Have you ever wondered why someone is born intelligent, and some not as much. Someone born in a wealthy family, and some who can’t make ends meet. Some are born as humans, while others as animals. Some are born as a de:vatha (with divine powers like Indra, Bramha, Surya etc), and some born as stha:vara (mountains etc)…

Do you want to say it’s karma of the soul? If so, why did each soul behave differently in the first place? Aren’t everyone guided by God, the supreme indwelling power? Do you feel that God is being unfair? If God is the supreme and runs everything, then why should such differences exist?

Bramharshi, the greatest of the great sages, Vedavyas has listed a Bramhasutra that answers all the questions. Let’s look at a close analogy to understand.

When a baby is ready for the first solid feed, family celebrates it by a small ritual that gives the baby a ‘free-will’. Family arranges various objects on one side and the parents on the other side. The baby begins to crawl; goes in the direction of objects and picks one of them or goes to the parents.

Similarly, bramhasutra states aadya pravrutthi (the first flow of natural inclination of a soul). By nature, all souls have jna:na, knowledge of three realities [nature (prakruthi), the supreme (paramathma), self (athma)]. We (all souls) were all left to act for the first time in full independence with all options equally open to everyone. Each one chose a different first pravrutthi. Accordingly, the supreme power God began His support to them. From the second pravrutthi onwards, He was with them all throughout to enable their existence and provide the support. The choice of first pravrutthi is the cause for inequalities stemming from the consequences of the choice.

Why did God give them swatantrya, full independence, for the first time?

If He didn’t leave them at full independence the first time, the souls could complain asking why they weren’t allowed to make a choice because they are knowledgeable by nature.

Why did God take away independence from the soul after first pravrutthi?

He didn’t take it away, but He had to take control or else they (we all) won’t survive. For the first pravrutthi, He could leave us on our own as that is the maximum time that we could survive by ourselves. It’s analogous to a severed tail of a lizard that wiggles by itself for upto 30 mins.

What do you think? Does that sound fair?

– From the teachings of HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji
– As part of Bhagavad Vishayam, 5-1-4