Is Destiny fixed or flexible ?

[Guest guest]

Dear all,We usually hear people saying that once a person is born, everything is decided by the Lord which is called Destiny. > Does this include each and every possible action that we all do in our day-to-day life ??> If Destiny is determined already, how does praying God affect it ie., does this change the destiny from bad to good ? As far as practically speaking, destiny once determined should be fixed.But taking example from Bhakta Markandeya, his destiny was determined that he should be dead in a very young age, but his faith in Lord Shiva changed that.Can someone explain me this in brief please?Thanks,Murali Krishna Emani

Bollywood, fun, friendship, sports and more. You name it, we have it.

[Guest guest]

Dear Murali Krishnaji.

 

I do not know whether I can explain this satisfactorily. But anyway I will try to share what I read in Vedaantha Vijnaanam by Jnanaananda Saraswathi. It is in Malayalam and I am trying to briefly explain his explanation of destiny, free will and prayers.

 

In the whole creation, only human beings have the opportunity to practice dharma and work for liberation. We have the vishesha budhi or sense of discrimination to achieve salvation or indulge in irresponsible actions and regress into animal existence again. Human life is precious because it comes after many lives of existence in the lower life forms.

 

Animals live by instinct and they do not know how to think against their instincts. So a mosquito cannot change it's desire to drink blood into a desire to drink milk. They can only go through their life in a certain path or it is their fate to live like that in that particular life. They do not have the free will to change anything.

After so many lives (decided by our past karmaas) ruled by fate with out free will, we exhaust our paapam enough to be born as a human. As human beings, we are ruled by fate and free will.

 

Jnaanaananda Saraswathi explains three types of Karmaas. Only the results of Praarabdha karmaas we are destined to suffer or enjoy. Other two karmaas, Aagama karmaas and Sanchitha karmaas -their results can be changed by using our free will and discrimination. Aagama karmaas are the karmaas that we do now and will do in future years and we will have to deal with the results in future( in this life and next life or lives to come). By doing only good and dharmic actions, we can try to make all the Aagama karmaas positive so that the results also will be only good. Now, Sanchita karma is the karma that was done in the past, but we have not yet started experiencing the results( they are there, but not ripe enough to experience like the Praabdha karmaas). The results of this Sanchita karmaas can also be changed to some extent, by doing prayers, satsang and helping people with out expecting anything in return. This will at least lessen the results of the paapam we did ( like our saying " vettu thallakkiththarum. " ).

 

But the first one, Praabdha karmaas are the ripe karmaas we have to suffer and very seldom people are able to lessen the effect. Only the fruits of the Praabdha karma is termed as " fate " because it is already ripe to be experienced and too late to reverse and change the direction. . But Jnaanaananda Saraswathi says that

even bringing a change to this so called " destined fate " is possible if we pray sincerely and surrender to Himcompletely. Easwaran is beyond the Prabdha karmaas and kaala or time and His blessings can change anything.

 

As you pointed out, Markandeya could change the fruit of his Praarabdha karma or fate.

 

There is a very nice explanation using a nail telling us why sometimes our prayers seemingly do not bring the change we want or do not solve the problem.

 

" The length of a nail embedded in a varnished pillar and the composition of the wood are unseen, or adrishta, so far as you are concerned. The number and intensity of the pulls needed to take out the nail depend upon the number and intensity of the strokes which drove it in. Do we stop from pulling out the nail simply because we are ignorant of its length or of the number and intensity of the strokes which drove it in? Or, do we persist in pulling it out by increasing our effort? "

Also another example can be our loan to the bank. Suppose we have a loan of 2000 RS to the bank. If we make Rs 5000, after paying back the loan, we have Rs3000 left with us. What if we have a loan of Rs10000? Then after paying the loan we still owe another $5000. So we have to make that much more to pay off the loan and another Rs3000 to reach the previous financial state. It depends on your Aagama and Sanchitha loans.

