Some people misunderstand the concept of predestiny and believe it to be terrible slavery. This is only so because of their identification with the physical body.

Indeed, if you think yourself to be only flesh and bones, hearing that the story of your life has already been written (which can be read in your birth chart) seems like a terrible thing.

But to your real Self, it’s freeing. We are currently identified with the characters of a collective dream who are acting as they are supposed to. But because the identification is so strong, we think we are those characters, doing things, and deciding what to do.

(Even if you know this, it’s really good to have this told you over and over again, because the belief that we are the bodies can be very strong. Hearing this truth over and over again will weaken this identification.)

Things change when you awaken. Then you realizze that not even thoughts are your own. They just happen.

Sometimes, the same kind of thought keeps coming into the mind until it manifests in reality. Were a person not awakened, she would believe that she was responsible for the manifestation of it.

And then some thoughts remain below the consciousness level, and still manifest something that a human being would believe to have come out of nowhere.

When you are detached from thoughts yet aware of them, you realize you are simply a witness of things manifesting. You don’t originate anything. A thought comes into your mind, then again, and again, until the mind gets fixated on it, making the body take action to manifest it.

You really do nothing whatsoever – things happen by themselves.

Often both Maharshi and Maharaj would get questions about how to help the world. Both would say not to worry about the world because what’s supposed to happen will. In Maharshi’s own words:

Q: Should I try to help the suffering world?

A: The Power that created you created the world as well. If God created the world it is His business to look after it, not yours.

The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi by Arthur Osborne

Different situations would make the same question answered in different ways, but the gist of the message is not to concern yourself with the world. Once you awaken and realize the world is but a collective dream, who is there to save, and from what?

That’s why I don’t worry about the new normal insanity. My task is to never come back here. I don’t want to become more enmeshed in the dream by emotionally reacting to its issues and taking action against the current situation. I’m interested only in freeing myself from this existence.

I find that the less I pay attention to the world, the more reality it loses. It indeed looks like a fantasy, a passing dream where nothing can be certain. The ever-changing show to entertain, rather than to believe in.

What is real is within. My focus on the Self results in immense love radiating outwards, and it paints even today’s world in beautiful colors. So it’s not the world to be concerned about, but focusing on the Divine within, as that’s where salvation – enlightenment – liberation is.

Ramana Maharshi also taught that you are where you’re supposed to be. This was told by Eckhart Tolle too. There’s no need to change your location to become more mindful. If it’s destined, it will happen by itself:

Even the environment doesn’t happen by accident. The Guru creates the conditions necessary for one’s quest.

The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi by Arthur Osborne

You are in the place that’s perfect for you. The Self places you in the conditions necessary for your development.

Maharshi was, therefore, sometimes asked about his own situation. How come he himself left his place of birth as a child, to meditate far away from home on a mountain.

He would say that it was his destiny. If it’s in your destiny to change your place of living, you will just do it without any questions asked. Yet if you’re not sure about it, you will be asking questions of gurus and other people, and doubting yourself what to do.

The best thing to do then is to take no action but wait. If you are destined to change your location, it will happen. The circumstances will arrange themselves for you to move. This happened to me when I had to leave Nepal for the UK, and then fly to Lithuania. Nothing was planned – it was all the circumstances making me move.

And this applies not only to travels but to everything in life. If you’re not sure what to do, don’t take action – wait. Life itself will make you take the right action.

And what’s even better, those actions that life directs you to take will take you closer to liberation. You only need to listen to Life – Guru – Self, rather than the mind that’s limited and often totally illogical.