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00:00Namaste Acharya Ji, my name is Sangeeta and I'm from USA.
00:08My question is regarding my mother's sudden death.
00:13She and my father, 80 years old and 86 years old, went to Kufri Simla last year for a vacation
00:22and as soon as they reached there late in the evening, my mother, she suffered some
00:28breathing problems and before she reached the hospital, she lost her life.
00:34It was all of a sudden and she had no other medical history of any diseases.
00:41What we are coping right now is this sudden death and now that the grief that I'm going
00:49through is, I want to ask the question, is her sudden death a destiny, her karma or something
00:58else?
00:59Because we read in the scriptures that there is always like a divine intervention that
01:05could have happened and saved her life and given her an oxygen cylinder or reached her to the
01:11hospital on time.
01:12So is there something called as divine destiny, divine intervention or is this just a destiny
01:18and we have to accept it?
01:19That's my question Acharya Ji.
01:20It's neither, neither divinity nor destiny are very relevant words here.
01:35You see, you look at this glass, this has many molecules, let us say there is a certain element
01:53named x here, very large number of molecules, all those molecules are similar, very similar.
02:05So, still their velocities vary from minus infinity to plus infinity.
02:20The same thing, not that nobody has, it's not that nobody is, somebody is dictating them to
02:28behave differently or that they are destined to move slower or faster.
02:39It's just randomness.
02:41So, if you will look at the velocity distribution of these molecules, you'll have to bear with
02:55a little bit of statistics, but it might help.
03:07The very ubiquitous normal distribution.
03:14They are all similar.
03:15There is no difference really between them, right?
03:27The camera will soon focus on it and you'll get a very clear view.
03:45Still, you will have certain molecules here.
03:49This is the number of molecules and this axis represents the velocity, right?
04:04Same, same, no difference at all, no difference at all.
04:08Yet, certain molecules will have a very large velocity.
04:13The axis goes right till infinity, does not stop anywhere.
04:16But we won't say till infinity, let's see till here.
04:20Certain molecules will have very large velocity, large positive velocity, moving in one particular
04:27direction.
04:28Certain molecules will have a very large negative velocity.
04:31Most molecules, because this is the number of molecules, most molecules will have a velocity
04:36around the mean, the average.
04:42And these velocities keep changing also because they operate in what can be called as popularly
04:48the Brownian motion.
04:50So, a molecule with a very large velocity strikes another molecule with a low velocity and loses its momentum.
04:56And, you know, the velocity abruptly changes.
04:59They are all the time colliding with each other.
05:03What is to be kept in mind is that they are all alike.
05:07There is no difference in them.
05:08And yet, there is a huge difference in their velocities.
05:13They are all alike.
05:14There is no difference in them.
05:16Yet, there is a huge difference in their velocities.
05:19Though most of them are going to have an average kind of velocity.
05:24Now, replace the term velocity with life span.
05:29So, these are all human beings.
05:32Most of them will have an average kind of life span.
05:37The average life span in India will be 60 to 80.
05:40Abroad, it will be 70 to 90 or something.
05:44Yeah.
05:45Some will have more than 100.
05:50And some will have 20, 25, 30 something.
05:53Some might die when they are 3 months old.
05:55They will lie somewhere here.
05:58That does not mean that somebody is destined to die young.
06:01Or somebody is destined to be a nanogenarian.
06:10Just randomness.
06:12Just randomness.
06:13I think that.
06:15So, what is divine intervention then?
06:18There is no divine intervention.
06:19There is Prakrati.
06:20Prakrati does not brook any intervention from any quarter.
06:24It just happened.
06:28If you look for a reason, there isn't any.
06:31Randomness is the reason.
06:34If I respectfully ask you a follow-up question is, why do a lot of yogis or even modern day yogis, they keep saying that we went to a certain place in the Himalayas and something was supposed to go really wrong according to our material plan.
06:54But then somebody appeared, something happened and miraculously we could catch a plane or catch a flight or we got oxygen cylinder.
07:03How does that?
07:05And that is my question.
07:06How did that not happen in my mom's case?
07:09The more appropriate question might be, why do people believe in such stuff?
07:18Anybody can say anything.
07:21If we look at the kind of things people say, the range is infinite.
07:32But as a human being with discretion, I ought to know how stuff really operates and I must know what to lend credence to.
07:47Are you getting it?
07:48Yes.
07:49So, you are saying randomness is…
07:51Yes, and it is quite possible that somebody is almost dead and he still manages to have some kind of a second wind.
08:00But that's very similar to a molecule having close to zero velocity and then it is hit by another molecule with a high velocity and it gains velocity.
08:10Again, there is no divine intervention.
08:13Just randomness and laws of statistics at work.
08:17You see, when it comes to death, we think so much of divine intervention and as if there is some conscious entity at work with a conscious plan.
08:29To simplify the matter of death, look at the matter of birth.
08:36Is there anything apart from randomness in birth?
08:41Look at the number of sperm cells that compete to fertilize the egg.
08:47One particular one succeeds.
08:52Is it special?
08:53No, it is not special.
08:55It was a random chance that this one succeeded in reaching the egg first and fertilizing it.
