Tags
Acharya Sadananda, Chinmaya Mission Washington Regional Center, Destiny, Free Will, Prarabdha, Purushartha, Vedanta Topics - Short Writings
Namaskaar. Free Will V/s Destiny. From times immemorial this question has been asked to every teacher. It is the most commonly debated topic. If I am ‘destined’ to become something, what is the use of my ‘efforts’ in trying otherwise? Can I change my destiny? These and many collateral queries have been answered by Acharya Dr Sadananda in this article/paper he wrote a few months back.
A couple of profound statements that have been quoted by him in this article:
1. “what we have is praarabdha or destiny and what we do with what we have is purushaartha, or freewill. Future praarabdha is past praarabdha modified by the results of present action. Thus while we are prisoners of our past, we are also masters of our future too.”
2. “being born in a particular environment is also due to result of our own action in the past and to be born in a better environment in future one has to work for it.”
Dr. Sadananda, a retired scientist by profession (US Naval Research Lab), is a disciple of Swami Chinmayananda, and one of the founding members of Chinmaya Mission Washington Regional Center. He writes on, teaches, lectures on and practices Advaita Vedanta from his home base at Fairfax, VA, USA