Article written by S Nagarajan

Research article No.1467; Dated 8th December 2014.

Fate and Free will – Part VII
Santhanam Nagarajan

Bhartruhari – the famous king turned saint has sung categorically thus
(in his famous Niti Sathakam meaning 100 verses on morals):

“Whether dive in the ocean or ascend the Samairoo hills, get victory over the enemy in the field of battle, engage in husbandry, trade or service, soar high in heaven like birds, what is not destined would never happen and whatever happen cannot be undone.”

To illustrate his point, he has given an example also in another verse:
“A serpent, not experiencing to live long and being confined in a basket, was in great bodily trouble and out of hunger all his organs had become loose. A mouse, having made a hole in the said basket, fell into the mouth of that serpent, who, being satisfied with its flesh, escaped through that hole. Now, you may observe that in prosperity and adversity, God is the cause of causes.”

But at the same time, like Thiruvalluvar, the Tamil poet, Bartruhari also says:
“Laziness is a great enemy of mankind. There is no kinsman better than one’s own efforts, from the performance of which all troubles are removed.”

Hence, even fate is all powerful; one has to make his best efforts at all times.
Similar views are expressed in ‘The Bustan of Sadi’.

We can read some of the stories:
A poor man dropped a dinar in the road. He searched much, but at last, despairing, abandoned the attempt.
Someone came along and found the coin by chance.

Good and ill fortunes are predestined. Our daily portion depends not upon our strength and efforts, for those who are strongest and strive the most stands often in the direst need.

One more story:

A darwesh remarked to his wife, who was of ill-favored countenance: “Since Fate has made thee ugly, do not encrust thy face with cosmetic.”

Who can attain good fortune by force? Who, with collyrium, can make the blind to see?

Not one among the philosophers of Greece or Rome could produce honey from the thorn.

Wild beasts cannot become men; education is wasted upon them.

A mirror can be freed from stain, but it cannot be made from a stone.

Roses do not blossom on the branches of the willow; hot baths never yet made an Ethiop while.

Since one cannot escape the arrows of Fate, resignation is the only shield.

The wisdom of east strongly favours Fate. But at the same time it advise us to work

(Note: Niti Sathakam: three verses -English translation by: Mr Sohan Lal
The Bustan of Sadi: two stories – English translation by Mr A. Hart Edwards)
We will analyze further.

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Mother of Aurobindo Ashram’s View on Fate
Fate and Free will – Part VIII
Santhanam Nagarajan

The Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram has clearly defined destiny.

Who is Mother? Originally named Mirra Alfassa, the Mother was born in Paris on 21st February 1878. Between 11 and 13 a series of psychic and spiritual experiences revealed to her not only the existence of God but man’s possibility of uniting with Him, of realizing Him integrally in consciousness and action, of manifesting Him upon earth in a life divine.

At the age of thirty-six the Mother journeyed to Pondicherry, India, to meet Sri Aurobindo. She saw him on 29th March 1914 and at once recognized him as the one who for many years had inwardly been guiding her spiritual development. She went back to Paris and returned to Pondicherry on 24th April 1920 to resume her collaboration with Sri Aurobindo, and remained there for the rest of her life.

She worked for 50 years in Aurobindo Ashram and left her body on 17th November 1973 at the age of ninety five. In her spiritual charged life she had touched all spiritual subjects and advised the ardent seekers of Truth about all spiritual matters. She explains the destiny as follows:
“I shall give you a simple example – but it may occur in any state of consciousness.

A stone falls. If it fulfills its destiny, it will fall to the ground, won’t it? But you are there and you have a vital or mental will – one or the other – and you catch the stone in your hand. You have changed the destiny of the stone. A leaf falls to the ground if it follows its normal destiny. You have a vital will; you take the leaf in your hand. You have changed the destiny of the leaf. This happens millions of times in the universe and nobody notices it because it is so common.

But imagine that you have a very high range of consciousness. If into the determinism down here you can bring by aspiration, an urge, a prayer, a higher consciousness, if you can take hold of your higher consciousness, so to say, and bring it into the material destiny. Everything would immediately be changed. But because you do not see or understand what is happening, you say that it is chance or a miracle.

Not every destiny is active in a material destiny, and if you want to change this material destiny, you must be able to bring down another one from above. In this way, something new will enter into it – these “descents” of the higher consciousness take place all the time, but because we do not understand them, this ‘something new’ that comes is turned by ordinary people into a miracle.”

Bringing down the Supramental force and consciousness into the physical and material world, everything will be changed in an absolutely unexpected way.

Thus material destiny could be changed and you have to work hard to bring down another one from above.

Great sages and saints agree that by Divine Grace the destiny can be changed, altered, modified, eliminated.

Fate and Freewill series is written by S Nagarajan. To be continued…………..

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