Fate Vs Free Will & Soul's Evolution

In the Astrological World, there has always been a continuous debate about how much our life on Earth is impacted by Planets & Horoscope, how much is the Destiny and where Free Will and Self-Efforts can change things? Is person destined to live the life as is or he can hope to change something in life. Many people have given their views on this matter through ages and here, I am called upon by my few clients to get my name registered in the long list. So, here are my views on different but connecting topics on Fate, Free Will, Awareness, God’s Grace and Soul’s Evolution. 

As always, let’s cover all in my mind over this topic through points below - 

1. Fate/Destiny – So, let’s first deal with Fate/Destiny. Something we are born with and we see through in life. 

• My View – My view on this point has been and will always be the same. For me, it is all in Destiny (but Free-Will lovers may still read the Article, I have some good news for them too). As we go through our lives, we just play out our destined roles in this world. One way or the other, we just perform what is destined to be. For me, Free Will is something I can directly relate to Ego, as the concept of Free Will says that if we wish, we can create our own destiny separate from what is destined to be. For me, it is Ego Assertion. Many people say that it is 50% destiny and 50% Free Will, some say 80% Destiny and 20% Free Will and others say it is 90% Destiny and 10% Free Will. First of all, I don’t understand that how they come to such quantitative conclusions? How they are deciding percentages? What methods? Then no matter how less percentage you are giving to Free Will, you are just trying to safeguard that percent of Ego/I inside you. You are still not willing to let go of your Ego/I Consciousness and trying to save it as you find it hard to leave everything on an unseen power. But in my opinion, if I have little bit of Wisdom in me, I will leave everything on that Super Power. Why I should keep any worry? It’s His World and His Life, He should know where to take it and how to take it? Why should I worry myself. I would love to just be an instrument of God and work accordingly. So, for me, it is all Destiny to begin this Article with. 
• Gautama Buddha – This reminds me the story of Gautama Buddha and his birth. When Prince Siddhartha Gautama took birth, his Father King Shuddhodhan’s childhood friend Sage Aseeta came to see the new-born child as Sage was aware that one evolved soul has taken birth. After seeing the child, he predicted that child will become a Great Saint, much more powerful than any King, he will be like King of Kings. Sage Aseeta also said the day when he will have 1st encounter with Pain & Suffering of Worldly Life, that day only he will start his journey towards truth. King Shuddhodhan was obviously not happy with this prediction as no Father would want his son to become a Saint, no matter how great he is going to be? From that day onwards, he tried his best to ensure that Siddhartha doesn’t see any pain and suffering of the world. To ensure this, King created a New City, far away from Capital, where he shifted all the old and ill people of his Kingdom. He removed all the old people from Service. He instructed that not even name of Death or any Disease should come into Siddhartha’s knowledge. Siddhartha was made to live inside the Palace only, to the extent that he was unaware life and world exists beyond Palace. By doing all this, King was feeling safe. But one day, while playing with his friends and cousins, he heard the name of New City. He enquired more about that place and took his Charioteer Channa to go to New City. Now, someone, who never saw any suffering in his life so far, was greeted by immense Pain, Suffering, Illness, Old-Age and Dead Bodies. The immediate impact of this experience was overwhelming on Siddhartha and he began his journey to know the reason of Pain & Suffering in Human Life. So, in my view, King Shuddhodhan was, all the way, helping the Divine Cause/Destiny. He was thinking that he is successful in avoiding Destiny told by Sage Aseeta but actually, he was just helping it to manifest by creating New City as there could have been no other place in whole Kingdom where Siddhartha could have seen so much Pain & Suffering at once. So, Destiny Prevailed and thank God it prevailed as we had a Buddha. 
• Two Twigs in River – This story of Buddha also reminds me of another small story of two twigs flowing in River. One twig was flowing as per the current of River and was peaceful. Other twig was trying best to go against the current but still going with the flow of River. All the way, King Shuddhodha was thinking that he was fighting against the Destiny but actually, he was only helping the destiny to manifest it. Even in those actions, when he tried to defy the Destiny, he was creating path for Siddhartha to be a Saint, as he was destined to be. Only indication here is that if you have to make unnecessary efforts to get a thing done, then it may be an indication that you are not on the path which destiny wants you to follow. It is my own experience that the day I decided to be an Astrologer, life started looking very smooth and easy going. So for me, it is always Destiny/Nature/Life/God which prevails and we just follow its dictate. Here, Destiny/Nature/Life/God are synonyms for me.
• Astrologically – As per my little experience in looking at Horoscopes of People, I am yet to see a person’s chart who has achieved more than what his chart shows. It may take some more time to analyse but every achievement of a person can be seen in his/her chart. So, I would stay at my preliminary opinion that everything is destined and we play out our role as per our Destiny in this life. 

2. Free Will – Then what is Free Will? From where did it come? Although in beginning, I termed it as Ego Consciousness of an individual but actually, the feeling that we have a Free Will and we can do whatever we want to do in this life also comes from your Horoscope. Moon represents Mind and Mars represents Courage. If these two planets are strongly placed in a chart then that person thinks that anything is possible. A person with trashed Moon will either be Pessimistic or Stubborn; neither way is a wise way to go through. So, even when someone feels that he has Free Will to change his destiny, that feeling is also coming from his chart, planets and destiny itself. 

