Is destiny fixed at the macro level and changeable at the micro level?
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Question from Vinayak Raghuvamshi Prabhu. This is actually a comment on an earlier question answer. Is destiny fixed or flexible? If it is flexible, then how? In my humble opinion, destiny is fixed at a micro level, while humans have been given the freedom to control it at a micro level.
Sorry, destiny is fixed at a macro level. It is like boarding a train that goes to Delhi. We cannot change the fact that the train is going to take us to Delhi macro level.
However, we certainly can decide whether we travel sleeping, reading a book, having a pleasant conversation with passengers, fighting etc. micro level. I was initially upset to know that at macro level my destiny is already fixed and there is not much I can do.
However, I found it heartening to hear from and read the works of great seers who teach that this destiny of ours is largely dependent on our karma and God has given us tools to break away from karmic cycles. The most powerful and relevant tool in Kaliyuga is that of Bhakti Yoga. Answer, yes, it is a good way of putting that destiny is fixed at a macro level and changeable at a micro level.
However, things are a little more complex than that. When we are using the word destiny, are we referring to what are the events that are going to happen to us or overall what our life is going to lead to? So, in general the best way to put it would be that what happens to us is destiny, how we respond to it is free will. So, what happens to us is in many ways fixed not just at the macro level but also at the micro level.
So, continuing the same train analogy, yes, I have a choice whether once I board a train to a particular place, whether I sleep or read or converse with my fellow passengers, but it is also destined whether when I get into a train the fan overhead is working or not, that is a part of destiny. Whether I have agreeable people around me or disagreeable people, that is also destiny. Whether I have carried the book with me or not, which I wanted to read, that could of course be because of our carelessness that we forget it.
But sometimes we may want to have it with us and we may not be able to keep it with us for some reason or the other. So, there could also be a role of destiny in that. So, in general there are many things at the micro level also that are controlled by destiny.
In general what happens to us is indeed controlled by destiny. And similarly even at a macro level it is not that everything is destined. So, we can by making small changes at a micro level, eventually bring about a big change at a macro level.
So, I might while conversing with a fellow passenger come up with a relationship that becomes a business partnership and that business partnership dramatically changes for the positive my financial status. So, this is a change not just at a micro level, it is a macro level. Now, we might as well say that it was destined, I was just trying to meet that person and I was just trying to become wealthy.
That may be so. But in general what we do, because this is after all an analogy, but the point which I am making is that at a micro level when we make changes, they can over a period of time lead to changes at a macro level. So, an alcoholic, a person who becomes addicted to alcohol, can we say that that person was destined to become alcoholic? No.
Actually, that suffering that was there was supposed to come. But alcoholism in and of itself was a result of individual wrong choices. So, at a micro level a person drinks, drinks once, twice, thrice, four times and then after several indulgences the person feels that I cannot live without alcohol.
And then the person is addicted. So, here we see the trajectory of the life being changed not just at a micro level but also at a macro level. Similarly, if a person consistently makes right choices, that person can also bring about a positive change in life.
So, now it is described that in the Uddhava Gita when Krishna talks about the three modes, as he does in the Bhagavad Gita in the 14th chapter, the point is that we can choose to cultivate a specific mode. The modes are in conflict as Krishna describes in 14.10, But we can choose which of these modes we want to predominate. As it is, the modes will be in conflict.
But according to our choices, the winner among the modes will be decided in many cases. So, if we place ourselves in sattvic association, it is more likely that sattva guna will succeed. So, imagine a marble that is falling through a grid of nails and those nails are such that the marble can just pass through it, squeak through it.
Now, every time the marble encounters a nail, it can either go left or it can go right. And if left to itself, sometimes it may go left, sometimes it may go right. And overall, its trajectory may end up being vertical.
But if at every encounter, if somehow the marble moves towards the right, right, right, right, right. So, actually the change at each marble collision is minor. The nails are small, the marble is small.
But if this happens, say over 500 marble nail collisions, and each time the marble chooses right, the downward trajectory of the marble will take it to a significantly different destination than what it would have otherwise. So, that way, by choosing a particular mode consistently, we can substantially change our eventual destiny in terms of where we end up in life. So, the destiny is like the pattern of nails that we get in our life.
But our free will is which direction we choose when we encounter those nails. And by making consistent free choices, consistent right choices, we can significantly and substantially change our destiny for the positive. Now, here I am using the word destiny in a different sense.
Destiny is not just what happens to us, but in terms of things that are beyond our control, what happens to us, but ultimately where we get in life. So, in all cases, if I am in a train to Delhi, I will reach Delhi. So, what happens to me is that I get to Delhi.
But if I strike an excellent business relationship, business partnership while in the train to Delhi, then what happens to me is significantly different. I don't just reach Delhi. I reach Delhi with my fortunes changed for the better.
So, essentially, rather than talking about the micro and the macro levels, that destiny is fixed at the macro level and changeable at the micro level. In general, what we can say is that what happens to us is fixed, but how we respond to it is changeable. That is changeable by our free will.
And as you rightly pointed out, Bhakti is the most empowering way to change our destiny. Because by Bhakti, we can fully tap the power of our free will. Our free will becomes fully free by Bhakti.
Because when we connect ourselves with Krishna, then by his almighty power, we become empowered to overpower the modes, which tend to force us to use our free will in particular ways. And that's how by the power of Bhakti, we can become most free to use our free will properly and thereby eventually change our destiny. Thank you.