There is no end to consideration, once a person begins to think about it. If there is any religion it is in consideration, considering that feeling which can be hurt by a moment's thoughtlessness. If there is any abode of God, it is in the heart of man. If the heart is touched wrongly it has an effect upon destiny. One does not realize to what extent destiny can be changed by the feeling of another person; it can change it more than our own feeling. One always wishes good for oneself; no one wishes to be unhappy.
There are also planetary influences. What are these planetary influences and what relation do they have to us? The answer is that man is a planet also; and as one planet is related to the other, so in the same way the planets are related to mankind. Naturally a change in the condition of a planet and the effect produced by that planet have an influence upon man's life. One might ask if man is really so small as to be under the influence of a planet. Yes, outwardly; outwardly man is as small as a drop in the ocean. If the planet is an ocean, then the individual is a drop. But inwardly the planet is a drop in the ocean of man; that is the heart of man. As if, the great philosopher, says, 'My ignorance, the day you depart my heart will be open, and this whole universe will become a bubble in the ocean of my heart.'
Limitation, smallness, and imperfection are the outcome of ignorance. But when the heart is open the whole universe is in it, and the source of destiny, its secret and its mystery are in the hand of man. What, then, is the way in which to believe in destiny and free will? The best way of believing in destiny is to think that all the disagreeable things we have gone through are part of destiny and belong to the past; to think that we are free from it. And the best way of looking at free will is to keep in mind that all that is to come, all that is before us, is the outcome of free will. To keep before us as a concentration that nothing wrong will touch us, that all that is good for us lies before us. It is wrong to think that worse things are in store for us because destiny has preserved our Karma and ordained that we must suffer, and that one has to pay according to one's Karma. For the one who is conscious of Karma will have to pay a high interest; the more conscious he is of it, the higher the interest he will have to pay.
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