Daiva is not the Divine nor a particular god but the gods or divine powers that play a role in determining the events and circumstances of our lives. However they are not the sole arbiters of fate and certainly not those with a final word like a veto power. The gods who determine fate follow the strict determinism of the cosmic Law of karma. They do not and cannot mitigate or cancel the verdict. They can only execute it. The power to cancel the verdict or mitigate is exclusively with the Divine as Sri Krishna himself says at the close of the Gita that he can liberate from all fear, grief and sin, aham tvasarvapapebhyo mokshisyami…. But there is a condition here, if we like. The condition is that the person must have abandoned himself entirely in the hands of the Divine as Draupadi and Arjuna could do.
In other words there is the cosmic law or the law of karma that is ordinarily operative In the world with the daivas as the final executors. Above this is the Divine Compassion that comes to rescue in moments of acute crisis if there is an urgent call to the Divine, an sos cry in a state of distress sent to the Divine seeking the intervention. This is not as common as we may expect. Most victims are full of fear and agitation and rage rather than calling the Divine for help. The third and most powerful is the Divine Grace that is unconditional and can completely annul the law of karma but there is a reason as to why and when it acts.
That would explain why Draupadi and few others, why not every woman get the same protection and intervention. The answer lies in the fact that Draupadi is completely given to Sri Krishna. Besides her life is a life of purpose and a divine mission. She does not concede easily. She challenges the king and at no moment allows fear to set in. And most importantly she calls Krishna when faced against the wall in distress with full faith that he will come. How then can her case be compared to anyone? This world is full of variety and what applies to one does not necessarily apply to others. The Cosmic forces take into account several things when they act. For example if a man has lived selfishly all his life largely with an animal consciousness or even an Asuric consciousness centred around food, sex, desires then the general law applies. It is only when one turns to the Divine and turns his life or her life towards higher things that special protection is extended.
So daiva is one of the set of forces. The most important is adhisthana or what is your base or ground of being. It implies faith, state of consciousness, way of life, etc. Then there is the karta wherein which part of our being, the level of consciousness that is mainly operative in our actions. The karana is the previous actions in times gone by, in the past whose time for fruition has come. Prayatna implies what kind of effort we are putting in front our side in the face of a challenge. A right effort or purushartha itself can mitigate the fruits of past karmas. All these factors can be understood in detail. But to restrict myself to the question of daiva, well if they had the absolute power and the mandate to uproot evil then evil would have been vanquished by now. Obviously their role and powers are limited as far as determining fate is concerned. If they had the power to save people from evil deeds then there would have been no evil at all to begin with. The cosmic evil is too deep to be uprooted by the gods.
This does not fully address the problem of why there is evil at all? After all it strikes as an anomaly with regard to our conceptions of the Divine. Also how exactly karma operates? The Gita does not take up these questions though it passingly refers to the law of karma. In fact no scripture in the world addresses this question to the fullest satisfaction except for Sri Aurobindo. That is however a separate subject for discussion.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
