Devaraja Mudaliar, an ardent devotee of Ramana maharishi (on 3-1-1946) asked him, Are only important events in mans life, such as his main occupation or profession, predetermined, or are trifling acts in his life, such as taking a cup of water or moving from one place in the room to another, also predetermined?

Bhagavan Ramana replied, Yes, everything is predetermined.

Then what responsibility, what free will has man? asked the devotee. Bhagavan replied, What for then does the body come into existence? It is destined for doing the various things marked out for execution in this life. The whole programme is chalked out (Not an atom moves except by His Will) expresses the same truth, whether you say, Does not move except by His Will or Does not move except by karma.

As for freedom for man, he is always free not to identify himself with the body and not to be affected by the pleasures or pains consequent on the bodys activities.

A devotee by name Khanna asked Ramana (on 28-6-1946), Is there destiny? And if what is destined to happen will happen is there any use in prayer or effort or should we just remain idle?

Bhagavan Ramana replied, There are two ways, to conquer destiny or be independent of it. One is to enquire for whom is this destiny and discover that only the ego is bound by destiny and not the Self, and that the ego is non-existent. The other way is to kill the ego completely surrendering to the Lord, by realizing ones helplessness and saying all the time : Not I but Thou,oh Lord!, and giving up all sense of I and mine and leaving it to the Lord to do what he likes with you. Surrender can never be regarded as complete so long as the devotee wants this or that from the Lord. True Surrender is love of God for the sake of love and nothing else, not even for the sake of salvation. In other words, complete effacement of the ego is necessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve this effacement through Self-enquiry or through Bhathi-marga meaning the path of Devotion.

Khanna asked the seer whether our prayers are granted. Bhagavan replied, Yes, they are granted. No thought will go in vain. Every thought will produce its effect some time or other. Thought-force will never go in vain.

Ramanas explanation regarding fate, freewill, prayer and thought power are wonderful!

The power of prayer and thought power has never been explained so beautifully.

But still we want to know further about fate and free will. There are many more incidents in the lives of the great. Let us see one by one in the future articles.