Chance, Destiny and Free will

Chance, Change or Pre-arrangement by Krishna?

Crushing Chance

God’s way: chance comes from necessity

During one conversation, Prabhupäda argued with the devotees that chance
does not really exist. He explained how a man’s necessity arises, and the
needed article comes to a deserving man, if he works. The process that induces
the article to come is not chance, but Kåñëa’s supervision as Supersoul.
Because the ultimate cause is not directly perceivable by a materialist, they
foolishly name chance, not God, as the cause.
Prabhupäda: If the chance comes as soon as the necessity is there, then we
have to admit immediately God.
Çyämasundara: Yes.
Prabhupäda: Because in the Bhagavad-gétä we hear mattaù småtir jïänam
apohanaà, that God is in everyone’s heart as Supersoul. Now, I am thinking of
getting something. So God knows immediately that “He wants to have this,” so
He gives me the necessary thing which appears to me as chance, without
knowing God. The things are supplied by God because He is giving me all
facilities to enjoy this material world to my heart’s content by supplying all the
ingredients. That is the material condition. So these foolish persons are taking
it as chance, but it is not chance. God is omnipotent. As soon as He
understands that I want this, He gives me some facility so that I get it. So it is
not chance. It is by arrangement of superior authority. But because they are
atheists, they have no sense of God consciousness, they are taking as chance,
that necessity creates that chance; automatically it is coming. Not
automatically, but all of a sudden it falls … Just like I am hungry, I want some
food. So Kåñëa knows it that you want … Some way or other, the food comes to
me. So it is the arrangement of Kåñëa, but I see it is chance: “I was hungry and
by chance the food has come.” That is my less intelligence. It is not chance; it
is plan. Otherwise you cannot adjust the meaning of chance in that way, that as
soon as there is necessity, immediately the opportune chance comes before us.
Çyämasundara: They say, “Well, it’s my luck,” or, “My bad luck.”
Prabhupäda: Yes, they say. So this “luck,” as soon as you say “luck,” there
must be somebody who is giving you the luck, good luck or bad luck.
Çyämasundara: One man may desire something very badly, and his whole life
long he will not get it. He will always say, “I am so unlucky.”
Prabhupäda: Because he is not fit to get it, so God does not supply it. So we do
not take anything as chance. We take everything as plan. But because God’s
omnipotency is so subtle, we can’t see how things happen. Therefore we say,”It
is a chance, chance of physical arrangement.” Just like in the airport, as soon
as I step on the door it becomes opened. It is not chance. A child will see it is as
chance: “Oh, how it is? I wanted to go and the door is already open.” He takes
it as chance. That is poor fund of knowledge. There is arrangement, nice
arrangement, electrical arrangement. So to a poor fund of knowledge it
becomes a chance, and to the mind it is not chance; it is arranged by higher
authority.

* * *

Under Kåñëa’s control

Prabhupäda: That plan is Kåñëa’s. That is said in the Bhagavad-gétä,

mayädhyakñeëa prakåtiù süyate sa-caräcaram: “Under My plan, under My
superintendence, the nature is working. The changes of the world are going on
for that reason.” Hetunänena kaunteya jagad viparivartate: “All these changes
are taking placeon account of My supervision.” So there is no question of
chance. It is all planned by the Supreme. Daiva netreëa, by superior
arrangement.
Çyämasundara: Doesn’t necessity mean plan?
Prabhupäda: Necessity means for a foolish person like me, I want something.
That is my necessity and God supplies me. “Man proposes, God disposes.” And
that reception, or that achievement, without it being explained by me, I take it
as a chance. Because I cannot explain it. Just like the same example: the flower
is fructifying. We are saying chance because we do not see how the working is
going on.
Çyämasundara: You defined miracle like that once before.
Prabhupäda: Yes. So there is nothing like miracle. Everything is done in so
subtle way that we cannot understand. We take it as chance. The same
example: just like a child steps before the door and it opens. He thinks, “Oh, by
chance the door is opened.” But it is not by chance. It is a plan.

* * *
After chopping down our blind faith in chance being the ultimate causal
principle, Prabhupäda next established the more reasonable premise that
ordered events occur not by chance, but by arrangement.

