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Video Information: 6th Myth Demolition Tour, 3.3.17, Rishikesh, Uttrakhand, India
Context:
~ What is destiny?
~ What is fate?
~ How to be free?
~ Is fate predictable?
~ How is cause & effect related to fate?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...
⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates?
Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work?
Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...
Want to work with Acharya Prashant?
Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...
➖➖➖➖➖➖
Video Information: 6th Myth Demolition Tour, 3.3.17, Rishikesh, Uttrakhand, India
Context:
~ What is destiny?
~ What is fate?
~ How to be free?
~ Is fate predictable?
~ How is cause & effect related to fate?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00 Fate, F-A-T-E, fate, right?
00:18 Well, here is this flower, it's been picked, plucked.
00:31 Its fate now is to shrivel down, lose its moisture, tenderness, and then meet the soil.
00:46 If I toss it up, its fate is to?
00:59 It's entirely predictable.
01:02 If I tell you how much force I exert in tossing it up, with what velocity does it go up, you
01:13 can accurately predict the time it will take to hit my hand again.
01:23 This is cause and effect.
01:26 This is cause and effect.
01:31 In classical parlance this is called karma and karma-karma.
01:38 The action and the result of the action or the fruit of the action.
01:44 And both go together, both are inseparable and if time is removed, both are one.
01:51 The moment of this flower leaving my hand and the moment of this flower hitting my hand
02:00 back are absolutely one.
02:04 What separates them is just time.
02:07 I am calling them one because the moment this flower leaves my hand, it is certain that
02:13 it will hit the earth or the hand or any other thing again.
02:20 Nobody can violate that certainty.
02:26 And when two events are one, when the happening of one guarantees the happening of the other,
02:34 then we better not call them separate events at all.
02:39 If two events are one in the sense that the happening of one, the occurrence of one is
02:45 a sure shot guarantee of the occurrence of the other, then we are needlessly calling
02:51 the two events as separate.
02:54 What separates them is just time.
02:57 Remove time and this is on my hand and this is again on my hand.
03:03 Is there a difference?
03:06 Is this on my hand?
03:08 And this is again on my hand.
03:10 No difference at all.
03:12 If I do it with a little more skill and you picture me with the flower on my palm on both
03:18 the occasions, you will find hardly any difference in the photographs.
03:21 If ever any difference will be found, that too will be attributable to time.
03:29 For example, if it hits my hand after a really long time, let's say one year, then my hand
03:34 could have grown a little older, but even that is time.
03:37 Are you getting?
03:40 Now this is fate as seen within the context of cause and effect.
03:51 Whatever is material shall have material consequences and no consequence can change the material
04:04 into non-material.
04:08 Whatever you do to the flower will only change its material state.
04:17 It can vaporize from one form, one shape, one color, one kind of molecular configuration,
04:23 it can change to another, but nevertheless it will always remain material.
04:30 That is the law of cause and effect.
04:34 Material changes into material and material changing into material is a certainty which
04:39 is very much predictable.
04:42 You very well know what will happen to a water molecule upon electrolysis.
04:47 You very well know what will happen when sodium and chlorine are put together.
04:52 Right?
04:53 The effect is known even before the cause.
04:58 It is predictable, it is programmable, it is called conditioning.
05:03 There is nothing of the unforeseen in it.
05:08 There is nothing unpredictable in it.
05:09 The flower goes up, the flower has to come down.
05:12 Sodium and chlorine meet each other, there has to be a certain reaction.
05:16 Are you getting it?
05:20 Hormones rise, there has to be a certain activity in the body.
05:28 Certain juices are secreted, the body will react in a certain way.
05:34 Some stimulus is applied to the brain, the brain will respond in a certain way.
05:39 All of this is material cause and effect.
05:42 There is certainty and security in it, but hardly any fun.
05:49 Hardly any fun.
05:51 Why is there no fun?
05:56 Because repetitiveness bores down everybody.
06:02 Whatever I do, this keeps coming back to me and in the same fashion and in the same time.
06:07 Come on, this is so boring.
06:09 Whenever hormones rise, the same thing happens.
06:15 Whenever age increases, the same things happen.
06:19 Whenever glucose levels in the body fall down, the same thing happens.
06:26 Whenever somebody calls me an ugly word, the same reaction comes from me and that is so
06:31 boring.
06:32 Who wants to live like that?
06:35 I very well know what will happen to me whenever I come upon a certain name.
06:40 I very well know what will happen to me whenever somebody calls my nation a bad word.
06:45 I very well know what happens to me whenever somebody appreciates my looks.
06:50 I very well know what happens to me when somebody condemns me.
