On Destiny vs. Freewill

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You ask, “if everything the that the body does and experiences happens in material nature – then what blame or glory is there for the soul? If everything is predetermined and I have no freewill, then I am not responsible for my actions.”

Right. If you have no freewill, you could not be held accountable for your actions. If everything that happens in the world happens only in matter, and has nothing to do with spirit – then the soul can never be blamed for anything bad it’s body does (nor praised for anything good).

However it is wrong to believe that you have no freewill and that your soul is not the origin of all the actions your body performs and everything it experiences. Very wrong.

This whole chapter [referring to Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13] is about how spirit combines with matter and what happens as a result. “Matter changes form constantly and easily. This attracts the spirit soul who wants to shape it’s world into forms that s/he finds personally enjoyable. Thus the soul becomes welded to matter, bound to it, braided into it.”

From this, and from all the rest of the information in the chapter, we learn that this material world is a combination of matter and spirit – it is a cooperation of matter and spirit. Your question is based on a wrong definition of this combined cooperative relationship: the idea that the soul is a passive observer of matter. That is not what we hear from Krsna here in the 13th chapter. What we hear, in fact, is just the opposite! That the soul is the active principle, and that matter bends and shapes itself around the soul, and the soul’s desires. The soul is an interactive participant in matter. That is what we should learn, if nothing else, from the 13th chapter.

Your question is answered at this point. I am not sure how clearly I could explain it. I am sorry about that. If its unclear perhaps you could reread it a few times, and feel free to ask for clarification.

A little bit more to say…

Karma is the marriage of freewill and destiny. The soul desires something (freewill). It exerts this will towards matter which, being inferior to the soul, must attempt to comply. However the physics of the system of matter entails cause and effect, and inter-dependence. Therefore as the soul pushes matter in one direction with its will, the psycho-physical nature of matter itself generates a ripple, and we experience that ripple as “destiny.”

Different desires push matter in different ways into different shapes, and these generate lots of different types of ripples in the material energy – all these ripples interact with one another to make destiny (and the reading of it – astrology) a very, very, very complicated thing.

Once you throw a stone into a pond, the ripple moves on its own accord. However it is the stone, not the ripple, which caused the movement on the pond. Similarly, destiny appears to be “predetermined” – moving on its own, but actually it is the will of the soul which moved the lake of the material world and caused the ripple. Once the ripple is caused it is very difficult to stop (though it can be done by cancelling it with other ripples and withdrawing from agitating the pond, etc.). The ripple has its own force, sometimes becoming like a tidal wave. And that force seems to be, and is, beyond our control. Thus it feels like “predestination.” But it is our own desires which caused us to interact with the world and disturb the surface of the lake.

I have an article on this subject which more patiently and simply describes the relationship between destiny and freewill, and their interdependence and marriage in the concept of “karma.” Here is the link, I hope you will read it and it will be clarifying for you.

http://www.vicdicara.com/prep_karma.php

- Vic DiCara

http://www.vicdicara.com

Is My Fate Written in Stone? Can I do Anything About It?

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Question: Is it that my destiny is written and fixed and I cannot shake it off? I am keen to understand the concept of free will and repaying karmic debt?

It is fixed that you have already done certain deeds in your past. That cannot be changed. It is like a child who has picked on his younger brother. The offence is already made. That much can not be changed. Now, the child must be improved. That is also a unchangable given. The parents will improve the child, but the exact means through which they will do so is not set in stone. It depends largely on how the child reacts now, in the present.

If the boy is arrogant and stubborn, saying, “yeah, I hate my brother and I will beat him up again!” then the parents will have to resort to very strict and elaborate and prolonged means of correction and punishment to correct the child. If, on the other hand, the boy is humble, meek, accepting and open, saying “I am sorry! I wish I was better. How can I be a better brother?” then the parents correction will almost not even feel like punishment at all – it will be very warm and friendly.

