Life is random. And it's ok. || Acharya Prashant, at DTU (2023)

Questioner (Q): Sir, all my life I have believed that my life has been a consequence of decisions I have taken for myself. But recently, in the past three months, I have had two retinal detachments and I've been blind for three months. I am questioning my beliefs now. Is life really a consequence of decisions we take or is it affected by external things and things that are not in our control?

Acharya Prashant (AP): There is hardly anything that is in our control as far as situations of life are concerned. So, even when we feel that things that are happening to us are actually happening because we plan them out that way, or that what is happening is a result of something that we did, it is actually not that way. Your situation here is obviously entirely different. You are clearly seeing that random, unpredictable, uncalled-for things are happening to you. Right? And you're asking why, and what is this, from where is it all coming? But think even of those who feel their life is in their control, even they are mistaken.

As far as the external environment is concerned, as far as material situations are concerned, a lot that is happening — I'm just shying away from saying that ‘everything’ that is happening, because to many of you that would sound too extreme, so I would limit myself to saying — a lot that is happening is simply incidental, random.

It's just that there is something called the ego, and one of the definitions of the ego is that it is the agency that likes to believe that it is the doer. What is the ego? The agency that likes to say ‘I did it.’ Whereas, the fact is, everything in the sensual-material domain is just random. It is the inability of the mind to come to terms with this randomness that gives rise to a fictitious doer.