06:54 And all of that is just material cause and effect driven by bodily juices.
06:58 There is nothing wrong with that except that it tires one down.
07:09 There is no delight of the new in it.
07:17 One remains caught and stuck in the same cycle.
07:20 Flower goes up, flower comes down, flower goes up, flower comes down and then one day
07:24 this body falls apart.
07:28 Having been in the same cycle of cause and effect, cause and effect, cause and effect,
07:32 the body expires.
07:37 This is fate as seen in the context of the material.
07:44 But then surprisingly, fortunately, there is another kind of fate.
07:55 That fate is freedom from boredom and that fate becomes possible only because nobody
08:05 really likes to live in a joyless state.
08:10 Nobody likes to live in a state where there is no newness, where there are only four walls
08:19 and everything within the walls is within the domain of knowledge.
08:25 Known, predictable and hence controllable.
08:30 One likes to be set a little mad.
08:34 One likes such things to happen to life which leave one wide-eyed, astounded, amazed even
08:46 if shocked.
08:49 Everyone likes those things to happen even if they leave one a little insecure, probably
08:54 even afraid.
08:57 Hence the material fate has to make way for some other fate.
09:05 That other fate is classically called as destiny or Niyati.
09:15 The destiny is freedom from boredom.
09:20 But that destiny is not predictable, not controllable, not something that remains within the cycle
09:31 of the material.
09:37 The body burns down into ashes, the body becomes soil.
09:45 That is understandable.
09:49 The body does not like strong sun.
09:53 That is also understandable.
09:55 All of that is cause and effect.
09:57 The skin is material and a little, and radiation beyond a certain limit destroys this material.
10:04 So this material avoids sun.
10:06 All of that is within the known laws of material physics.
10:11 But then certain things happen to the material which are not explainable within physical
10:24 contexts.
10:25 Even at the cost of life, one looks for freedom.
10:35 Even at the cost of reputation and security, one reaches out for love.
10:45 Even if everything is put to stake, even if it appears like madness, one still flies away
10:59 into freedom.
11:00 Now that does not look like a material characteristic.
11:06 And that which we call as material is hardly ever satisfied till it gains that non-material
11:13 freedom.
11:17 That special fate is called as destiny.
11:23 But that destiny can happen not by virtue of planning because obviously planning applies
11:29 only to that which can be controlled and planned.
11:34 I can plan for this flower to fall at a certain time.
11:39 But I cannot plan for me to fall in love with this flower.
11:43 That is impossible.
11:44 That is a result of grace.
11:47 That is also a result of prayer.
11:53 Now prayer is not the cause of grace.
11:56 It is just that grace enables prayer and prayer activates grace.
12:03 What comes first one does not know.
12:06 So let us not call that as cause and effect.
12:13 Your destiny is to meet peace.
12:19 Your destiny is to go beyond all that limits you.
12:28 Your destiny is to be liberated from the trap of the material.
12:35 Till the time you do not meet your destiny, you will be caught in the cycle of fate.
12:43 Do I repeat that?
12:46 Till the time you do not meet your destiny, you will be caught in the cycle of fate.
12:53 Within fate, there is only repetition, boredom, confinement, predictability with a false sense
13:06 of security and control.
13:08 Till the time you are not prepared to give these up, you will continue to have them and
13:17 that which is real, that which is your destiny will continue to elude you.
13:24 Mind you, the destiny that we are talking of is not something to be achieved in future.
13:34 This destiny is our very nature.
13:37 This destiny is something that was with you even before you were born.
13:47 You do not reach this destiny.
13:51 You just make yourselves available to it.
13:59 The word destination and destiny are obviously close.
14:06 It is that destination which you started off from.
14:15 It is not the destination you will end at.
14:21 It is the destination from where you launched yourself off.
14:26 It is the destination from where you set out from your home.
14:33 It is that zero, that starting point to which you have to again return.
14:42 It is that to which no returning is possible because you have only forgotten that you are
14:50 already there.
14:54 That is destiny.
14:58 Fate is varied.
15:01 Fate is cause dependent.
15:07 Fate manifests itself according to the time, space, situation, energy and the whims of
15:18 the doer.
15:22 Destiny is not varied.
15:24 Destiny is one and that destiny is dissolution.
15:27 That destiny is total liberation.
15:32 Your fate will be different from that of your neighbor, but your destinies are always the
15:36 same.
15:37 And till the time fates are different, it means you are only caught in the trap of the
15:46 different and only personalities are different.
15:55 From that which appears diverse, different, personal, divided, one moves to that which
16:13 is not at all marked by anything subjective, anything personal.