 

If we do not succeed at the very first attempt in changing the fruits of our karmaas, we can conclude that in the past we have used our free-will just in the opposite direction, and that negative effect has to be nullified before we start seeing the positive effects of our prayers and good actions. If we do not succeed, we have to keep telling that there has been in the past a negative influence brought on by ourselves by exercising our free-will in the opposite direction and, therefore, we must do extra prayers and good actions to nullify and change the fruits into our favor ( actually God's favor because with prayers our free will and God' will become one) Tell ourselves that, it is possible o to overcome the fruits of the past karmaas . If we do not succeed even after continued effort , we should not be disappointed because once we surrender our free will to God's will, it eventually will become strong enough to overcome the fate. Our failure only means that our present exercise of free-will is not sufficient to counteract the result of the past exercise of it. This way of looking at fate gives us inspiration to do more and more good actions and more and more prayers. There is no room for despair.

 

Once our free will is surrendered to the all powerful God's Will how can we not succeed in facing things? We may not be able to change if the exercise of our free will is not enough to counteract the past exercises, but definitely we will be able to handle it with strength and optimism and change our Aagamam Karmaas in to good actions, so that at least in future, we will have to only experience the fruits of good actions.

My explanation of such a deep subject is definitely inadequate and clouded. I was recently reading a lot about this subject by different authors and I shared my understanding with you. Please forgive for any mistakes or unclear statements. This is just an attempt to share what I read about this. Please feel free to disagree or correct any mistakes you see.

If you can read Malaylaalam, Jnaananada Sarswathi's Vedantha Vijnjaanam is an excellent book written in simple Mlayaalam, It explains about many deep and abstract subjects in a very nice way for people like us.

Regards and prayers

Savitri

 

 

With my limited knowledge and experience I do not know whether Ianswered your question.

I would really recommend reading a book by Jnaanananda Saraswathicalled Vedantha Vijnaanam. I thouroughly enjoyed the book and he hasexplained a lot of our questions about " pitrukkal " and so many other

subjects in simple language and great style.

On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 5:02 AM, Murali Krishna <emanimurali wrote:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear all,We usually hear people saying that once a person is born, everything is decided by the Lord which is called Destiny. > Does this include each and every possible action that we all do in our day-to-day life ??

> If Destiny is determined already, how does praying God affect it ie., does this change the destiny from bad to good ? As far as practically speaking, destiny once determined should be fixed.But taking example from Bhakta Markandeya, his destiny was determined that he should be dead in a very young age, but his faith in Lord Shiva changed that.

Can someone explain me this in brief please?Thanks,Murali Krishna Emani

 

Bollywood, fun, friendship, sports and more. You name it, we have it.

[Guest guest]

Om Namo Narayanaya

 

Savitriji

 

Nice explanation.You are absolutely right.

 

A tale from the Bhagavata Purana states that when the earth was about to be engulfed by water, Markandeya prayed to Vishnu to rescue him. Vishnu appeared in the form of a child floating on a leaf, and declared to the sage that he was Time and Death. He requested the sage to enter into his mouth and save himself from the surging water. The sage entered inside the mouth of Vishnu, and saw inside Vishnu the entire cosmos, all the gods and deities. The sage came out after some time, Vishnu was still floating seated on the leaf.

 

With Prayers

Meera

 

 

--- On Thu, 5/15/08, Savitri Puram <savitriopuram wrote:

Savitri Puram <savitriopuramRe: [Guruvayur] Is Destiny fixed or flexible ?guruvayur Date: Thursday, May 15, 2008, 11:48 PM

 

 

 

Dear Murali Krishnaji.

 

I do not know whether I can explain this satisfactorily. But anyway I will try to share what I read in Vedaantha Vijnaanam by Jnanaananda Saraswathi. It is in Malayalam and I am trying to briefly explain his explanation of destiny, free will and prayers.