The architect of fortune

Prabhupäda: The proprietor is living there. The servants are living there. The
cats and dogs are also living there. The trees and plants are also living there,
and insects and microbes and snakes and rats. So many living entities in the
same building. Why they are different? What is the answer? They have been
given the same chance of living in the same house, born in the same house. As
the proprietor’s son is born in the same house, these also, they are also taking
birth the same place. Why they are denied the same advantage? And if they
are denied, who has denied it? What is the answer to this question? They are
all living entities.
Bhürijana: The difference is that the human living entities have higher
intelligence because of their body.
Prabhupäda: That is the question, that “Who has given you high intelligence
and not to the rats and cats?”
Pradyumna: You said in one place, “Man is the architect of his own happiness
and distress.”
Prabhupäda: Yes. Yes, that is an axiomatic truth even by the modern man. Yes,
that “Man is the architect of his own fortune.” So as soon as there is work to
make your fortune, then there must be a person to decide to give you a
fortunate position. Just like in an establishment, so many men are working, but
there is a president. He is considering the work file, “How this man has
worked?” And he is being promoted, his salary is being increased, and
somebody is degraded, no promotion, rather, transferred to some other place.
The natural conclusion is when there are so many varieties of life in our
presence and, although in the same place, they haven’t got the same facility,
so there must be somebody who decides on this point. So how you can deny
God? Our point is the Supreme Person, the president, who decides on this fact,
He is God. What is the opposite answer?
Pradyumna: They would say that you are in your position and they are in their
position just by chance, just like …
Prabhupäda: That is nonsense. This is sheer nonsense. There is nothing by
chance. What is that chance? By chance one is becoming millionaire, and by
chance one is becoming a cockroach. What is that chance? Explain that
chance. It is evasive. It is most foolish reply, “chance.” We have got this nice
apartment. Is it by chance?
Pradyumna: No.
Prabhupäda: Then?
Bhürijana: There’s never an example of chance.
Prabhupäda: This is all nonsense. People are befooled by all this philosophy.
Bhürijana: Albert Einstein said, “I cannot believe that the highest material
principle is chance.” He’s a material scientist. He said, “I cannot believe … “
Prabhupäda: Yes. Actually, if one is learned, scientific, he must admit. He must
admit, unless he is a lunatic, rascal. He will say all these nonsense things,
“chance.” Why chance? What is taking place within your practical experience
by chance? If by prearrangement we did not come here, then who would care
for us? Even on the street we could not lie down. Nobody would allow. The
police will arrest. “Who are these men?” How do you say chance? Everything is
done by prearrangement. Chance is an explanation given by the rascals and
fools. They are not sane men. There cannot be anything by chance. We got up
on the train, and the train is running, and it is all chance? There is a huge
management behind the train. Therefore we are comfortably seated, and we
come to the destination right on time. All these are chances?
Çyämasundara: Their answer is that there was a necessity to go to the city, so
we would have tried hundreds of different ways to come here, and by chance,
eventually we would have found …
Prabhupäda: No. We have not tried hundreds of others. There was a plan.
Sudämä: But even where does … In my mind, if I hear the word “chance,”
where does chance, how does chance come about, if there is such a thing?
Prabhupäda: No. The rascal says that I am trying in so many ways; one of them
succeeds by chance. But I am not working in so many ways. We had a plan: to
come here to preach. So according to that plan, we arranged with this man,
and it is not chance. It is all prearranged. Where is that “I am trying this way or
that way?” We are going to preach. There is a plan. So our men go before my
reaching there and they make nice arrangement, nice apartment. Then they
receive me. These are not chances. This is all prearranged plan.
***
To bring the argument from “plan” to the necessity of a “planner” who
enforces that the plan is a logical step. My next comment brought out a doubt.
I was a casualty of Kali-yuga’s educational system and I thought that
evolution’s basic principle was change, not chance. Things necessarily change
and that change is done by chance. I offered this argument to Prabhupäda.
Chance, Change, or Kåñëa?
Bhürijana: But they don’t acknowledge the plan.
Prabhupäda: Why they don’t acknowledge? Everything is being done by plan.
The rascal who is speaking like that, he is educated by a plan, by his parents.
