hermit's chronicles

Vaidyanath: Sir, I have a doubt. People speak of free will. They say that a man can do either good or evil according to his will. Is it true? Are we really free to do whatever we like? Sri Ramakrishna: Everything depends on the will of God. The world is His play. He has created all these different things - great and small, strong and weak, good and bad, virtuous and vicious. This is all His maya, His sport. You must have observed that all the trees in a garden are not of the same kind. As long as a man has not realized God, he thinks he is free. It is God Himself who keeps this error in man. Otherwise sin would have multiplied. Man would not have been afraid of sin, and there would have been no punishment for it. But do you know the attitude of one who has realized God? He feels: 'I am the machine, and Thou, O Lord, art the Operator. I am the house and Thou art the Indweller. I am the chariot and Thou art the Driver. I move as Thou movest me; I speak as Thou makest me speak.* - Exc...

Check out the a fascinating (bizarre?!) Buddhist discussion on the nursery rhyme-mantra Row, Row, Row The Boat ! Also, shunyayogi recommends you contemplate on an earlier posting, Nursery Mantra .

The purpose of life is to remain connected to the Self, the Source. You are connected to the Self when you do whatever you feel like doing in a given situation, without any regrets about the past, without any complaints about the present, and without any expectations in the future. You get disconnected as soon as you blame and condemn anyone for anything – either yourself or the other. As soon as there is awareness of this fact, without any recrimination, you get reconnected. You get disconnected when you pursue a preference or desire, and you remain disconnected during the entire process. Your sudden awareness of what had happened reconnects you with the Self. You get disconnected when your thinking mind asks useless questions and gets you involved into conceptualizing and objectivizing. A sudden awareness of this fact gets you reconnected to the Self. You get disconnected when a psychological pain, instead of remaining in the present moment, drags itself into horizontal involvement –...

If you do not change direction, you will end up where you are headed. - Lao Tzu

Know this: What is, is Knowing this, Do whatever needs To be done. Then, Accept the consequences With equanimity.