Am I mere puppet in earthly existence?

How does my hard work help me, when everything I do is predetermined?

If it is so that not a leaf moves without the will of God, how do I work out my own salvation?

Why is that one with a questionable character enjoys life to the fullest, while a good-hearted man suffers from penury, aliments and is deluged in misery?

How do I deal with the web of Karma?

...These questions have always bothered man and continue to do so. Sometimes we wonder who is more powerful: karma or God. The advance of modern science has demonstrated the superiority of the modern amoral man. He is even on the verge of duplicating himself! How does the law of karma then come into play?

Both science and spirituality move towards the same conclusion: man is the maker of his own destiny. Like a student who does not prepare well, fails in the exam or one who trains well helps his team win a basketball game; man too enjoys the rewards arising out of cause and effect. With our finite and limited vision, we perceive only limited causes and try to judge the deservedness of the effect. The circumstances that determine our lives are too many forming one complex web. Human life is far more complex than a laboratory test or a mathematics problem.

The law of Karma is the most dynamic of all concepts debunking the argument that it is fatalistic. We make every moment of our lives. It all depends on how we make it. Our qualifying the making of our lives qualifies the effect – something we see either now or years later. Good work or bad work both qualifies the charting of our lives. Even the act of breathing is a life qualifying activity.

Man has been gifted with two unique faculties: viveka (discrimination) and vairagya (detachment). The proper use of these two faculties helps man to develop an attitude towards the web of karma. Discrimination helps him to determine what is good and what is bad. Detachment helps him to be detached and uninterested in the personal benefit he derives from each activity. Man is like a herbivorous beast tethered to a tree. Within the limited freedom of the length of the rope, he can graze and enjoy life, not beyond. The feeling of discrimination and detachment does not help him to tear away from the rope that binds him, but creates for him an attitude whereby he regards his limited world as an infinite field of infinite possibilities wherein he can create and recreate his life. This will start having an effect on all circumstances that influence him. The web is then no longer a bondage but an infinite network for channeling his life. It becomes his medium for making him the master of the moment, scriptwriter of his own life, a God in the making.

No wonder Bhagawan often reminds us, "You too are God, but you do not know it whereas I do."