09:02And millions of such cells are ejaculated.
09:06They all go waste.
09:08Not that they were inferior or less qualified or something.
09:13Just chance.
09:15And since it is just chance, the wise ones have told us, do not take all this seriously.
09:22Because it is all just chance.
09:25Just chance.
09:26Why are you taking it seriously?
09:27You know, I could have taken, for example, radioactive mutation here.
09:34And there, the whole thing would have become even more vividly alive.
09:41Because then we could have talked of something called half-life.
09:46The same phenomena is observed in radioactive materials as well.
09:53The normal distribution, as I said, is ubiquitous.
09:56In everything in Prakriti, you observe this bell-shaped curve.
10:01Most of us lie here, but then there are outliers.
10:05They are here, they are here, everywhere.
10:07But the more is the extent of your deviation from the mean, the rarer you are.
10:18If you want people who are…
10:20So, her randomness is the normal, is what you are saying.
10:25Randomness is?
10:27The randomness is normal and that's how I should console myself.
10:33Is that what you are saying?
10:34No, you don't have to console.
10:36Just realize.
10:37Just realize.
10:38Just realize.
10:39That things do not move as per our plan.
10:44Sure.
10:45Sure.
10:46Yes.
10:47And things also do not move as per any divine plan.
10:52Okay.
10:53That is important to understand.
10:55Okay.
10:56You see, we think there are only two kinds of people.
11:00There are those with self-belief who say life will go as per my personal plans.
11:07And then we think that the others are the ones who surrender and say that life will go as per some divine plan.
11:21Now, both these categories are similar.
11:26Because both of them believe in a plan.
11:29First one says, my plan will work my life.
11:34The other one says, God's plan will work my life.
11:39The fact is, nobody has a plan.
11:42Life doesn't go according to your plan.
11:47And there is no divine plan to run your life.
11:50There is no plan.
11:51There is just randomness.
11:53But randomness is bewildering.
11:57It exhausts us.
11:59It confounds us.
12:01It's like a huge insult.
12:07Somebody wanted to kill us and he came and he shot and we got killed.
12:15You can tell this and say, you know, I am a victim.
12:19You can narrate this tale with some dignity.
12:22But what if some stray bullet comes and hits you and you are gone?
12:26No, there is no dignity in this death.
12:30Random death.
12:31Some random fellow fired in some direction and the bullet came and hit me and I am gone.
12:36That's human life.
12:38Because randomness is an affront to our so-called dignity.
12:43So, we don't want to acknowledge it.
12:47We want to believe somebody did it with purpose.
12:51There is nobody doing it purposefully.
12:54It is just happening.
12:56And that is what all spirituality is about.
13:00It is just happening.
13:01Nobody is doing it.
13:02It's random.
13:03Therefore, there is no doer.
13:07But we posit a plan.
13:10In positing a plan, we are positing a doer.
13:14By thinking of a plan,
13:16we are reinforcing our belief in the ego.
13:20Because if there is a plan, then there has to be a planner.
13:24And who would be the planner?
13:25The ego.
13:27So, we want to believe in the ego.
13:29So, we want to believe in the planner and therefore the plan.
13:32The fact is, there is no plan anywhere.
13:34It is just happening.
13:36And since it is just happening,
13:38Therefore, teachers like Krishna tell us,
13:42Don't take it seriously.
13:43Don't take it seriously.
13:44Don't give it too much weightage.
13:49Don't lean too much on it.
13:51Don't get too attached to it.
13:53Prakrati won't listen to your attachments.
13:57Because Prakrati has no respect for your beliefs or feelings or emotions or whatever.
14:06Why?
14:08Because your feelings etc. are not yours at all.
14:12Prakrati knows your feelings better than you do.
14:15Prakrati knows where your feelings are coming from.
14:18Where are they coming from?
14:19Prakrati itself.
14:21But you go to her and say,
14:23You know, these are my feelings.
14:24Kindly acknowledge and respect.
14:26Prakrati says, what?
14:28What you are calling as feelings is just my randomness in action.
14:32And what you are calling as your feelings,
14:34Well, you do not exist.
14:35So what do you want me to respect?
14:38There is nothing to respect.
14:40We come and we go just as waves rise and fall in the ocean.
14:47There is no rhyme or reason there.
14:51Though I fully appreciate and respect that when it comes to loved ones,
14:59we want to bring the whole episode to a closure.
15:05Right, right, right.
15:07We want to believe something happens, we must know why it happened.
15:15We die just as we come, randomly.
15:20There is nothing to it.
15:22And if we can, if we can,
15:25it's hard to swallow it, but if we can acknowledge,
15:29it would set us free.
15:31Yes, you are right.
15:32I'm on that path.
15:33And I don't want to take much of your time.
15:35But the last thing I will say is that
15:37for past one year, I have been grieving.
15:40And it is very ironic.
15:41And it is probably your blessing on me.
15:45And that tomorrow is her first death anniversary,
15:48according to the Tithi.
15:49And you took my question today.
15:51So I'm really, really grateful to you, Achareji.
15:54I wish you all the best.
15:56Always.
15:57I'm thankful.
15:58Thank you, sir.