So how you will experience your karmic destiny all depends upon your current attitude! Astrology is meant to help open you to the fact that the things happening to you are happening to you for good reason, because they are destined to happen to you as a result of the actions have have taken in past lifetimes. This understanding is meant to make you humble, meet and accepting towards your mother and father – nature and God. With this attitude the exact subjective shape of your karma changes dramatically and instead of feeling like a prolonged punishment, your karmic destiny begins to feel like warm and loving guidance.

This is the true purpose of remedies and mantras and astrological readings.

The Zodiac, Godhead, and You

The universe is a mirror. It reflects the truth of your soul. The most active area of the universe, from our point of view on Earth, is the Zodiac, through which all the planets move and thus mark the unfolding of divine, universal time.

The zodiac is a circle. Circles have no beginning and no end. They are eternal – as are you, as is all this.

The progress of the Sun measures this circle to have 360 units, we call them “degrees.” The combined movements of the Sun and Moon divide this zodiac into 12 distinct regions, each covering 30 degrees of the circle of infinite life.

Universal acoustics create resonances and echoes forming overtones and harmonics. These further subdivide the 12 distinct zodiac regions into smaller and smaller sections called “Amshas” with their own distinct characteristics. Eventually, every half a degree in the zodiac acquires its own unique traits as a result of the subdivisions generated by these harmonics and overtones.

Understanding what these “amsha” zodiac divisions are is very important to being able to utilize astrology effectively and reliably as a systematic artful science.

Amsha is a Sanskrit word. I first came across this word 20 years ago when I was reading the famous Indian philosophical and spiritual classic: Bhagavad Gita. It is in the seventh verse of the fifteenth chapter:

ममैवांशो जीवलोके जीवभूतः सनातनः ।

मनःषष्ठानीन्द्रियाणि प्रक्रितिसथानि कर्षति ।।

mamaivāḿśo jīva-loke
jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ
manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi
prakṛti-sthāni karṣati

mama — My; eva — certainly; aḿśaḥ — fragmental particle; jīva-loke — in the world of conditional life; jīva-bhūtaḥ — the conditioned living entity; sanātanaḥ — eternal; manaḥ — with the mind; ṣaṣṭhāni — the six; indriyāṇi — senses; prakṛti — in material nature; sthāni — situated; karṣati — is struggling hard.

Krishna: “The host of souls struggling hard with the habitual conditionings of their mind and senses in the material world are in fact eternal subdivisions of my self.”

I was discussing this topic with a fellow astrologer who is a follower of the famous yogi, Yogananda. She shared with me Yogananda’s explanation of the verse, and I clarified my understanding of the same:

Yogananda-Ji comments that, “complex man requires the sensory instruments of delusion to perceive his finite existence.”

I am in complete agreement. The six senses (including the mind) are products of the delusory energy of the material world and their purpose is to give the living entity a sensation and experience that she is a being with a clear, finite beginning and end which cuts herself off from the infinite Godhead. Spiritually speaking we are women who have abandonded our family and husband and are now taking drugs to delude our mind and senses into coping with what we have done.

Yogananda-Ji continues, “Bound by these limiting and limited mediums, he feels himself isolated by God and motivated by Maya, and sustaining his separation by misuse of free choice.”

Again, I am in full agreement. We used our inherent freewill to turn from godhead and enter a deluding material world of drug-like senses and mental states which give us a feeling of limitation which we both loathe and crave simultaneously. We loathe it because it curtails our every wish. We crave it because it makes us feel independent from the “radix chart” of Godhead and thus gives us the chance to fulfill the motivation for our strange free choice which brought us here in the first place.

Now Yogananda-Ji states, “Eventually he chooses to break the ties of Prakriti and moves back through the involutionary pull to God…”

Again, we are in absolute agreement. Godhead created this delusory material world and therefore it too, deep beneath its apparent struggle and limitation, is actually full of nothing but mercy, kindness and love. This world functions on the basis of Karma which is the loving guidance of Godhead in the role of a mother gradually leading us, her children, to lose interest in our deluded intoxications and move once again inward towards our original nature.

