Does God Know Which Path I'll Choose?
Question:
It is said that God is Omniscient, which means He is all-knowing. Does that mean He knows what I'm going to do next? Does He decide my next action? If so, then why is it said that I have free-will. And if I have free will and act on my own, how does God know what I’ll do next?
Answer:
Yes, God is omniscient. He does know the past, present and a part of the future of each soul. The part of the future that He has predetermined is called fate or destiny and it governs only a few events in the whole life.
Hitopadesh says:
It is said that God is Omniscient, which means He is all-knowing. Does that mean He knows what I'm going to do next? Does He decide my next action? If so, then why is it said that I have free-will. And if I have free will and act on my own, how does God know what I’ll do next?
Answer:
Yes, God is omniscient. He does know the past, present and a part of the future of each soul. The part of the future that He has predetermined is called fate or destiny and it governs only a few events in the whole life.
Hitopadesh says:
आयुः कर्म च वित्तं च विद्या निधनमेव च । पंचैत्यान्यपि सृज्यन्ते गर्भस्थस्यैव देहिनः ॥
हितोपदेश
āyuḥ karma ca vittaṃ ca vidyā nidhanameva ca।
paṃcaityānyapi sṛjyante garbhasthasyaiva dehinaḥ ॥
paṃcaityānyapi sṛjyante garbhasthasyaiva dehinaḥ ॥
Hitopadeśa
“Five things are predestined – age, profession, wealth, education and mode of dying.”
God does not pre - decide the whole future or future actions of the material beings. This needs a little clarification. So let us think through it.
Human mind is inactive only in deep sleep (सुषुप्ति) and when one becomes unconscious. At all other times our mind thinks. God dwells in the heart of every living being and observes each thought that crosses the mind. So, He also knows about the present actions of all material beings.
7 billion human beings inhabit planet Earth and only God keeps a detailed record of each thought that goes through the mind of each and every person. In future lives the present actions are called actions of past lifetimes. This Earth is in the brahmand created by Lord Brahma with four-heads. In this Sansaar-The World, the manifestation of Maya, there are uncountable brahmands (cosmic eggs), with innumerable souls living within each brahmand. He knows the innumerable actions performed by each jeev in innumerable past lifetimes. So, it is also evident that He knows about the past actions of all living beings.
Only Brahma-Supreme God grants the fruits of actions of all past karmas and only He determines which fruits would be borne by an individual soul in the present lifetime. The Sanskrit work for these is prarabdh karm. He does not delegate this responsibility to anyone else (see Who Builds Our Destiny?). So, He obviously also knows that part of the future. Let it be known that this is a small fraction of our future. Now, let us talk about the other part of our future.
Prior to taking a decision, human beings weigh the pros and cons of that action. Most times the mental work (or that thinking) does not result in any physical action e.g. when you are harmed by someone, you think about it, make plans to retaliate against that, but are scared of being caught and so decide not to act on those plans. We have been given a free-will to decide what we want to do. And in fact, due to Maya we keep changing our mind frequently all through the day. God, who is sitting in the heart, knows and records all those mental actions. These actions performed in this lifetime out of our own free will are referred to as kriyamaan karm (क्रियमाण कर्म). Though, He doesn't know what thought will cross our mind the next moment, yet before we act on our decision God knows what we will enact next with our Gyanendriyan or Karmendriyan.
So, it is true that God knows the past, present and only a part of the future for all of us. We have the free-will so only we are responsible for our actions; God does not act on our behalf or intervene.
God does not pre - decide the whole future or future actions of the material beings. This needs a little clarification. So let us think through it.
Human mind is inactive only in deep sleep (सुषुप्ति) and when one becomes unconscious. At all other times our mind thinks. God dwells in the heart of every living being and observes each thought that crosses the mind. So, He also knows about the present actions of all material beings.
7 billion human beings inhabit planet Earth and only God keeps a detailed record of each thought that goes through the mind of each and every person. In future lives the present actions are called actions of past lifetimes. This Earth is in the brahmand created by Lord Brahma with four-heads. In this Sansaar-The World, the manifestation of Maya, there are uncountable brahmands (cosmic eggs), with innumerable souls living within each brahmand. He knows the innumerable actions performed by each jeev in innumerable past lifetimes. So, it is also evident that He knows about the past actions of all living beings.
Only Brahma-Supreme God grants the fruits of actions of all past karmas and only He determines which fruits would be borne by an individual soul in the present lifetime. The Sanskrit work for these is prarabdh karm. He does not delegate this responsibility to anyone else (see Who Builds Our Destiny?). So, He obviously also knows that part of the future. Let it be known that this is a small fraction of our future. Now, let us talk about the other part of our future.
Prior to taking a decision, human beings weigh the pros and cons of that action. Most times the mental work (or that thinking) does not result in any physical action e.g. when you are harmed by someone, you think about it, make plans to retaliate against that, but are scared of being caught and so decide not to act on those plans. We have been given a free-will to decide what we want to do. And in fact, due to Maya we keep changing our mind frequently all through the day. God, who is sitting in the heart, knows and records all those mental actions. These actions performed in this lifetime out of our own free will are referred to as kriyamaan karm (क्रियमाण कर्म). Though, He doesn't know what thought will cross our mind the next moment, yet before we act on our decision God knows what we will enact next with our Gyanendriyan or Karmendriyan.
So, it is true that God knows the past, present and only a part of the future for all of us. We have the free-will so only we are responsible for our actions; God does not act on our behalf or intervene.
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सुकृत या दुष्कृत गोविंद राधे । भाग्य हरि काल न कराता बता दे ॥ 1151
कर्म शक्ति मात्र दे गोविंद राधे । कर्मों में स्वतंत्र सब जीवों को बता दे ॥ 1153 - राधा गोविंद गीत
- जगद्गुरुत्तम स्वामी श्री कृपालु जी महाराज We cannot blame our circumstances, destiny or God for the actions that we perform - righteous or sinful. God merely grants us the power to perform actions as per our free will.
- Radha Govind Geet
- Jagadguruttam Swami Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj |
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