Una mente entregada es una mente guiada.
Question: Every soul comes to Earth with a specific contract, which is its own destiny. That means, it has a destination. What happens if a soul doesn't fulfill its destiny, but deviates and fulfills some different work. Whose decision is it when this happens? Is it free will, or somewhere in the middle – the mind decided to choose a different path?
Swami: This is the chicken and the egg story. Is it destiny or is it free will? Which is first, which is second. The truth is, there is only one will, which is the will of God. But, under that will itself, God decides to give a little decision-making to every individual. As an example, father earns money and gives some as pocket-money to the child. The father says, "It's your birthday, take this hundred rupees – or maybe a hundred rupees is to little in today's world, so – take this thousand rupees and do what you want for your birthday." The money belongs to the father; it doesn't belong to the son. The son has not earned it, but the father has granted it. Now, the son takes the money, goes to the market, spends it the way he wants and comes back home. The other choice the son can make is, "Father, I don't know what is good for me and what is bad for me. I may waste this money. I may not use it well. So, since you know best, I offer it back to you. Take these thousand rupees back and you do what is required for my birthday. You buy what is good for me, as I don't have the understanding of what is right, what is wrong." So the son offers the thousand rupees back to his father.
Just now I was saying that when man's will is given back to God, it becomes surrender. So, a surrendered mind is a guided mind. A surrendered mind is guided by God, because he has offered that mind back to God. "I don't want to make a decision for myself, I don't want to do anything, because I don't know what is right, what is wrong. So God, please guide me."
We were in Assisi and there is one very elderly sister there who belongs to the Franciscan Order. She's more than 80 years old. I said to her, "Sister, come to India." She replied, "Swamiji, I don't go, I don't come, I just follow." What she meant is, I have no choice of my own. I can't go on my own or come on my own. I simply follow whatever guidance I get from God within.
Yesterday Nitya Shanthi said that, there is 'silent', and there is 'listen'. An anagram of the same word silent S-I-L-E-N-T – L-I-S-T-E-N is listen. Listen and silent are nothing but two sides of the same coin. When we silence ourselves – our minds chatter, "I want to do this, I want to buy that, I want to go here, I want to become that." The silent assistant says, "God tell me what should I be doing? Where should I be going? What is my way in life? What is the road I should take?" Then we listen to the voice from inside, the guidance. Then, like a GPS – God Positioning System – it takes us correctly to our destination, without deviation.
Swami: This is the chicken and the egg story. Is it destiny or is it free will? Which is first, which is second. The truth is, there is only one will, which is the will of God. But, under that will itself, God decides to give a little decision-making to every individual. As an example, father earns money and gives some as pocket-money to the child. The father says, "It's your birthday, take this hundred rupees – or maybe a hundred rupees is to little in today's world, so – take this thousand rupees and do what you want for your birthday." The money belongs to the father; it doesn't belong to the son. The son has not earned it, but the father has granted it. Now, the son takes the money, goes to the market, spends it the way he wants and comes back home. The other choice the son can make is, "Father, I don't know what is good for me and what is bad for me. I may waste this money. I may not use it well. So, since you know best, I offer it back to you. Take these thousand rupees back and you do what is required for my birthday. You buy what is good for me, as I don't have the understanding of what is right, what is wrong." So the son offers the thousand rupees back to his father.
Just now I was saying that when man's will is given back to God, it becomes surrender. So, a surrendered mind is a guided mind. A surrendered mind is guided by God, because he has offered that mind back to God. "I don't want to make a decision for myself, I don't want to do anything, because I don't know what is right, what is wrong. So God, please guide me."
We were in Assisi and there is one very elderly sister there who belongs to the Franciscan Order. She's more than 80 years old. I said to her, "Sister, come to India." She replied, "Swamiji, I don't go, I don't come, I just follow." What she meant is, I have no choice of my own. I can't go on my own or come on my own. I simply follow whatever guidance I get from God within.
So, a surrendered mind is a guided mind. Now, what happened on the way? God gave you some free will. He said, "Here, take it. You're going to be born on Earth. Use it as you want." Some people said, "No, God. You take it back. You tell me what to do. I will just do your will." Some people thought, "Oh, Father has given me a thousand rupees. I will go to the shop that I want to go to, without any control, without any restrictions from my parents. You see, my father always takes me to the same dosa shop. I will go to the pizza shop this time because my father is not watching." So they want to spend the money the way they want. And that is how we start deviating from the original path. But God is always there guiding us. I always use this example. When we want to set out on a journey, there is a GPS system in our car, and the GPS lady goes on talking, "Take a right after 100 meters, then left in 200 meters, take this road, go straight 500 meters..." She goes on talking. Suppose we simply follow the instructions. We will reach exactly where we were supposed to reach at the time when we were supposed to arrive.
Now suppose we don't follow the instructions. When the GPS says take a right, we take a left. What will the GPS do? It will recalculate the route. It will tell us to take the next left or take the next right and go full round and come back to the same spot. Now the journey which could have been covered in fifteen minutes takes an hour because we have deviated. And that is the story of every soul. When the soul is born, God gives them some will. Use your will and use your discrimination and lead a good life. But over a period of time if you don't learn to surrender the will back to God, then we keep doing what we want to do. We deviate from the right path, but still God is merciful. When we go back and we pray, "Please guide us, we have lost our way," God will guide us again. When we offer our will back to God, we come back to the same road and we reach our destination. Everybody has that power to use the will themselves or give it back to God just like a father who has given money to his child and allowed him or her to use it the way they want. Unless the son or daughter surrenders it back to the father, father is not going to ask for that money back, nor is he going to ask how we are going to spend it. He will leave it to our discretion, to our discrimination, and let it be. So, the best way to deal with life is to offer our will back to God, surrender and say, "God I will just follow You. I will follow You. I don't want to do anything on my own." And when you pray like that, the guidance comes from within.
Now suppose we don't follow the instructions. When the GPS says take a right, we take a left. What will the GPS do? It will recalculate the route. It will tell us to take the next left or take the next right and go full round and come back to the same spot. Now the journey which could have been covered in fifteen minutes takes an hour because we have deviated. And that is the story of every soul. When the soul is born, God gives them some will. Use your will and use your discrimination and lead a good life. But over a period of time if you don't learn to surrender the will back to God, then we keep doing what we want to do. We deviate from the right path, but still God is merciful. When we go back and we pray, "Please guide us, we have lost our way," God will guide us again. When we offer our will back to God, we come back to the same road and we reach our destination. Everybody has that power to use the will themselves or give it back to God just like a father who has given money to his child and allowed him or her to use it the way they want. Unless the son or daughter surrenders it back to the father, father is not going to ask for that money back, nor is he going to ask how we are going to spend it. He will leave it to our discretion, to our discrimination, and let it be. So, the best way to deal with life is to offer our will back to God, surrender and say, "God I will just follow You. I will follow You. I don't want to do anything on my own." And when you pray like that, the guidance comes from within.
Yesterday Nitya Shanthi said that, there is 'silent', and there is 'listen'. An anagram of the same word silent S-I-L-E-N-T – L-I-S-T-E-N is listen. Listen and silent are nothing but two sides of the same coin. When we silence ourselves – our minds chatter, "I want to do this, I want to buy that, I want to go here, I want to become that." The silent assistant says, "God tell me what should I be doing? Where should I be going? What is my way in life? What is the road I should take?" Then we listen to the voice from inside, the guidance. Then, like a GPS – God Positioning System – it takes us correctly to our destination, without deviation.