How important is luck?I have a friend who gets irked every time I talk about luck, he thinks luck is basically a non factor and everything has to do with effort and will.Another friend agree with me that luck is an important factor, but we disagree on various concepts (for example, he doesn't think that being born into a rich family is luck, I still don't get his way of thinking on that but when I say that we don't choose as newborns, he thinks I'm talking about previous lives and such, and says that it isn't luck because he thinks the parents being rich is a sort of "inherited effort")Anyway, what's your posture? Does luck exist to you? How important is it?
>>37861155God(me) created the whole dang universe out of pure will.
>>37861164You have a very flawed will.
I agree with your first friend.Luck is not attatched to a person, it just explains the apparently favorable outcome of a random sequence.Your second friend is also correct, it is not necessarily luck by your definition born into a rich family because not everyone in a rich family is better off it could lead to debt and drug problems or an unhappy life.
>>37861155Overrated
>>37861155Try to detail what luck even is, and you will see that it does not exist.Seriously - what is it? It's a blatant denial of anything deterministic.So it's probabilistic? But to say you have "good luck" is to insist the probability will go in your favor - which is deterministic.And as others have pointed out - it makes zero room for will, so it isnt idealistic (a la all is mind) either.Luck can be detailed as such:>when some neutral agent rolls a d6, the chance of getting a 6 is 1/6>when good luck agent rolls a d6, the chance of getting a 6 is 1/5 - without any reasonIt makes no sense, and the ancient masters saw no reason to factor it into consideration.>Gita 18.13: O mighty-armed Arjuna, according to the Vedānta there are five causes for the accomplishment of all action. Now learn of these from Me.>14: The place of action [the body], the performer, the various senses, the many different kinds of endeavor, and ultimately the Supersoul – these are the five factors of action.>15: Whatever right or wrong action a man performs by body, mind or speech is caused by these five factors.>16: Therefore one who thinks himself the only doer, not considering the five factors, is certainly not very intelligent and cannot see things as they are. People that talk about luck do not properly understand the influence of past actions.It is like thinking a rogue wave in the ocean spontaneously appears, and not understanding how the wave patterns can interact and magnify the amplitude.Luck is not knowing the whole picture.
>>37862403Luck is being favored by the divine genera that govern the phenomenal world. They collapse the universal wavefunction as is needed for destiny (God's will) to be accomplished.
>>37862915Divine favor has nothing to do with the material world. To suggest that you found $20 on the ground because God favors you is to desecrate and degrade the Divine.>Gita 5.15: Nor does the Supreme Lord assume anyone’s sinful or pious activities. Embodied beings, however, are bewildered because of the ignorance which covers their real knowledge.>9.9: O Dhanañjaya, all this work cannot bind Me. I am ever detached from all these material activities, seated as though neutral.>9.29: I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him.>Bhagavatam 10.88.8: The Personality of Godhead said: If I especially favor someone, I gradually deprive him of his wealth. Then the relatives and friends of such a poverty-stricken man abandon him. In this way he suffers one distress after another.>10.88.9: When he becomes frustrated in his attempts to make money and instead befriends My devotees, I bestow My special mercy upon him.>10.88.10: A person who has thus become sober fully realizes the Absolute as the highest truth, the most subtle and perfect manifestation of spirit, the transcendental existence without end. In this way realizing that the Supreme Truth is the foundation of his own existence, he is freed from the cycle of material life. God cares only for you - the eternal soul. There is no concern for the workings of material nature - the interactions of karma work automatically.You confuse the temporary beneficial results of past actions with Divine Favor because you do not see the subtle connections between actions and results.
