spiritual knowledge and reform your soul without any disturbance from any external factor. This is the golden opportunity given to you to change your destiny in the state of full freedom. You are responsible for your future uplift or fall.

The concept given by Me is once again recapitulated here.

1) This earth is called as Karma loka, which means that you have full freedom to do anything and there is no interference from God anywhere unless you disturb the world-peace as per the Gita (Naadatte..., svabhaavastu…). Swami Vivekananda told that you can change your destiny here and the basis of his statement is the above concept only.

2) The upper worlds are called as Bhoga lokas since you have no freedom there except to enjoy the fruits of the deeds done here.

3) Though you have full freedom to do any work in this world, it is one side of the coin; the other side is that your psychology or mentality (vaasanaa or samskaara) decides the course of your action. This mentality is based on the rigid mental setup existing in you due to accumulation of strong feelings concentrated from several births. This means that there is no real freedom in any deed since you are fixed with a specific mental setup.

4) In the upper worlds, this mental setup is modified in its concentration of concepts (quantitatively), though its composition (qualitatively) doesn’t change. Such change is necessary for the soul to enter this world in co-operating with the world-peace. 
5) All the above four points are dynamic with respect to a soul in reference to place, time and context since the whole picture is under the preview of God, who can alter any aspect in any way for the welfare of soul keeping the goal of eternal reformation of soul by spiritual knowledge. Of course, as routine way, hell and heaven are used for temporary reformation and encouragement for the sake of management of world peace.

6) The fruits of your deeds are generally to be enjoyed by you in the upper worlds only. However, the fruits of intensive deeds attack you here itself with very fast speed, which may interfere with your normal deeds also making you feel that some divine interference is present in your deeds. Actually, there is no such interference.

7) Finally, you have to understand that God alone gives the fruits of all deeds because He is the creator of this entire creation and also of all facilities and punishments. He is not the creator of their related deeds. However, He is the dynamic energy of every deed, but, is not involved in the direction of deed, which is decided by you alone. He has electrified your house and is supplying current to your house. You can put on the switch to use the current for the enjoyment or put your finger on current and get shock. In both cases, the fruits and the dynamic energy leading to the corresponding fruits is one and the same, which is attributed to God. But, the direction of the deed resulting in a specific fruit is simply due to the doer only. Freedom of the doer lies in selecting any choice he/she likes. But, every deed is fixed with a specific fruit and you have to receive that fruit if you do that deed. You have choice to put your finger in fire or water. You put in fire, it will burn certainly. You have no choice in receiving the specific fruit once you do specific deed.


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Shri Datta Swami
(Universal Spirituality for World Peace)

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  • Radhanath Swami Maharaj's answer in a 7 minute video: https://youtu.be/dWkCnA_RTkM.

  • Less intelligent people accept the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies as all in all, they do not know that the purpose of the Vedas is to understand the Absolute Truth.

    Karma is part of material nature and have influence on material body, but can not touch transcendental soul, the observer of material activities.

    “The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by material nature.”  BG.3.27

    Anyway, the suffering in life is like seeing  a tiger or snake in a dream, but actually there is neither a tiger nor a snake.  These sufferings cannot be mitigated unless we are awakened from our dream.

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