Destiny...A Long Way To Go

“I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve”

These are the words of a Nobel Peace Prize recipient Mr. Albert Schweitzer. For me this is a prodigious statement, reason is that such quotes are so much bewildering. These are voluminous words but then these have trivial meaning in our practical world. Also another reason is that there would always be another quotation by another eminent personality which would be consummately contradictory to the 1^st one. Hence that confusion deepens.

Anyways when I first read the quote I thought as to how we can seek destiny when we actually don’t know what it is. Destiny is when you have no control over life situations. That means that we cannot be certain as to what is our destiny. It is human psychology which prompts us to assume certain events or happenings to be our destiny. Hence it our mind’s conjecture and not the fact. Therefore till the time I am not assertive about my destiny how would I be able to progress towards its attainment. Recently I read that accordingly to The Science of Spirituality, in the present times 65% of our lives are ruled by destiny and 35% by willful action. Hence one point is emphatically proved that 65% of our life we have no control over our life. The learned men have given certain ways for the attainment of Destiny. One such way is by copious increase of usage of the willful actions (35%) The more we use the willful actions the less we will get dependent over destiny and therefore more chances of attaining it. Another solution provided is the “Path of Karma.” Karma is a Sanskrit word that means "action." According to Karmic Law one should perform his actions diligently without thinking of the rewards. As Lord Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita: "To the man thinking about the objects (of the senses) arises attachment towards them; from attachment, arises longing; and from longing arises anger. From anger comes delusion; and from delusion loss of memory; from loss of memory, the ruin of discrimination; and on the ruin of discrimination, he perishes". I indubitably agree to this statement but I also have certain apprehensions regarding the same. I mean this is 21^st Century and nowadays everyone is more concerned about the rewards and want the maximum returns for minimum efforts. Whenever he does not get the anticipated rewards he migrates from that course and moves towards another. The hunger for maximum rewards leads the person to change the routes more frequently and hence the result is that he is still halted at the crossroad of life. Even after so long he is not sure as to what his destiny is and how should now he proceeds to achieve it. Hence in today’s time all the philosophies have gone for a toss.

Another reason why people have overdependence over Destiny is because of Convenience Factor. The Convenience factor is a very easy method in which the blame for failure can easily be put on Destiny rather than on own negligence, lack of effort or even confusion. Though there are many such instances but let me give you all 1 such instance. Prajwal and Swati were in love for the last 4 years and it seemed that one fine day they would surely get married. But alas that was not to happen and eventually such a bond broke due to some illogical reasons. After some tears both of them move ahead with their lives. The reason given for such a misfortune is that probably God has the best for store for them or that Destiny had some other plans for either of them.

I may sound harsh here but what I feel is that the Convenience Factor surfaces here. It is convenient for Prajwal or Swati to put the blame on destiny or on God. If the “Willful Action” were thoroughly and perfectly channelized towards the achievement of the heart’s desire then surely the result would have been different. The goals would have been achieved then as actions and rewards would go hand in hand and hence the feeling of attainment of destiny.

It seems so simple but the problem surges abreast when the percentage of dependence on Destiny augments from 65% and begins to march towards the century mark. This is the time when the mind and the heart start working totally in the conflicting directions and have not even an iota of relation or similarity amongst each other. When such a situation occurs then the person has no clue as to which direction should he move towards. The confusion grows and grows and the poor helpless person gets glued at that very place and waits for the Destiny to come to him which is not possible at all. His willful actions diminish and his faith and dependence on destiny increases manifold.

What I feel is that until and unless one tries, he would not achieve anything. If one keeps on trying and trying maybe couple of times he may not succeed but eventually success would kiss their feet and then he would know that success is counted sweetest after facing defeat. This is what Emily Dickenson said in her poem and I agree to each word. If the person stays glued at his spot and waits for Destiny to come towards him then he is bound to find himself at the same spot after many years too. If he tries and at least fail then at least he would know the various paths he should not wander upon to reach his Destiny. People have a tendency of associating failure with a wrong choice of the path to Destiny. No that is not always so, maybe the path chosen by you is right but the willful actions may be a little wrong. Failures are just a way of making you realize that “listen dude” you need to make certain changes in your “willful actions”. They should not be taken so much adversely and on the contrary should motivate one to give his best towards the ultimate goal of life.

Now can we know what our destiny is? Can anyone know what he or she is destined to do in life? If anyone can have a faint idea as to what it is then it would be much facile and the efforts could be channelized in a particular direction. Now a person can have a slight idea of his destiny if he carefully listens to the person inside him. That person resides in our inner conscience. Everyone has that person beneath their soul, that person guides you when `you are in any dilemma or confusion but we all tend to ignore that person’s opinion. Once we start paying attention to what this guy inhibiting in our inner conscience says then we would surely find the right “willful actions” required to reach our Destination. That person would guide us to the Do’s and Don’ts for attainment of the Destiny. Also what we have to do is to pay heed to what both our heart and our mind say. Accepting the ideas of either one of them would be a biased act and hence not the right decision. For that right decision we need to have the right mix of the heart and the mind for any deed we have to perform. Whenever the mind and the heart work in tandem they would act as the torch bearers who would enlighten your path towards destiny. And mind you this would be the same road that takes you to the road of success and eventually to your Destiny.