Destiny is the divine law of will which guides one and all from the starting point of evolution to the ultimate goal, God-realisation.
There is a course of experience through which every being must pass to realise God...
In fact, there is nothing such as happiness and misery, virtue and vice, or good and bad. Only bliss exists. The experiences of happiness, misery, virtue, vice, good and bad are nothing. But they are the necessary stepping-stones on the course to higher things, which, though illusory, everyone has to pass through.
Only the Sadguru can alter, divert or destroy this course. That is, he can change the course of a person's destiny. This automatically occurs once a person comes in contact with such a Master. Unless all the experiences and sanskaras of this course are wiped out totally, there is no chance of Realisation for the disciple; and only a Perfect Master can do that.
Q. What is destiny, luck, fate, etc.?
Baba answers:
Destiny means the divine will guiding the lines of sin and virtue, resultant in suffering and happiness, experienced by the soul from the beginning of its evolution till its end in Realisation. Fate or luck is the means or process of spending the impressions the soul gathers while passing through innumerable evolutionary stages, which, in other words, is the law of karma, or the automatic forming of luck or fate in the next life, according to the sanskaras in this life. The impressions of each life build the fate of the life coming after.
As a simile, suppose every soul has to bear a burden of 700 tons, i.e. a certain amount of suffering and happiness, which every soul has to pass through from the beginning of its evolution till the end in Realisation. But as the burden of these 700 tons varies in kind and form, the impressions of lives vary too, and the fate of every new life is formed according to the impressions gathered in the past life.
Thus the soul's present experiencing of the impressions of the past life means fate. The soul has to pass through a number of lives and forms, but as the experiences of every life vary, so the fate varies. Hence, destiny is one, but fate or luck is different.
God is not kind, he is the ocean of mercy. But it is all according to law. And law is not complicated, it is simple. You sow a seed, you water it, you have a plant that grows - it is so simple. Law gives you all this from one seed, because all this was latent in the seed.
Law deals individually, and also in multitudes of the same type. Your taking birth at a certain time, your giving up the body at a certain time, is all according to law, which shapes your actions. You are not responsible.
But what about those who all die at one and the same moment, like thousands in an earthquake? Law gathers all of the similar types in one country, and ends it in one time.
When the plant grows into a big tree, it is not conscious of it, not responsible, but law shapes it, brings out of it what is there. When you were a baby, you were not conscious how you grew up. It is so natural because law does it. From childhood to old age, you feel the same yourself. Only when you look in the mirror, you know it (that you are old), and most of the time you forget you have got old.
This law so establishes itself that there is no escape. It grows into a habit which can never be shaken off. Law asserts itself as soon as you are born. The puppy does not open its eyes when it is born. It feels hungry and searches for its mother's milk.
Law's grip is eternal till you go beyond law. Then you are free.
You think binding to a Master is binding, and all life is free to do what you like. But you are bound by hunger, sleep, etc., and have the body-binding, the greatest binding. But this one binding of faith and love to the Master is sure to free you from all universal bindings.
Being good is a good binding. You must either be good or bad. Bad is like bound wrists. Good is like bound feet. Kabir writes beautifully about this: "Good keeps your hands free, so that you can even unbind your feet."
Be good. It pays. Bad makes you mad (insane). Good takes you to God. And the best way to become good is to serve others and try to make others happy. The climax of good is loving. Bad is anger, getting excited. Good is forgiving. Biting is bad, but to be bit is good. If you offer your cheek, knowing you could easily wring their neck, that is excellent.
The growth of the physical body is worked out by the operation of natural laws. Whereas the progress of the aspirant towards self-knowledge is worked out by the operation of the spiritual laws pertaining to the transformation and emancipation of consciousness.
The physical body of the child grows very gradually, and almost imperceptibly. And the same is true of the spiritual progress of the person who has once entered the Path. The child does not know how its physical body grows. The aspirant also is, in the same way, often oblivious of the law according to which he makes headway towards the destination of his spiritual progress.
Before karma is created, the individual has a sort of freedom to choose what it shall be. But after it has been accomplished, it becomes a factor which cannot be ignored, and which has either to be expended through the results which it invites, or counteracted by fresh and appropriate karma.
The pleasure and the pain experienced in the life on earth, the success or failure which attend it, the attainments and obstacles with which it is strewed, the friends and foes which make their appearance in it, are all determined by the karma of past lives.
Karmic determination is popularly designated as fate. Fate, however, is not some foreign and oppressive principle. Fate is man's own creation pursuing him from past lives. And just as it has been shaped by past karma, it can also be modified, remoulded, and even undone through karma in the present life.
If the nature of the karma in earthly life is determined by the impressions stored in the ego-mind, the impressions stored in the ego-mind are, in their turn, determined by the nature of karma in earthly life. The impressions in the ego-mind and the nature of karma are interdependent. The karma on earth plays an important part in shaping and reshaping the impressions in the ego-mind and giving it a momentum which decides the future destiny of the individual.
It is in the arena of earthly existence that creative and effective karma can take place, through the medium of the Gross body. The proper understanding and use of the law of karma enables man to become a master of his own destiny through intelligent and wise action.
Each person has become what he is through his own accumulated actions. And it is through his own actions that he can mould himself according to the pattern of his heart, or finally emancipate himself from the reign of karmic determination which governs him through life and death.
Good actions lead to good results, and bad actions lead to bad results. Law is good. This universe is based on the divine law of love, which pervades all existence.
