Fate and destiny

Fate and destiny

"I believe every one of us realises at one stage or another that life on this planet is transient, and that the journey of the soul must continue even after we have ceased to be here." - Dada JP Vaswani

I believe every one of us realises at one stage or another that life on this planet is transient and that the journey of the soul must continue even after we have ceased to be here. Even those of us who refuse to acknowledge God and dismiss the concept of the soul are mystified and intrigued by what awaits us after death. In short, everyone agrees that a new chapter begins at the point of death.

For those of us who follow the Hindu way of life, our perception is very clear: the purpose of this human life is to escape from the wheel of birth, death, and rebirth and attain union with God: this union in Hindu terminology is therefore called as True Liberation, Mukti, which is above and beyond all worldly notions of freedom.

As firm believers in the Law of Karma which I like to describe as The Law of the Seed, we Hindus subscribe to the very scientific and yet profoundly Hindu belief: as we sow, so shall we reap. Each one of us has been given a plot—the field of our life. In this field of life, we are sowing seeds every day. Every thought I think, every word I utter, every deed I perform, every emotion that I arouse within my heart, every feeling, every fancy, every wish—all these are seeds I am sowing in the field of my life.

There are also the seeds we have sown in our past existence, which we are reaping now. The present is thus the effect of the past. Therefore, it follows logically, that the past and the present together will determine the future. Thus, karma is not a destiny which we cannot escape. Rather, we are the architects of our own destiny—for, by accumulating good karma, thinking good thoughts, cultivating good feelings, speaking good words and performing good actions, we can actually change our future.

Is this not sadhana at its best? It is the sadhana of daily life, living life as it ought to be lived.

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