Understanding Destiny 2 – Destiny determines the scope of our free will not our free will

[Course at College of Vedic Studies, London, UK]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you very much to summarize, I spoke about destiny and its relationship with karma so I talked about how one problem which the scientific rational mind has with accepting the concept of destiny is that we see that there are immediate causes and yes we acknowledge there are immediate causes but we don’t restrict ourselves to those immediate causes so the laws of physics can explain why a billiard ball went into the hole, it’s not a complete explanation, the skill of the player is also another explanation, so like that science can explain why somebody got malaria, it’s a mosquito victim, infectious germ is there in their body, that’s true but why did the mosquito bite that person alone, it’s a correct but not complete explanation so there is an immediate cause, which if it can be addressed, it should be addressed, as I know it does, but then we acknowledge that there are further immediate causes, that is one’s own karma and when the immediate cause does not produce the, when the problem is not solved by addressing its immediate cause, then we understand that there is something more involved so the the principle of so science and spirituality are not contradictory, they are complementary there are different levels of causation and Krishna acts at the ultimate level in terms of he is a sanctioning authority so Krishna is like an umpire, he is disinterested but not uninterested he cares for us, that’s why he is present in our heart, but he is not the cause of our suffering sometimes scriptures say that it is Krishna has come as suffering, it has actually exalted Krishna consciousness in the person it’s not a philosophical reality that Krishna is causing us suffering, just like Mahaprabhu sees every river as Vrinda, as Jamuna so that’s, a devotee should be able to see Krishna everywhere and even in suffering, you see this is a opportunity to go closer to Krishna but Krishna is not the cause of our suffering, Krishna is the cure for our suffering and when we interact with each other we function based on our dharma, not their dharma, what is my duty in this situation so, when Dhritarashtra said that, if destiny is good that our dynasty will be destroyed, then Dhritarashtra said destiny is the consequence of our actions, not our actions themselves Vasudeva told Kamsa, don’t kill Devaki, if she is trying to die you will die, but he didn’t think that if Devaki is trying to die, she will let her die because he was concerned about his duty my duty is to protect my wife so, if you look at the Karma Nivadi Karste verse, you know detachment is after the action it’s from the fruits, irresponsibility is before the action, towards our action itself, so we are not we are meant to be detached, not irresponsible and detachment actually makes us more responsible, not less and what that verse is saying is by recognizing that we alone are not the cause of the result, we do our part and we leave that which is not in our control to others so doing our part means that if somebody is, if a thief has robbed a person, the king has to do his part and try to retrieve the wealth if a baby is crying, the mother has to take care but if the thief is untraceable, if the baby keeps crying, then we understand that things beyond our control, we can ascribe them to destiny, so to understand how to work within the things in our control, with the example of a tennis match sometimes we are serving, sometimes we are hitting, sometimes we have freedom initiative and sometimes we are restricted in our choices but in every situation, we do have some capacity to choose and by accepting that okay, I am in limited circumstances right now and being willing to function being skillful in functioning that we can create, we can function and grow even through those limited circumstances instead of resenting why I have a limited circumstance, why I have fallen sick why I am bedridden, focus on what can I do while I am bedridden and that capacity to free our free will from our circumstances, not let it be locked in our circumstances, let it be enhanced by Krishna consciousness our circumstances are like carpets, they are meant to be below us, not above us if we are materially conscious, then the material circumstances can seem overwhelming, but if we become Krishna conscious, we understand that actually I am a spiritual being and Krishna is the supreme spiritual reality and both of us are above this material world so it’s like a two-story building we can’t change the weather but we can rise to the higher story where there is elevation like that, by our destiny we might get into difficult circumstances we may not be able to remove the difficulties, but we can raise our consciousness up to Krishna and that itself increases the relief through that relief we can get the calmness, the clarity to find out how best to act and Krishna can remove our karmic reactions directly but how Krishna does that that is very difficult for us to understand so we can focus instead on whatever karmic reactions are coming how can Krishna help me to deal with that so Krishna is in here with us the more we take shelter of him the more we can we can find out how to, by praying to him for the strength to serve him we can be flexible in how we serve but fixed in the purpose of serving and by that combination of fixity and flexibility we can move forwards and grow in whatever situation we are destiny determines what happens to us, our free will determines how we respond and destiny in the sense of what we achieve in our life that is very much in our hands because if we connect with Krishna if we free our consciousness from our circumstances and focus on Krishna then we will ultimately attain Krishna which is the most auspicious destiny and we will also contribute during our life journey by doing whatever Krishna has, whatever talents Krishna has given us by using them constructively this is a river, goes to the ocean and waters the territory around it like that a devotee contributes constructively in this life and attains the supreme destination