 

In the whole creation, only human beings have the opportunity to practice dharma and work for liberation. We have the vishesha budhi or sense of discrimination to achieve salvation or indulge in irresponsible actions and regress into animal existence again. Human life is precious because it comes after many lives of existence in the lower life forms.

 

Animals live by instinct and they do not know how to think against their instincts. So a mosquito cannot change it's desire to drink blood into a desire to drink milk. They can only go through their life in a certain path or it is their fate to live like that in that particular life. They do not have the free will to change anything.After so many lives (decided by our past karmaas) ruled by fate with out free will, we exhaust our paapam enough to be born as a human. As human beings, we are ruled by fate and free will.

 

Jnaanaananda Saraswathi explains three types of Karmaas. Only the results of Praarabdha karmaas we are destined to suffer or enjoy. Other two karmaas, Aagama karmaas and Sanchitha karmaas -their results can be changed by using our free will and discrimination. Aagama karmaas are the karmaas that we do now and will do in future years and we will have to deal with the results in future( in this life and next life or lives to come). By doing only good and dharmic actions, we can try to make all the Aagama karmaas positive so that the results also will be only good. Now, Sanchita karma is the karma that was done in the past, but we have not yet started experiencing the results( they are there, but not ripe enough to experience like the Praabdha karmaas). The results of this Sanchita karmaas can also be changed to some extent, by doing prayers, satsang and helping people with out expecting anything in return. This will at least lessen the results

of the paapam we did ( like our saying "vettu thallakkiththarum.").

 

But the first one, Praabdha karmaas are the ripe karmaas we have to suffer and very seldom people are able to lessen the effect. Only the fruits of the Praabdha karma is termed as "fate" because it is already ripe to be experienced and too late to reverse and change the direction. . But Jnaanaananda Saraswathi says thateven bringing a change to this so called "destined fate" is possible if we pray sincerely and surrender to Himcompletely. Easwaran is beyond the Prabdha karmaas and kaala or time and His blessings can change anything.

 

As you pointed out, Markandeya could change the fruit of his Praarabdha karma or fate.

 

There is a very nice explanation using a nail telling us why sometimes our prayers seemingly do not bring the change we want or do not solve the problem.

 

"The length of a nail embedded in a varnished pillar and the composition of the wood are unseen, or adrishta, so far as you are concerned. The number and intensity of the pulls needed to take out the nail depend upon the number and intensity of the strokes which drove it in. Do we stop from pulling out the nail simply because we are ignorant of its length or of the number and intensity of the strokes which drove it in? Or, do we persist in pulling it out by increasing our effort?"

Also another example can be our loan to the bank. Suppose we have a loan of 2000 RS to the bank. If we make Rs 5000, after paying back the loan, we have Rs3000 left with us. What if we have a loan of Rs10000? Then after paying the loan we still owe another $5000. So we have to make that much more to pay off the loan and another Rs3000 to reach the previous financial state. It depends on your Aagama and Sanchitha loans.

If we do not succeed at the very first attempt in changing the fruits of our karmaas, we can conclude that in the past we have used our free-will just in the opposite direction, and that negative effect has to be nullified before we start seeing the positive effects of our prayers and good actions. If we do not succeed, we have to keep telling that there has been in the past a negative influence brought on by ourselves by exercising our free-will in the opposite direction and, therefore, we must do extra prayers and good actions to nullify and change the fruits into our favor ( actually God's favor because with prayers our free will and God' will become one) Tell ourselves that, it is possible o to overcome the fruits of the past karmaas . If we do not succeed even after continued effort , we should not be disappointed because once we surrender our free will to God's will, it eventually will become strong enough to

overcome the fate. Our failure only means that our present exercise of free-will is not sufficient to counteract the result of the past exercise of it. This way of looking at fate gives us inspiration to do more and more good actions and more and more prayers. There is no room for despair.

 

Once our free will is surrendered to the all powerful God's Will how can we not succeed in facing things? We may not be able to change if the exercise of our free will is not enough to counteract the past exercises, but definitely we will be able to handle it with strength and optimism and change our Aagamam Karmaas in to good actions, so that at least in future, we will have to only experience the fruits of good actions.