Then Yogananda-Ji states, “The illimitable Spirit of God and the pure soul in all beings are the same in essence. Only when the jiva becomes identified with the body does it put on its apparent limitations.”

Again we completely agree, but persons reading Yogananda Ji may miss the key words: “in essence”. The soul and God are the same in essence, not the same in all respects identically. Specifically, Godhead is the cake, and we are the slices of the cake. Godhead is the ocean and we are the drops of rain from it. Godhead is the Radix, and we are the subdivisions. Godhead is the infinite zodiac circle and we are the infinit(essimal) subdivisions thereof, the “amshas.”

Consider the amshas of the Zodiac signs. Anyone must admit that by definition they are subdivisions of a sign. They are like slices of cake. You can not have a slice of a cake if the cake does not exist! A slice can not be made unless there is something to slice. And a slice always remains a partial sample of the whole cake.

The primary purpose of the amsha subdivisions of the Zodiac signs is to differentiate the various degrees within the signs – giving unique qualities and resources to every half degree or even less, and thus affecting the actual dignity of any planets occupying specific degrees within the signs. Secondarily, we calculate the amsha subdivisions as charts in their own right – based on the exact degree occupied by the ascendant and planets in the radix of the main zodiac. So, even as apparent charts unto themselves their very existence is inexorably related to the radix of the main zodiac!

Similarly even when a soul enters into the complete illusion of the material world, she never loses her inexorable relationship to Godhead.

What does an astrologer do with these subdivision charts? What they should do is use them to gain angles of vision into certain specific topics that the main zodiac radix may not directly expose to view. The caturamsha (fourth subdivision) for example gives a deeper image into the realities of the fourth house in the radix chart and the fourth house from the moon in the radix. The navamsha (ninth division) gives a line of sight to previously unseen areas pertaining to the seventh house of the chart and the seventh house from Venus, etc. etc. As such, even in their role as charts unto themselves they are finer divisions of the original whole, the Radix, the main birth chart – they are never entirely separate entities, nor are they ever able to overpower or be more prominent than the Radix.

Astrologers who claim to have “experience” to the contrary are confused astrologers. This we can know on the strength of the clear and simple logic I just presented.

The drop does not become the ocean. The slice does not become the cake. The subdivision does not become the Radix. A sign does not become the whole Zodiac. Ever. It never happens.  An astrologer is deluded to look at a subdivision chart (an amsha) and think this chart is completely separate from the Radix birth char, just as a person is deluded to look in the mirror and see something other than a subdivision of Godhead.

Some followers of Yogananda might propose that when we “take off the deluding body” we will become god. This is ignorant of the fact that our definition is to be an amsha of God. The soul can never be wholly different from God, nor can she ever be wholly identical to God. An amsha is a subdivision. A subdivision does not exist without the thing that it subdivides! Therefore the subdivision can never become completely divorced from the thing it subdivides, nor can it wholly become that which it subdivides.

If you go back to the metaphor of the soul as a woman who has divorced herself from Godhead you will remember that she is taking drugs to facilitate the idea. This is why the material world has to delude the soul with a limited and cloudy mind and senses – it is the intoxication which gives the illusion that the subdivision (soul) has become independent from and divorced from the thing which it subdivides (Godhead).

An astrologer who wants to read the subdivisional charts without the context of the Radix chart is in as much illusion as the conditioned soul who thinks herself to have no relationship with God, or who presumes to become God.

You can accept this with absolute certainty. It is impossible for the subdivision to exist without the thing it subdivides, and equally impossible for it to become the thing it subdivides. It is crystal clear and simple logic. Persons who claim that spiritual truths don’t have to be logical delude themselves. The only way they can make their fanciful ideas work is by avoiding clarity and hiding in the shadowy clouds of the six senses and deluded mind.

