By Pradeep A. Shah | Chartered Accountant
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Namaskaar
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves
that we are underlings.”
Julius Caesar–
Shakespeare
What is destiny? What role does it play in our lives? How
much of what happens to us is pre-ordained? Is everything in our life
predetermined? If everything that is going to happen is already decided in
advance, what is the role of self effort? Why should we work and struggle at
all? Can destiny never be changed? What should we do? Should we sit with folded
hands and leave everything to destiny?
We Asians, particularly Indians are accused (and sometimes
rightly) of being fatalist and believing too much in ‘fate’. But this is not
true! Our wisdom and literature teaches us otherwise. The
Bhagwad Gita
tells us that we have ‘the right to work and not to the fruits of action’,
meaning that one must do one’s best and act and not get attached to the results.
The results have to be accepted. This is succinctly borne out by the following
excerpt from the
Bhagwad Gita, where Lord Krishna has
explained it thus:
“What the outstanding person does, others will try to do. The
standards such people create will be followed by the whole world.”
“O Parth, there is nothing in the three worlds for me to
gain, nor is there anything I do not have. I continue to act, but am not driven
by any need of my own.
If I ever refrained from this continuous work, everyone would
immediately follow my example.
If I ever stopped working, I would be the cause of cosmic
chaos, and finally of the destruction of this world and these people.”
In
Yoga Vasistha,
sage Vasistha explains destiny to Rama as follows:
“If an astrologer predicts that a young man would become a
great scholar, does that young man become a scholar without study? No. Then why
do we believe in destiny? Sage Vishamitra became a Brahmarishi by self effort;
all of us have attained self knowledge by self effort alone. Hence renounce
fatalism and apply yourself to self effort.
The concept of fate has been concocted to give momentary
relief to people of low intellect during periods of grief.”
We have to learn that we must work — and build our own
destiny by our own efforts…as has been so clearly expressed by an Urdu couplet
that translates as follows:
“Make yourself so great that God Himself asks you before
granting your destiny as to what thy desire is.
We also learn from Karna in
Mahabharat
when he says, “I may be a charioteer or a charioteer’s son. Where one is born,
is in the hands of God; but what one does in one’s life, is very much in one’s
own hands.”
A Gujarati poet explains further:
We have, therefore, to understand that most of our destiny is
the result of our own efforts during this very lifetime. And what passes off as
‘destiny’ is the result of the efforts and karmas of earlier lives…
It has been aptly stated thus: “Perhaps one can think of
‘destiny’ as two different things.” The accidents that may befall us, the death
of a close relative or a dear friend, natural calamities like earthquakes and
tsunamis, and man-made disasters like riots — all fall in one category. These
are happenings over which we have no control and which have no relevance to self
effort. These have to be accepted. But for things over which we have control or
are the fallouts of our actions/inactions, we have to own full responsibility
and not blame destiny or fate for them. We cannot absolve ourselves by passing
on the buck to fate. In all such matters we have to ask ourselves, “Have I done
my best?”
In the ultimate analysis, one comes to the conclusion that
‘destiny’ comes into the picture only after events have occurred; it is relevant
only to the past and should never come in our way when we plan to reach great
heights. One cannot achieve great goals by merely banking on destiny. We have to
take charge of our lives.
I believe, destiny is the result of action.
“Over the same sea, on the same winds,
A ship sails in one direction.
Another in the opposite,
It is not the wind that decides
In which direction the ship goes;
It’s the sails: how they are tied and how they are
manoeuvered…
Similarly, it is not fate that decides where
Your life is going —
It is all about how you take life,
And where you take it.”
