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WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DESTINY AND CHANCE?

Meher Baba

 
Destiny is the divine law which guides us through our numerous existences. Every soul must experience happiness and unhappiness, vice and virtue, from the commencement of evolution up to the goal which is the realization of God.

Chance is based on karma: that Law of Cause and Effect which governs the events of our present life as well as those of our future lives.

Through evolution the soul receives, by means of the spirit, the impressions or sanskaras. The processes which create the experiences and later the elimination of these impressions, can be called Chance. Destiny, or the goal that souls have to attain, is Realization of God; but actually Chance is different for every individual.

We can compare Destiny to a load of (let us imagine) seven hundred tons of happiness and unhappiness, vice or virtue, which every soul has to carry throughout its existence. One soul carries seven hundred tons of iron, another soul the same weight in steel, others — lead or gold; the weight is always the same. Only matter changes. The impressions of each individual vary and the acquired Sanskaras form the structure and the condition of the future life of every individual.

 

QUESTIONS MEHER BABA ANSWERED, p. 80
ed. K. K. Ramakrishnan
1975 © Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust

               

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