And therefore he is able now to talk nonsense and get the Nobel Prize. His
education was planned.
Sudämä: Just like his book was planned, so now he is given the Nobel Prize. He
won’t say, “By chance I won.”
Prabhupäda: Yes. His plan to misguide the people, that is his plan.
Bhürijana: They say that change is the principle. They say that change is the
highest principle and out of so many different changes …
Prabhupäda: No, how the change takes place? You are changing. You are
changing from your childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood. So there is a
plan. Unless there is plan, why one child does not by chance become
immediately old? What the nonsense will reply? Let the rascal reply to this.
That here is a chance, that one child immediately becomes old man, by
chance. Why there is process? This is plan. So you should have depth of
knowledge, otherwise you will be carried away by these rascals. We cannot be
carried away by these rascals. We never so easily believed that they are going
to the moon planet. You see? We have to scrutinize everything. Yes. That is
brahminical qualification. A brähmaëa will not accept anything simply because
it is said by some rascal. A çüdra will accept because he has no intelligence.
That is the difference between brähmaëa and çüdra. It is not a caste system.
It is class—guëa-karma-vibhägaçaù, division of high qualities and actual
activities according to that quality. They misinterpreted. Because by the
influence of Kali-yuga everyone is çüdra, so he does not know what is the
actually brahminical qualification. Therefore there is competition: “Why this
man? I am as good as he is, and why he should be called brähmaëa?Why he
should be given greater facility?” So actually it has happened. A so-called
brähmaëa, caste brähmaëa, he is working his intelligence like çüdra, and he is
claiming, by birthright, brähmaëa. There must be protest. This has happened.
Otherwise, that division is perfect, guëa-karma-vibhägaçaù. Anyone who comes
to brahminical quality, he becomes brähmaëa. That is the injunction of the
çästra. Kåñëa says guëa-karma-vibhägaçaù. You have no qualification, you do
not work according to your quality, and why you are claiming to be brähmaëa?
That is self-evident. Guëa-karma-vibhägaçaù. He never said by birth, never
said. Kalau çüdra-sambhavaù: “In this age, Kali-yuga, all çüdras.” Therefore
they accept everything cheaply and at once, the çüdras.
Çyämasundara: Cheaply and at once?
Prabhupäda: At once. Yes. The newspaper said that “Mr. Such-and-Such went
to moon planet.” Oh, immediately believe. See? A newspaper, a ten-cent
newspaper. And in the Bhagavad-gétä Kåñëa says, yänti deva-vratä devän:
“One can go to the demigods’ planets by worshiping them. You can go, yänti
deva-vratä devän, as others have gone. Similarly, one can come to Me by
worshiping Me.” Mad-yäjino ‘pi yänti mäm. So they never worshiped Candra,
and how they can go to Candra’s planet, the moon planet? Then Kåñëa is false.
Kåñëa is imperfect. They become perfect. They are defying Kåñëa’s instruction.
They have gone to moon planet. Then our whole propaganda, Kåñëa
consciousness, becomes bogus. Therefore I always protest.
Sudämä: They have not gone.
Prabhupäda: They have not gone. We have got our tests. I am speaking from
the very beginning, “They have not gone.” And practically you see, even if they
have gone, what utility they have made? They are simply planning, again
planning. “We shall get petrol from there. We shall have defense from there.”
Simply bluffing, simply bluffing. The Americans will go to the moon planet to
defend his country from the Russians. Just see. And we have to believe all
these nonsense proposals. What defense they will do from there? Is it not the
proposal?
***
Prabhupäda’s reply was simple: change is not random, it is also by plan. He
thus was training his disciples in independent, clear thinking. He didn’t want us
to remain faithful, foolish believers in the tenets of modern science. If we were
to be of use to him and make advancement within this life, we would have to
see beyond the trickery of modern science and faithfully preach the Vedic
viewpoint.
At the time, I couldn’t deeply accept Prabhupäda’s arguments, but later when
we returned to our Asakawa-cho temple, Prabhupäda continued dismembering
our blind faith in Evolution. One morning, Çyämasundara and I walked with
Prabhupäda. A steep decline dropped left off the dirt road; to the right rose a
hill topped with rows of pine.
“Just see,” said Prabhupäda, pointing with his cane. “All trees are facing the
sun.” He stopped to observe and allow the point to sink in. “There is nothing
that is chance in creation.” Prabhupäda continued, “Evolutionary theory is
nonsense. If chance is law, then why at least one tree is not pointing away from
the sun?”
Prabhupäda’s simple and clear example destroyed my conditioned faith in the
theory of Evolution.

