External events are largely unpredictable, but one’s inner response to them is shaped by one’s own choices and conditioning. Karma is not the event itself, but the way one experiences and responds to it. Freedom lies in building an inner core that remains steady, rather than becoming a slave to random situations.
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Originally published in The New Indian Express on 18 dec '21
Things happen. Whether they are good or bad depends on your response and inner constitution.
Things are things, situations are situations, events are events, external stimuli are just external. You have no control over them. But, potentially, you have all possible control over the one within who responds to external situations. That is where your authority lies.
Questioner: When something good or bad happens unexpectedly to someone, is it karma or mere coincidence? Acharya Prashant: The happening is just a random coincidence. How you experience the happening is your own decision, your own doing, in other words, karma.
Get the difference right. The material world is not predetermined. It is not even deterministic; it is random in the real sense of the word. There are just too many cause and effect nodes to take care of, and additionally there is the unpredictable element of free will involved with respect to many of the actors.