3. Awareness – Then, what is the way? Are we destined to suffer also? If someone’s chart is showing Surgery in a time period, then what he should do? Should he get himself admitted and tell Doctors to operate him? Here comes the main use of Astrology or any Occult Science, i.e. Awareness. All that Occult Science and Occultists do is to make you aware of your situation. If you are aware that there may be some losses coming, then you would take necessary steps to avoid or at least reduce those losses. Awareness or Consciousness is the key here. 

• Story of two Idols – This reminds me another story where a Saint comes to a King and gives him 2 clay idols and says whenever one of these idols break, your Kingdom will face War within 2 months. King told a servant to take care of idols. One day, an idol broke while cleaning and King told that Servant should be hanged if Kingdom faces War within 2 months. Soon a neighbour King attacked and this King ordered hanging of Servant but asked his last wish. Servant told that I want to break the 2nd idol too to save anyone else from hanging. King asked, why? Servant told, Saint didn’t mean that you will face war because of breaking of idols. All he meant that breaking of idol will give you an indication that war is coming. So when idol broke, instead of putting me into Prison and waiting for War, you should have prepared for the War. This is what purpose of Occult Science is.
• When all these planets start/end dashas and go through transits, they only want us to be aware of where they are moving next and what next step we should be taking

• Counselling/Advice – This is why, a person should always be open for Counselling and Suggestions. Counselling makes you aware and that awareness can lead you to avoid the problem or mitigate the loss. I can tell from this year only when I continued to post about Saturn-Mars transit through the year to make people aware of situation and they should not drive in a risky way or should avoid drinks and non-veg food. I, myself followed these instructions and as we close the year, in which many people had seen Accidents & Surgeries, I am ending the year with 2 minor health-issues during the year. Recently, I told one of my stock broker friend about the upcoming possibility of Market Crash and he was able to save his clients’ money. So, in the end, it is only about being aware of the situation through self-knowledge or through counselling which can reduce the impact. 
• Planetary Alignment – But even this ability of being open to counselling is not seen in everyone, and we can see from someone’s chart how receptive a person is to counselling. 99% of people only want to receive the advice as per their desires. If someone is counselling them against their wishes, then next moment they will raise doubts about how trustworthy Occult Science is and that too without knowing anything about it or without spending a single minute in studying it. Desires run high here. And we can see it in chart itself. A good Astrologer always checks the condition of 5th house, Moon and Jupiter to know how receptive will be the client for any advice, so that he should not waste his much time unnecessarily. So again, counselling here is that be receptive to counselling to create awareness. 
• God’s Grace – In light of above paragraph, we can say that even being receptive to counselling depends upon the person’s chart. If he has well placed 5th house, Jupiter and Moon, big possibility is that only then he will be receptive to any suggestion. So, even receptivity to counselling is God’s Grace. In matters of Love Marriage, I rarely saw anyone listening to advice that charts are not matching. They just want the Counselor to say Yeas, so that they can get married. So, even here Destiny plays its part. 

4. Soul’s Evolution – Then what does it mean? A Criminal should continue to Kill people, as it is in his chart? A Corrupt Man should continue to steal Public Money? Certainly not, and that’s where I will end this Article, i.e. on Soul’s Evolution. 

• Through Nature – No matter where we are in life, what we are doing and how we are living our life, the primary object of life is evolution of Soul at next level. If someone is even Serial Killer, then also he has a duty towards improving himself. If following a path of life is part of one’s nature then evolving/improving yourself is also part of same nature. If one can become Angulimal and kill thousands of people to get a garland of fingers then same Angulimal can also transform himself as Ahinsak in association of one Buddha. Ahinsak was still there inside Angulimal when he was killing people, but it just took awareness/realisation from his part that he can transform himself. Now, many can give credit to Buddha here but Buddha came into life of many people, much more civilised than Angulimal but those people didn’t get transformed. So, main credit goes to Angulimal to evolve himself as Ahinsak. We all have that capacity to evolve and change our destiny. All we need is awareness or realization. 
• Through “Free Will” – Now, if I say that Free Will is Ego Assertion then I would accept that any Astrologer who says that he has perfectly read a chart is also Ego Assertion. No Astrologer or Occultist can ever claim that he has perfectly read the chart and things predicted by him will always be coming true. Astrologer is also bound by same Destiny/Nature/God/Life. He can read what nature wants him to read. Actually, I heard once from Ernst Wilhelm that it depends on the destiny of client as to which Astrologer he is going to? If client is destined to know the truth, he will go to an Astrologer who will be able to read his chart properly or otherwise. So, here is where Free Will comes into picture. Despite any Astrologer saying anything about your chart, you can still evolve to the next level with your Free Will and Self Effort. An Astrologer claiming that he is 100% right, is another Ego Assertion. Use Free Will for Soul’s Evolution. 

Hope this helps. Please let me know your views on this. 

Thanks for patience and reading through,

Swami Premanand Bharti