Free Will and Destiny

If everything is destined, what is use of sermons and scriptures?

The argument may be given that if a living entity were subject to the results of his previous
activities there would be no scope for free will. Once having committed a sinful action, the living
entity would be bound in an endless chain of suffering, being perpetually subject to previous
reactions. If every move we made was completely controlled by fate, destiny or astrological
influences, how could there be such a thing as right act or wrong act and why feel regret toward
something we did? And if everything is destined, why would the scriptures take so much trouble to
offer valuable lessons for the suffering souls to discriminate between the right and wrong and
choose the path of right action?

What is destined? What is not destined?

pürva jamnärjitä vidyä pürva janmärjitaà dhanaà agre dhävati dhävati. By living
a righteous life in accordance to scriptures, one attains a better position in the material world. One
may be rich, learned, beautiful or highborn. Thus it is destined whether one will be born rich/poor,
learned/illiterate, beautiful/ugly, highborn/lowborn etc. What is not destined, however, is the
question of how one is going to use all these facilities awarded or how is one going to behave in
difficult circumstances. That action will decide the future destiny. Here lies the free will for the
soul to exercise.

One who has all these assets should know that they are all meant for the advancement of Krishna
consciousness. Unfortunately, when a person is misguided he misuses his high position for sense
gratification. Thus a good position is often spoiled by material sense gratification in the form of
illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling. One spoils an opulent position in the material
world by driving cars, spending time in nightclubs or tasting abominable food in restaurants. In
these ways, the plundering senses take away all the assets that the conditioned soul has acquired
with great difficulty.

Destiny does not hamper our free will

A practical example would clarify this point of relationship between destiny and free will. If I
purchase a ticket for an airline flight, board the plane and commence the flight, once the plane has
taken off my decision to board the plane forces me to continue flying until the plane lands. But
although I am forced to accept the reaction of this decision, on board the plane I have many new
decisions I can make. I may accept the food and drink from the stewardesses or reject it, I may read
a magazine or newspaper, I may sleep, walk up and down the aisle, converse with other passengers
and so on. In other words, although the general context—flying to a particular city—is forcibly
imposed upon me as a reaction to my previous decision to board the plane, even within that
situation I am constantly making new decisions and creating new reactions. For example, if I cause
a disturbance on the airplane I may be arrested when the plane lands. On the other hand, if I make
friends with a businessman sitting next to me on the plane, such a contact may lead to a favorable
business transaction in the future. Thus our destiny does not hamper our free will; rather a sincere
devotee of God can easily overcome the previous conditionings by humble surrender.

Material or Spiritual - It’s a question of consciousness

There is a clear-cut difference between the spiritual and material energies. The body is material and
is therefore influenced by material forces such as karma or astrological powers. The living entity
within the body is spiritual and is transcendental to all such material energies and influences. The
more the living entity realizes his spiritual position and acts on the spiritual platform, the more he
can become free from the material energy. The more one identifies with the material body, the
more one is then influenced and controlled by the material forces, such as Karma, Destiny, the
Modes of nature, Sensual desires etc.

Thus even while in this material world if we simply increase our Krishna consciousness, we will
live in the spiritual world. If we live in the temple, we live in the spiritual world because in the
temple there is no business other than Krishna consciousness. There are so many engagements
carried out for Krishna. We may think we are living in New York, Los Angeles or Bombay or
elsewhere, but we are actually living in Vaikuntha. Spiritual/Material – it’s a question of
consciousness.

For example, a bug may sit on the same seat with the spiritual master, but because the spiritual
master has developed consciousness and the bug does not, they are different. They may be sitting in
the same place, but the bug remains a bug, and the spiritual master remains the spiritual master. The
position in space may remain the same, just as we may remain in the material world or the spiritual
world, but if our Krishna consciousness is strong, we are not in the material world.
For example if one rises early in the morning, sings Lord’s names and glories, worships the Deity,
offers Bhoga or offering of food, decorates the Lord with garland garments and ornaments, hears
pastimes of the Lord, chant His holy names, remember and repeat His glories, engage in devotional
service in the mood of servant of His devotees, then one can experience living in the spiritual world
of love. When one watches horror or sensuous movies, the mind becomes driven by lust and
passion. When one is engaged in selfish pursuits for one’s own gratification, heart becomes
duplicitous, mind gets wound up, senses become disturbed, then one’s consciousness is submerged
in material world. Then one is subjected to fear, attachment, anger, envy, lamentation, illusion etc
that cause great suffering.

Thus one has to make a conscious choice, using one’s free will, to perform with body mind and
words, those items favourable for returning to spiritual world. One should also make deliberate and
sometimes strenuous attempt to give up those items that are unfavourable to Krishna consciousness.
This will pave way for a bright destiny in the future.