Sufi Story about a Man

There is a Sufi story about a man who was told by Angel of Death that he was destined to die the next morning at sunrise, and the Angel would return then to collect him. Terrified, the man jumped on his horse and began to ride at breakneck speed across the desert. When his horse became exhausted then he got a new horse and in this way rode all night – covering a vast distance.

When the sun began to rise, he stopped at an oasis, confident that he had managed to escape from the clutches of the Angel of Death. Dismounting from horse, he was distraught to see the Angel standing by the water pond. “Really surprising,” said the Angel of Death, “My superior told me to meet you at this remote location to receive your soul, and I have never known him to make mistakes, but even I was wondering and had great doubts that you will be able to reach here so fast.”

Albert Einstein once quoted Schopenhauer, a noted philosopher, as saying, “Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.” (Quoted in Max Planck, Where is Science Going? – Woolbridge, CT: Ox Bow Press, 1981, p. 201). This is the essence of karma. The play of life is arranged in such a way that one is unable to decipher the difference between an intention that has come out of of the store of our current’s life karma and a freely willed thought or action. For destiny and our freedom are interwoven. Einstein who was a firm believer in determinism went even further and said that the idea of free will is “of course preposterous.” (Quoted in Max Planck, Where is Science Going? – Woolbridge, CT: Ox Bow Press, 1981, p. 210). He was very clear and forthright about the notion of unfettered free will.

We are in fact having a conditioned free will just as in a middle of chess game. Some moves have already been played in previous days and present move is preconditioned by earlier moves. In the beginning of universe, we might have had a free will, but under the effect of Prarabdh karmas (Destiny karmas) and Sanchit Karmas (Reserve Karmas) incurred in previous life, we just have conditioned free will.

As the familiar saying goes, “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” (Stephen R. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990, p.46). Everything we think or do has an effect, either on ourselves or on others, and the accumulation of all those have resulted in the life that we are living now.

Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast rule to tell that from where an intention comes. Psychologically speaking, we are aware of the thought, emotion, desire, intuition, or other mental forces that impel us to do action. What produced that intention-free will or destiny-is unknown to us. So we have to use the golden rule for self-development is to assume that you are free to choose your thoughts and actions, and try to make sure that only good passes through your mind.

However paradoxically, most of the time this assumption might be wrong. For all of us leaving aside the few highly spiritually evolved souls (saints), destiny plays a much bigger role than free will. Thus freedom being such a rare commodity in our lives, it is very crucial not to give away few chances we have been given to exercise them by choosing something bad than good. That is to say that whatever free will we possess after accumulating countless karmic impressions during our untold number of incarnations in various physical forms should be used with prudence.

It is like spending your every bit of money that passes through hands with utmost care and should be earmarked to pay inescapable expenses. If you keep on writing checks and using credit cards to pay for your expenses so that nothing is left in your account. But suddenly a miracle happens! You get some extra income from somewhere. If through force of habit you recklessly spend it then you are back to square one. However, if you start investing your money in some saving account, over time it will grow through compound interest.

Karmic law works the same way. A little bit of good can turn into a lot of good later. And vice-versa for what is bad. The Dalai Lama writes, “The potential of karma always increases over time. Small seeds have the potential to turn into massive fruits......From the slightest positive actions come the greatest consequence of happiness, and in the same way the smallest negative action can bring about very intense suffering.....Just as drop of water can fill a large vessel, in the same way the smallest actions, when continuously committed, can fill the minds of the sentient beings. (The Dalai Lama, The Way to Freedom – New York: Harper-San Francisco, 1994, p. 90-91).