Sai Ram
M BABA Vol 1.1
There is a course of experience through which every being must pass to realise God...
In fact, there is nothing such as happiness and misery, virtue and vice, or good and bad. Only bliss exists. The experiences of happiness, misery, virtue, vice, good and bad are nothing. But they are the necessary stepping-stones on the course to higher things, which, though illusory, everyone has to pass through.
Only the Sadguru can alter, divert or destroy this course. That is, he can change the course of a person's destiny. This automatically occurs once a person comes in contact with such a Master. Unless all the experiences and sanskaras of this course are wiped out totally, there is no chance of Realisation for the disciple; and only a Perfect Master can do that.
Q. What is destiny, luck, fate, etc.?
Baba answers:
Destiny means the divine will guiding the lines of sin and virtue, resultant in suffering and happiness, experienced by the soul from the beginning of its evolution till its end in Realisation. Fate or luck is the means or process of spending the impressions the soul gathers while passing through innumerable evolutionary stages, which, in other words, is the law of karma, or the automatic forming of luck or fate in the next life, according to the sanskaras in this life. The impressions of each life build the fate of the life coming after.
As a simile, suppose every soul has to bear a burden of 700 tons, i.e. a certain amount of suffering and happiness, which every soul has to pass through from the beginning of its evolution till the end in Realisation. But as the burden of these 700 tons varies in kind and form, the impressions of lives vary too, and the fate of every new life is formed according to the impressions gathered in the past life.
Thus the soul's present experiencing of the impressions of the past life means fate. The soul has to pass through a number of lives and forms, but as the experiences of every life vary, so the fate varies. Hence, destiny is one, but fate or luck is different.
God is not kind, he is the ocean of mercy. But it is all according to law. And law is not complicated, it is simple. You sow a seed, you water it, you have a plant that grows - it is so simple. Law gives you all this from one seed, because all this was latent in the seed.
Law deals individually, and also in multitudes of the same type. Your taking birth at a certain time, your giving up the body at a certain time, is all according to law, which shapes your actions. You are not responsible.
But what about those who all die at one and the same moment, like thousands in an earthquake? Law gathers all of the similar types in one country, and ends it in one time.
When the plant grows into a big tree, it is not conscious of it, not responsible, but law shapes it, brings out of it what is there. When you were a baby, you were not conscious how you grew up. It is so natural because law does it. From childhood to old age, you feel the same yourself. Only when you look in the mirror, you know it (that you are old), and most of the time you forget you have got old.
This law so establishes itself that there is no escape. It grows into a habit which can never be shaken off. Law asserts itself as soon as you are born. The puppy does not open its eyes when it is born. It feels hungry and searches for its mother's milk.
Law's grip is eternal till you go beyond law. Then you are free.
You think binding to a Master is binding, and all life is free to do what you like. But you are bound by hunger, sleep, etc., and have the body-binding, the greatest binding. But this one binding of faith and love to the Master is sure to free you from all universal bindings.
Being good is a good binding. You must either be good or bad. Bad is like bound wrists. Good is like bound feet. Kabir writes beautifully about this: "Good keeps your hands free, so that you can even unbind your feet."
Be good. It pays. Bad makes you mad (insane). Good takes you to God. And the best way to become good is to serve others and try to make others happy. The climax of good is loving. Bad is anger, getting excited. Good is forgiving. Biting is bad, but to be bit is good. If you offer your cheek, knowing you could easily wring their neck, that is excellent.
The growth of the physical body is worked out by the operation of natural laws. Whereas the progress of the aspirant towards self-knowledge is worked out by the operation of the spiritual laws pertaining to the transformation and emancipation of consciousness.
The physical body of the child grows very gradually, and almost imperceptibly. And the same is true of the spiritual progress of the person who has once entered the Path. The child does not know how its physical body grows. The aspirant also is, in the same way, often oblivious of the law according to which he makes headway towards the destination of his spiritual progress.
Before karma is created, the individual has a sort of freedom to choose what it shall be. But after it has been accomplished, it becomes a factor which cannot be ignored, and which has either to be expended through the results which it invites, or counteracted by fresh and appropriate karma.
The pleasure and the pain experienced in the life on earth, the success or failure which attend it, the attainments and obstacles with which it is strewed, the friends and foes which make their appearance in it, are all determined by the karma of past lives.
Karmic determination is popularly designated as fate. Fate, however, is not some foreign and oppressive principle. Fate is man's own creation pursuing him from past lives. And just as it has been shaped by past karma, it can also be modified, remoulded, and even undone through karma in the present life.
If the nature of the karma in earthly life is determined by the impressions stored in the ego-mind, the impressions stored in the ego-mind are, in their turn, determined by the nature of karma in earthly life. The impressions in the ego-mind and the nature of karma are interdependent. The karma on earth plays an important part in shaping and reshaping the impressions in the ego-mind and giving it a momentum which decides the future destiny of the individual.
It is in the arena of earthly existence that creative and effective karma can take place, through the medium of the Gross body. The proper understanding and use of the law of karma enables man to become a master of his own destiny through intelligent and wise action.
Each person has become what he is through his own accumulated actions. And it is through his own actions that he can mould himself according to the pattern of his heart, or finally emancipate himself from the reign of karmic determination which governs him through life and death.
Good actions lead to good results, and bad actions lead to bad results. Law is good. This universe is based on the divine law of love, which pervades all existence.
Sai Ram
M BABA Vol 1.1
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