16:25 That cannot even be called as the same for everybody because even to say that it is the
16:34 same for everybody is to assert that it is something in particular.
16:43 I will say that this fan is the same for everybody who looks at it, but that destiny which we
16:52 are referring to is not even the same for everybody because it is not in time and space
16:59 like this fan.
17:00 You cannot put your finger on it.
17:03 You cannot control it like you control the fan.
17:06 You cannot define it like you define the fan.
17:10 And you cannot have a relationship with it similar to the relationship that you have
17:14 with the fan.
17:16 You can remain yourself and the fan will still work for you.
17:22 But when it comes to destiny, your destiny will not be available to you.
17:26 Your destiny will not work for you if you remain yourself.
17:31 Remaining yourself, you can switch on the fan.
17:35 Remaining yourself, you can never switch on your destiny.
17:40 So destiny is not even the same for everybody.
17:44 Destiny is when you decide that you have had enough of yourself.
17:51 Then the destination is there.
17:54 Till the time you want to frolic with yourself, flirt with everything that is offered by the
18:05 vagaries of the mind, the destiny will remain with you, keep smiling at you, but will remain
18:14 invisible to you.
18:16 Firmly with you, it will still remain outside your grasp.
18:22 Right in front of you, it would still remain invisible to you.
18:31 You can plan your fate.
18:35 You cannot plan your destiny.
18:37 Destiny is when the planner is gone.
18:46 Destiny is when the urge to seek security in planning is gone.
18:54 Destiny is when you have met your total death.
18:57 Funnily, that is also when you really start living.
19:03 That total life is your death and destiny.
19:10 If it appears paradoxical and contradictory, it is only because we are used to linear cause
19:16 and effect.
19:17 Linearity nourishes us.
19:18 Linearity assures us.
19:19 In linearity, we are the master.
19:20 We say I have tossed it up, it will come down.
19:27 See I controlled it.
19:32 In destiny, you are no more the controller.
19:36 In destiny, you do not need to control anymore.
19:42 Such is the total assurance.
19:45 A demand to control comes only from fear.
19:50 Total fearlessness is your death and destiny both.
19:57 Depends on you whether you allow it or not, depends on you whether you see it as the total
20:03 blossoming or life or not.
20:10 Whatever you will do, remaining the controller, planner and doer will always keep the material
20:22 as the material.
20:24 Will never take you to your destiny.
20:29 Because the destiny itself is your vaporization.
20:33 Then how can anything that you intend, plan and do through a self-cultivated process,
20:42 through anything that a product of man's mind ever take you to your destiny.
20:48 Be it reading a book, be it following a spiritual method, be it following a yogic process, whatever
20:56 you do as a result of your cultivated vision and thought will keep you firmly trapped within
21:04 yourself.
21:06 And there is no trap as difficult to get out of as when one is trapped within himself.
21:18 Destiny is another name for surrender.
21:20 Destiny is when you realize that your methods are ultimately your methods and your method
21:31 will never take you beyond yourself.
21:37 Even if the method appears to succeed for a while, it will push you into greater illusion
21:42 because it will increase your trust upon yourself.
22:00 You can control your fate or you can dissolve into destiny.
22:05 Most people just want to progress and rise higher and evolve by controlling and manipulating
22:13 their fate.
22:15 This is the path of effort.
22:22 Make your own life, build yourself up, have a vision and then move to accomplish the vision.
22:29 This is the path of reaching where you want to.
22:39 This is the path in which you set your goal and then do everything to reach to the goal
22:46 and then there is the other path which is not a path at all.
22:53 There you say, what foolishness it is to set my aim in the dark, shoot and then randomly
23:07 believe that I have hit the jackpot.
23:14 What's wrong with fundamentally the way I am?
23:23 What evolution do I need?
23:24 Do I really need betterment?
23:27 Do I really need to get well?
23:32 First of all, am I sick at all?
23:38 All the doctors, all the vendors who are selling me medicines are only making me believe more
23:45 deeply that my sickness is terrible.
23:49 And that is why such fancy methods are needed to cure me.
23:53 But first of all, am I really sick?
23:56 Am I in need of any treatment?
24:00 Have I really diagnosed myself well?
24:05 Or is even my diagnosis something that I've internalized from outside from influences?
24:16 In fate, you believe in a disease that does not really exist and then keep trying to rid
24:23 yourself of that illusory disease.
24:29 In destiny, you observe that disease itself carefully and the observation sublimates the
24:39 disease.
24:44 No movement is required, only realization is required.
24:49 That realization is destiny.
24:51 A lot of self-affirmed, self-controlled and then self-verified movement is fate.
25:06 Thank you.