Swami Ramdas states in his autobiography: "It is beyond Thy humble slave to know the reason. Every move Thou givest to the situation of Thy servant is considered by him to be for the best." There are two statements here which are questionable and arguable. Every move? For how many of them arise as a direct result of his own character or capacities or tendencies or of those he associates with? How many situations are of his own direct personal making? If any particular situation in which he finds himself is caused by karma out of a previous birth, it is an inevitable one, not necessarily the best one from a practical viewpoint. It just had to happen. Of course, he could turn it to good by adopting the philosophical attitude toward it, but then that is true of every possible situation without exception. Where all of them may be regarded as the best, none is. The word then loses its meaning.
What are the correct facts behind Ramdas' claim? Because he surrendered his life to God, and sincerely renounced the world in doing so, God certainly guided or helped him in return at certain times, and brought about situations on other occasions. To this extent Ramdas' faith was fully justified. But because Ramdas' human self was still the channel through which he had to express himself, the individual temperament, characteristics, and intellect contributed also to giving a shape to the other situations or developments. His unfamiliarity with Western civilization led quite directly to certain results of his world tour. Had he been more familiar with it, these results would have been markedly different. Yet Ramdas told me personally that God had arranged every step of his way on this tour! This is not, of course, a personal criticism of Ramdas, who is one of my beloved friends, but a brotherly discussion of a topic on which he has often written or spoken and always in this manner. His conclusions seem to me, in the light of both the philosophic instruction I have received and the observations of mystical circles I have made, to be confused. It is not beyond us to know the reason for some situations; indeed, it is part of our development to learn the reason. And it is not God who intervenes in every petty incident or trivial circumstance of His devotee's life.
Those who refuse to exercise the reasoning faculty with which the divine World-Idea has endowed them will certainly believe that it is "God's will" for mishaps, disappointments, frustrations, or ill health to happen to them which, by proper thought or care, could have been avoided or diverted. They have been confused about the fact that outside of limited free will, God's will is inescapably and compulsively acting upon them, but within that limited freedom their own will may reign as it chooses.
-- Notebooks Category 18: The Reverential Life > Chapter 4 : Surrender > # 75
