Is life predestined, or do we have free will?

Almost every religion and philosophy asks the same question, The SPH says. Is everything in life predestined, or does it happen through free will?

He lists three answers that traditions give. First, it is predestined: life follows the natural law of the universe. Second, individual freedom: your own free will decides. Third, God's will, which he calls Ishwara Sangalpa.

Then he makes a sharp point. He says "God's will" has no clear definition. No tradition, he says, has shown how it can be established before something happens, while it happens and after it happens, across past, present and future. And no tradition has given a clear, strong answer to this question.

The SPH calls it an intense question and a "big incompletion." Many people carry it as a doubt: is everything in my life predestined, God's will, or my free will?

If you listen sincerely, he says, this doubt can be cleared. And if it is cleared, all your self doubt will be destroyed. In his words: "Literally 99 of your problems will be solved."

He also explains how doubt grows. When a doubt keeps going unsolved, it turns into hatred. If the hatred is not solved, it turns into denial. He names four versions:

• Self doubt, self hatred, self denial
• Life doubt, life hatred, life denial
• God doubt, God hatred, God denial
• Guru doubt, guru hatred, guru denial

All four, he says, can be destroyed with one understanding.

Each answer holds part of the truth, The SPH says, but none holds all of it.

Free will alone is not everything. Neither is the claim that everything is predestined by the natural law of the universe. That, too, is not a complete truth.

Then he turns to God's will. Some religious people try to establish that God's will explains everything. He says God's will is indescribable by its very nature. It can be shown to be irrefutable, but irrefutable does not make a truth establishable. He adds that he is not disrespecting God's will or underestimating its power.

His point is that the ultimate truth sits deeper, at the core where all three are one.

This is The SPH's own answer. He names the three parts: you, with your free will, the individual soul, which he calls Jeeva. God, with the will of Shiva, which he calls Ishwara. And the natural law of the universe, which he calls Jagat. All three, he says, are rooted and centred in the same source of existence. He calls that oneness Paramadvaita.

The step he asks for is to cognize this, to see it clearly, and then manifest yourself from that cognition. That is super-determinism.

When you do it, he says, your individual will, the predestined natural law and God's will all manifest together. He calls this synergy. That synergy manifests your life and your success.

The SPH gives an everyday example. Before a business meeting, he says, sit and cognize that you, God and the world are one and the same, established in the same source of existence.

Then he gives the words to hold: "I am that Paramashiva, I am that cosmos, I am that universe in which all the three are established." From that, he says, "I make the super determinism. From this, I manifest what I want to manifest."

You will then see the synergy of Jeeva, Ishwara and Jagat making your life, he says. The order is the point: first the cognition, then the will to manifest what you want.

Every time you manifest super-determinism, The SPH says, you will see success. And every time you see success, the four forms of doubt lose their grip on you.

Those are the four he named earlier: self doubt, self hatred and self denial; life doubt, life hatred and life denial; God doubt, God hatred and God denial; guru doubt, guru hatred and guru denial. He says they get burnt away and lose their power over you.

So in his teaching the result is not only a better outcome in one meeting. It is that the doubt underneath so many problems stops controlling you.

Do not expect the full result at the first attempt, says The SPH. His instruction is: "Again and again and again bring the super determinism."

His model is Bhagiratha, the king who brought Ganga to earth. Bhagiratha did not manifest super-determinism in his first effort of tapas towards Brahma. He tried, and manifested one level. Then he tried with Shiva, and manifested the next level. Then he tried towards Shiva again, and manifested the next. Then he tried with Janu Maharishi, and manifested another level.

Even Bhagiratha, The SPH says, tried again and again. He asks you to decide that you will be like Bhagiratha and manifest super-determinism.

A listener asks how to always be connected and intuitive. The SPH's answer: every time, consciously decide to connect. That is the only way to be connected. There is no other technique.

He says that whenever you ask for a technique, you are really asking for auto mode. You can put a flight or a car on autopilot, he says, but not your life. Life has to be lived.

So the practice is a fresh, conscious decision each time, not a setting you switch on once.