In addition to Logic, Krishna himself clearly spells it out. The word he uses in the verse is “sanatana” which means a situation that never changes! It is the last word on the first line of the verse. Therefore it is an emphatic modifier for that line: “The host of souls in this world are subdivisions of my own self, and this will never change!” That is the clear and simple meaning of the words of the Vedic authority, Krishna. It is also a clear and simple logical conclusion. Therefore from two important epistemologies (pramana) it is verified as the reliable truth.

Another Vedic text is very important to understanding subdivisions – either of the Zodiac or of Godhead. It is the opening mantra of the Isa-Upanishad:

ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात् पूर्णमुदच्यते ।

पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ।।

oḿ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaḿ
pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya
pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate

“OM.” From the infinite comes the infinite. This soul comes from that infinite. Therefore it too is infinite. Subtracting infinity from infinity, infinity remains.

Godhead is infinite. Metaphors comparing godhead to a cake or an ocean are useful but limited. Godhead is infinite and limitless. The subdivisions of something infinite are themselves infinite (a mathematical truism, ∞ ÷ ∞ = ∞). This world and everything in it, including the souls in it, are all infinite subdivisions of the infinite whole. Being a subdivision of infinity is not belittling in the least! This is what Yogananda Ji truly means when he tells you that “God and the soul are the same in essence.” This is what it means to perceive the indispensable importance of the subdivisional charts in astrology.

It also illustrates that the supreme Godhead does not diminish when there are subdivisions made (∞ - ∞ = ∞), nor do the subdivisions need to “combine” to “create” godhead (∞ does not require any additions to become ∞).

The soul and God are eternally distinct yet intimately inter-related entities, the infinite whole and the infinite subdivision. If we apply this understanding to the Radix chart and the subdivisional charts we will more perfectly understand them.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

© 2010 Vic DiCara, All Rights Reserved

Spiritual Big Bang, the Meaning of Life, and the Sanctity of Freewill

In the “beginning” there was just “The One.”

Well, beginning is a bit misleading, since this story starts before the “beginning” – before the universe began with its its wheels of time. And even the one is misleading, because it is really more like “the infinite.” But let’s stick with the poetic imagery:

In the beginning there was just The One.
Then,
The One became Many. (एको बहु स्यात)

Ok, but why? Why did The One become many? Well, think about it. What if you were “The One”? There would be nothing but you; no one to share anything with. And that is sort of, well… boring, isn’t it? Sort of lonely and boring.

That’s why the one became many: because The One wanted bliss rather than boredom (अानन्दमोयाभ्यासात).

So there was a spiritual “big bang” before the beginning of time, in which the infinite singularity of The One suddenly manifested as The Many. Countless souls – including you and me – came into being right then.

Let’s never forget why. Forgetting why means forgetting our purpose, forgetting the meaning of our life. Why do we come into being? Because The One wants to share the blissful experience with other people, and not be lonely or bored. So, what is the purpose and meaning of life? The purpose of life is to share bliss with The One. That experience is the true meaning of being alive.

A KINK IN THE PLAN?

But maybe there was a small, small kink in the plan?

Let’s imagine The One as being the ocean, the Atlantic, and The Many would be like drops taken from that ocean. The drops are all unique, because they all come from different places in the ocean. Drops from the north atlantic are cold, for example, while drops from off the shore of Cuba are hot. And so on.

This little handy metaphor gives you an idea of how and why each one of The Many is a unique individual. And it also gives you a clue to what the kink in the plan is.

The Kink is that some of the “drops” come from the part of the ocean which strongly identifies itself as The One. The drops that come from this part of the ocean are not entirely comfortable being one of “The Many” – they are inclined to understand themselves as “The One.”

The role of The Many is to share bliss with the One. But the kink in the plan is that some of the Many feel like they are The One.

