In a counseling session some weeks ago, a woman said to me ‘I believe there is a plan for everything that is going on now and for what will happen in future. What do you think?’ I told her that I had a very different idea. Let me explain you my thoughts on this topic.
Who do you think has a plan? Usually religious people will answer this with God and people who are less religious will say the universe, the higher energy or something similar. It is thus not an idea that is depending on religion. There may be some religions that tell us God has made a plan but also people without religion believe it.
Where does this idea come from? I think it comes from people’s basic need for security. People want to know that whatever happens is in someone’s plan. They want to have rules. If I do this, something good will happen, if I do that, something bad will happen. The concept of heaven and hell provides security because it means that someone is there who has a plan. Religions were made because people saw that there was a need for this security. They provided it and people came.
Astrology and horoscopes were also made because of this need for security. People want to get to know what will happen tomorrow. They have trust that the stars will tell it and that the bigger plan is written in the stars. Others believe in the clairvoyant power of an individual, someone who reads the cards, someone who predicts the future out of a crystal ball or someone who says he has contact with angels who know about the bigger plan. The problem is that with such predictions depend often on how much money you can give to the one who makes the prediction. The more you give, the more successful you will be in future.
I actually believe that there is no plan and that nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. We can take our decisions and have to take our responsibility for the consequences. Nobody knows before what will happen if you go one way or the other. I believe that everything happens for good, which means that even something that in this moment does not seem like a good thing to you, has some aspect that is positive. But you don’t know about this before and it is not ‘planned’ that this happens. Every event is the result of previous decisions or events. There is no plan.
If nobody can know anyway what will happen on the next day, why should we worry about it? There will never be an answer! We will see what will happen and we will deal with whatever comes. The past is past and tomorrow will come. Live in the presence, today, now!
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As someone schooled in the West, I see this somewhat differently. You seem to be talking here about general plans for the world and for societies. This question of whether there is a general scheme for the development of history is explored mainly by our philosophers Kant, Hegel, and Marx, and those who followed in their lines of thought. Each has their own ideas of how history would develop. Too much to go into the specifics here, but quite a bit of evidence can be found in favor of each of their models of how history would develop, but the questions remain very open and so far there certainly isn’t any final proof for any of their models. As for lives of individuals, many teachers teach that according to our karmas ands samskaras, there are general blueprints for life, that can change according to changes we might make in our karmas and samskaras through free choice to change, and that can change also according to unpredictable changes in our environments. I think it was Jawaharial Nehru who summed up the issue best, saying “Destiny is the cards you’re dealt, free will is how you play them.”
Swami, love your common sense down-to earth approach to life. “When you wake up in the morning you never know what will happen next.” That’s an old maxim of mine. “The future is all wait and see, wait and see.” That’s another. As the great Spanish writer Cervantes said: “Patience, and shuffle the cards.”
But in this way there is again no plan because you change and the world around you changes with you, so nobody knows what will be in the end!For the development of society and the whole world, there are many different approaches for theories from different points of view – the financial situation, the climate, the political state and more. You could try to put all theories together and see if that will happen… 🙂
Thank you for your comment! Yes, you never know what will happen, your world can completely change in one minute, in one second.
There will be some people though who will always say ‘I knew it’.
🙂
Much love
Thanks mister Sawmi Ji. Always appropriate 😉
I don’t think it is a plan like the train schedule, but I believe that there is a general idea of what my soul is supposed to learn in this life. If my soul learns its lesson and how depends on my decisions. So to me it’s more like a masterplan, God or the Universe has set up without many details. Possibilities and chances arise and it’s our decisions, which make them real.