My explanation of such a deep subject is definitely inadequate and clouded. I was recently reading a lot about this subject by different authors and I shared my understanding with you. Please forgive for any mistakes or unclear statements. This is just an attempt to share what I read about this. Please feel free to disagree or correct any mistakes you see.

If you can read Malaylaalam, Jnaananada Sarswathi's Vedantha Vijnjaanam is an excellent book written in simple Mlayaalam, It explains about many deep and abstract subjects in a very nice way for people like us.

Regards and prayers

Savitri

 

 

With my limited knowledge and experience I do not know whether Ianswered your question.

I would really recommend reading a book by Jnaanananda Saraswathicalled Vedantha Vijnaanam. I thouroughly enjoyed the book and he hasexplained a lot of our questions about "pitrukkal" and so many othersubjects in simple language and great style.

On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 5:02 AM, Murali Krishna <emanimurali@ > wrote:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear all,We usually hear people saying that once a person is born, everything is decided by the Lord which is called Destiny. > Does this include each and every possible action that we all do in our day-to-day life ??> If Destiny is determined already, how does praying God affect it ie., does this change the destiny from bad to good ? As far as practically speaking, destiny once determined should be fixed.But taking example from Bhakta Markandeya, his destiny was determined that he should be dead in a very young age, but his faith in Lord Shiva changed that.Can someone explain me this in brief please?Thanks,Murali Krishna Emani

 

Bollywood, fun, friendship, sports and more. You name it, we have it.

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna

 

 

The Lord is never responsible anyone's Papa or Punya.

By actions of Papa one is put into more and more

distressful conditions; while by actions of Punya or

Sukriti (pious acts) one is put in the path of

happiness. Man is the architect of his own distress or

happiness. The Lord does not want living entity to do

anything of vice or virtue. He wants everyone to go

back to Home, go back to Godhead ( to His abode) As

long as one has not awakened of his pure sense of

eternal relation with God, he is certainly bewildered

in his actions. His actions, in respect of vice and

virtue, are all performed out of a lack of pure

knowledge.

 

In B.G.(9.21-23) Lord says that those who do pious

activities they take birth on the pious planets (in

heaven ) where they enjoy godly delights but when they

have thus enjoyed vast heavenly sense pleasure and the

results of their pious activities are exhausted, they

return to this mortal planet again.

 

One is not allowed to stay there forever. One is again

sent back to this earth upon finishing the resultant

fruits of pious activities.

 

Due to ignorance we commit sinful activities and we

all are here because of our sinful activities which we

have done in our past lives. We are suffering life

after life due to these sins and we may be suffering

in the future due to our present sinful activities.

 

But all these reaction to sinful deeds can be stopped

if one is in Krishna bhakti and one who is engaged

in devotional service has no doubt will be free of all

sinful activities. Devotional service has the power to

nullify all kinds of reactions to sinful deeds.

 

 

How praying to God affect the destiny ?

 

In Bhagavat Gita the Lord says that one should

surrender unto Him giving up all other engagements.

Lord also gives His word there that He will protect us

from the reaction of all sinful activities.

 

 

Lord says in

 

Bg 9.27 - Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever

you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you

perform-do that, O son of Kunti, as an offering to Me.

Bg 9.28 - In this way you will be freed from bondage

to work and its auspicious and inauspicious results.

With your mind fixed on Me in this principle of

renunciation, you will be liberated and come to Me.

 

 

When you are in Krishna bhakti there is no need to

worry about good or bad deeds because Lord will fully

take care them. So try to chant His holy name , do

devotional service , read Bhagavat Gita and

Bhagavatam which will give you the true knowledge. If

we properly utilize the instruction of Bhagavat Gita

our whole life will be purified and ultimately will

reach to the destination where there is no distress,

miseries, fears or anxieties.

 

 

Hare Krishna

 

Padma