Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, the Enlightened being, has said:

“You cannot baselessly say, “It is destined (already decided).” Nor can you baselessly say, “It is not destined.” Saying so is a liability, it would be a fault! The outcome is in between ‘it is destined’ and ‘it is not destined’. If the pocket gets picked even after taking all the precautions, to understand that as destiny is exact.”

It means, after having tried our level best to make the positive outcome happen, whatever finally happens, that we can say ‘is already decided’, because we do not know beforehand what is already decided.

Whatever is already decided, why and how does it get decided?

It gets decided based on the karmas we have bound. When we bind any karma, the fruits of the karma are inevitable. It is simply the science of cause & effect. However, the factor of time plays a crucial role in it. A period of time is needed for the causes to be converted into effect.

For e.g. a mango tree cannot bear mangoes as soon as we sow the seeds; it will take some time. Sometime later, the tree does bear fruits, but the fruits are still raw. It will need some more time for fruits to ripen. So, if we want mangoes to ripen the very next day, will that happen? No. Likewise whatever karmas we charge, or cause to charge, take a few years, and sometimes even a century or more, to give effect and show results.

In the past life, those karmas were in the form of a design, just like a plan projected on paper. And the execution part happens in the next life automatically. That’s how everything is already decided. There could be a gap of 50 or even 100 years for a cause to materialize.

Thus, ‘karma’ and ‘everything is already decided’ are actually linked to each other

Our entire present life is a reflection of the karmas that we have sown in our previous lives. Everything, right from our body to our physical shape and form, our thoughts, our speech, our actions are all a result of our past karmas. Our karmas determine our birthplace, our parents and everything. Every person we encounter in our life is determined based on our karma.

What is already decided is the fruit of karma, we have no choice there, but in sowing a new seed of karma, we do have choice!

When the past karma is unfolding to give its effect in this life, at that time, based on our inner intent, we end up binding a new karma, be it a merit or a demerit karma.

For instance, suppose we are donating Rs. 5 lakhs to a temple. This is already decided. However, while donating, if our inner intent is, ‘How I wish I had more money so that I could donate the entire cost of building the temple’, then it binds a good karma which will result in our future life. Accordingly, it gets decided that in the next life, you will have money and you will donate the entire cost of building the temple. On the other hand, if our inner intent at the time of donating money is, ‘Oh! I was compelled to give this money, otherwise I would never give a dime to these cheats’, it binds a very bad karma, the dire consequences of which get already decided for having to bear in our next life.

Now that we know the science of karma, we should introspect and dig out every such instance where we made any bad intent in this life; and then do a sincere repentance for each of these before God, seeking His forgiveness, ‘Dear God! I have made this mistake. Please forgive me and grant me strength so that I do not make this mistake ever again.’ This will help make our bad karmas lighter so that we do not have to suffer as much in the life to come. We have the option to wash off our bad karmas created in this life, only until we are alive. Once life ends, the karma get finally decided for the next life.

With the help of Gnani’s grace, we can stop sowing new seeds of karma altogether!!!

When Gnani, the Enlightened One, graces us with a firm conviction of really ‘who am I’, we realize that really ‘I am not the name or the body that I think myself to be. I am actually a Pure Soul!’ This is called Self-Realization.

And then, on receiving the right understanding of ‘who is the doer’, we stop binding new karmas altogether. Thereafter, what remains is only that which is already decided (the karmas of past life). As we finish all of that by accurately following the Gnani’s given cardinal principles in our day to day life, we are able to get liberated forever, in maybe just one or two lifetimes.

So come, without wasting any more time, and accumulating any more karmas in the meanwhile, let’s first go to the Enlightened One, attain Self-Realization, and get onto the path of liberation!