How can we know what can be changed and what can’t be?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So how can we know what we can change, what we can’t change? Basically, the what happens to us is destiny. How we respond to it is free will. So the things that are going to happen to us that are not in our control.
As I gave an example, if I am driving on a road, then how much traffic is going to be there in my road? That’s not in my control. What is the weather going to be along the way? That is not in my control. But how I drive is in my control.
If the weather is stormy, the road is slippery and if at that time I drive at a high speed, then the probability of my meeting an accident becomes much more. But although the road is slippery, the weather is stormy, if I am driving slowly and cautiously, I need not meet an accident. So, basically, the things that happen to us that we can understand that they are not in my control.
Things which my response is always in my control. Now, our response often determines the effect of what happens to us. What happens to us is an event.
But the impact of that event is determined by how we respond. So, for example, if I am going along the road and a snake bites me, that snake biting me is destiny. That has happened by past karma.
Now, if I become angry at that snake and I say, you snake, you dare to bite me, I will beat you. And I start chasing the snake and to find it, to stamp on it and to kill it. Even if I succeed in doing that, I am causing the poison to play a part in my body and I am killing myself.
So, at that time when a snake has bitten me, my priority should not be to get back at the snake. My priority should be to get safe.