Fate & Freewill : as explained by Swami Chinmayanand jee

Courtesy  Times of India Delhi 8^th May 2015 :

Speaking Tree :

What you meet in life is destiny! How you meet it is free will. Our shastras compare the omnipotent power of God to rain. The rain is common and equal in its blessings to all. Different seeds, nourished by the rain, grow, each to its individual stature, with different qualities.

Within us, the tendencies of our mind, called vasanas, are the seeds. They come about, exist, burst into expression, all according to a law. Thought by thought, new channels can be created -– flowering seeds sown, weeds plucked out, and in time, the jungle in our mind can be rendered into a fragrant garden.

A river, now wasting its waters, eroding the land, flowing as it will, can be tamed, its waters saved for productive use, and through newly opened channels we can make it water arid lands around into smiling cultivation. By self-effort everything is possible...

Life has two movements – forward and lateral, like a car on the road. The petrol will push the vehicle merely forward. The lateral movements are controlled by the driver. This forward dash in space is called destiny and the lateral movement is self-effort. If the driver is drunk, the forward movement of the car will dash it into gutters on the wayside, a tragic crash. But if the driver is intelligent, careful at every yard of the vehicle’s movement, he can take us to our destination safely.

We all possess one great gift – the ability to discover and develop the infinite possibilities within us. If we organise our lives in such a way as to discover the great potential within us, and if we order our behaviour so as to nurture and nourish that potential, our lives will be well spent. Our success lies in the amount of transformation we can bring about in our character and behaviour.

The question is not how many talents each one of us has, but how much of our existing talents we can explore and develop. An individual can have many talents – yet be a miserable failure in life. The successful person is one who makes practical use of at least one great talent that he possesses.

What we regularly encourage and cultivate in our minds determines our character and ultimately our destiny. An intelligent choice of thoughts can transform our character as well as our lives. Thus, the entire destiny of our life lies in our own hands. We can rebuild our future.

The law of karma, when correctly understood, is the greatest force of vitality in Indian philosophy. It makes us the architects of our own future. We are not helpless pawns in the hands of a mighty tyrant God, who, it is believed, has created us weak and tearful, to lead a life of limitation and pain. If we are weak or sorrowful, it is because of our own wilful actions. In our ignorance, in the past, we had pursued certain negative values of life and their fruits have now come up now to give us the pattern of circumstances we are living today.

Never mind. Take heart. By living rightly today the divine values of love, kindness, tolerance and mercy, we shall order a nobler pattern for our future. By careful self-management, we shall detect wrong tendencies in us, and overcome them through constant and conscious effort.

By cultivating a positive attitude, you can create your own destiny and in so doing, you can come to be the creator of your own future life. Be a God!

Chinmaya Mission will host a year-long series of events in 2015-16 across India and abroad to commemorate Swami Chinmayananda’s birth centenary on May 8.