It is a question of focal point, really. The grand plan is that The One is the focal point of bliss, in which all of The Many share. But the kink in the plan is that some of the Many think that they should be the focal point of the sharing.

QUICK FIX?

So, why doesn’t the one just, uhm, fix those “lightbulbs”? Why doesn’t “he” just say – “ooops, you guys were mistakes, let’s… uhm… turn you off or tuck you back inside me?”

Because we are not mistakes!

And because, having been created, we exist. And that which has existence shall not come to nonexistence, ever. (नासातो विद्यते भावो, नाभावो विद्यते सतः)

Why not?

Because that which exists has freewill. And freewill is omnipotent, and inextinguishable. That is why it is called “free” – it has perfect sovereignty or “freedom” and can not be subdued.

We are all emanations from The One, the infinite being of will and consciousness. As such we eternally have consciousness and will… free will. The One never thinks he will “fix” us. It is our free will to be whomever we choose to be. If we choose to want to be The One, that is our own free choice, and even The One shall solemnly respect and honor that choice.

We are not mistakes at all. We are a glorious part of the plan. We don’t need to be “fixed” – we simply need to “blossom.”

HOW WE BLOSSOM

Here is the scenario so far: The One desires to share bliss with others, so “he” manifests The Many. Since they all come from The One, it is natural that at least some of The Many will feel like they are The One. Now The One needs to take care of the situation, without erasing or violating it.

So The One says, “hey guys, if I let you do your thing here – you will disrupt the vast majority of Many who are all focused on Me as being The One. But don’t worry, I will make a special section of space for you, where you can actually experience what it feels like to be The One.”

Oh happy day!

ENTER THE WORLD

So we merrily skipped on over to the border of this new world made just for us. We peaked over the edge with eager eyes, but our smiles suddenly faded into pale doubts. There was something very empty feeling in there. And it was sadly obvious what was missing: The One, the real One was missing.

You see even though we do want to be The One, we also do naturally want to be with The One. Both qualities are inherent in the foundations of our being. That is what makes us so very interesting and complex.

So we turned around with sad faces towards The Beautiful One. “But if we go in there, will we see you again?” We asked.

“You would want to see me again?” The One asks us.

“Of course! We cannot really live without you!” We reply, tearfully.

Touched, moved to deepest bliss, The One smiles and says, “Yes, do not worry. When you decide you want to return to me, you can return.”

We looked back at the new world made just for us. It was enticing & fascinating, dangerously so. It was clear to us that if we set foot there we would become completely immersed and engrossed. It was designed to help us forget that we are not really The One. So how would we ever remember The Real One? And if we could not remember The Real One, why would we ever decide to return?

Again, hesitation and doubt saturated us.

“You are full of fears?” The One said to us.

“Yes,” we replied. “For one thing, isn’t that place designed to make us forget you? If so how will we ever remember to return to you? And another thing: are we not what we are? Are we not torn beings, torn between wanting you and wanting to be you? Can you actually change us? Is that even possible?”

The lotus eyes of The One gracefully closed and remained shut in meditation. The universe was remade.

“It is true that I shall never violate your freewill. Your freewill is the point of your existence. Without freewill, love is impossible. Without love, bliss is impossible. Without bliss it is pointless to be The One. Thus, my dears, I can not change you. You are right. But you can change you!”

He opened his eyes slowly and continued, “It is also true that this world I made for you would make you completely forget me. I thought this is what you wanted. But now I know that is not true, so I have changed the world. I have made it more wonderful than I could have even envisioned one my own, were it not for you. It will remind you of me eventually, when you are ready. When you desire it. When you will it.”

Then, with one final embrace, we entered the world, and time began.

KARMA – THE CHANGED UNIVERSE

What was it that The One changed in the universe when he closed his eyes? He created “karma” – the mechanism which would make the world eventually remind us that we are not really The One. To continue the story, you must now learn about karma.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com