Someone following my articles for long, came with loaded questions about the laws of causation driving the living world: “Sir, so far as I have understood from Indian scriptures is that it is through God’s will that the manifest world with all its diversity and enormity has come into place. It is again divine power that holds the key to our dynamic existence with all our functionalities going on. So long as divine power is available to us, we are alive. The moment it becomes unavailable, one becomes dead. Here again, God decides our destiny - rewarding for good deeds and painful for all undesirable acts. Truth remains that it is divine power that drives all actions on our part, but our ahamkara makes us believe that we make choices and are doers. Yet you confidently keep writing that we can make conscientious choice to turn life into a beautiful experience through self-efforts. Would it not mean questioning scriptural authority?”
Well, it is usual human tendency to look at all happenings even at the invisible higher dimensions of the universe, the way it works for human beings. That tempts them to believe that God (Creative Matrix) would act human like, who willed, and the manifest world came into being. Exposure to Advaita Vedanta as explained by Shankaracharya, the summum bonum of Indian philosophy, however, suggests that the Primal-Source wherefrom creation began is formless and attribute-less. Kashmir Shaivism further elaborates that it is in nature of the Creative Matrix to expand and manifest into the world of names and forms, and it happens spontaneously. In the process a well-orchestrated system came into place, which works in self-automated mode. And that system works on different dimensions of existence and species varied ways. Much before the theory of relativity got discovered, there is a story in Mahabharata, which suggests that time scale operative at different dimensions of the Universe is relative.
All species other than human beings are bound by nature driven design parameters underlying their existence. They instinctively carry on their cyclic functions. The trees, plants, and the animal world begin and end up the way they are born. They can’t evolve further to go beyond their sensory limitations, as they do not have a choice. Human beings, on the contrary, enjoy exclusive privilege to guide their actions by choice and discrimination. But whenever choice option is there, the probability of its use and misuse becomes equal. And there is nothing like a free lunch in this world. You are to own up the responsibility of the choices made and bear with the consequences thereto. The quality and content of the choices made, and the actions thereto will decide the quality of life, good or bad, you become due for. This is the premise on which law of causation (destiny) stands. We, thus, become subject to a cause-effect chain. And it acts in self-automated mode. No assumed extraneous authority sits on judgment. The quality and intent of our work gets imprinted in mind. It not simply affects us in immediate terms, but its impressions get carried over to the next life in the form of thought-seeds parked in our memory. As and when these memory imprints get a congenial ground, they come into play. They, thus, keep guiding our life pattern unless otherwise consciously amended.
Here again, if there is choice option in hand, it also enjoins upon us with the capability to self-reflect upon our inner frame of mind, identify its inherent traits - weaknesses as well as potential. Following which, we can make necessary amend through fresh educative inputs, transcend our mental and emotional limitations, expand our vision, and evolve. Also, hone indwelling potential to come out with one’s best. We, thus, could make a conscientious choice to redefine our course of destiny.
A befitting example is the concept underlying Lord Jagannath. He is shown without arms. The belief is that Lord lent his hands to human beings, for them to perform and accordingly, enjoy the fruits of actions, good or bad. Through good deeds you prepare the ground for a better tomorrow. You could also expand your reach beyond the known limits and improve your striking power to improve the quality of life. Following this spirit only, science and technology have been evolving. Not simply that, you could raise even your level of consciousness (awareness) and evolve to return back and be one with the divine. Otherwise, you will remain stuck to the labyrinth (chakravyuha) of Maya (illusionary living world).
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