Talk Show – Understanding Karma and Destiny

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, just continuing on a very interesting conversation we had about why bad things happen to good people. You know, this thought always comes in my mind about the difference between karma and destiny.
Is there a difference? What’s the difference between karma and destiny? To understand the difference between karma and destiny, first we’ll have to clarify, firstly, what do we mean by karma and destiny? So, the word karma actually is multivalent. It has four distinct meanings and we have to be a little careful. It is not technical.
We generally use the word karma at first level to refer to our actions. So, we should do good karma. We should avoid bad karma.
Here, it is different. Karma is actions. A second meaning of the word karma is also reactions.
I am suffering my karma. Here, it’s not that I’m suffering my karma literally. I’m suffering the reactions to my karma.
So, karma can refer to actions. Karma can also refer to reactions. Thirdly, karma also refers to the law of karma.
The whole system of action-reaction, that is also called as karma. So, we are all under the law of karma. Then we have the third sense.
The fourth is that the word karma is also used as a shorthand for su-karma or good karma. So, karma and vi-karma, those are two opposites. Vi-karma is bad karma and good karma is also referred to in short as just karma.
So, these are the four broad meanings of the word karma. Now, when we use the word destiny, that also we use it in two senses. We use it sometimes to refer to, I believe that is my destiny, say, a young cricketer may say, to become the next Virat Kohli, that is my destiny.
So, here when we are using the word destiny, we are using it more in terms of a future aspiration, what I dream of achieving. So, this sense of destiny is more in terms of the future that is to be achieved or that is going to happen or that I hope will happen. We use destiny in another sense when we say, oh, my destiny is rotten.
Hence, my destiny is rotten. So, when we say that, that means that we feel that things are going wrong in our life. So, in the first sense, we use destiny to refer to what we aim to achieve in our life.
The second sense, we use destiny to refer to what is happening to us. So, after talking about these different senses of karma and destiny, now let’s try to understand how the two are correlated. So, from the philosophical perspective, let’s focus on the second sense of destiny, that things that happen to us.
There are few activities that are as performance-driven as sports. Even then, even in sports, sports players know that performance matters, but performance is not all that matters. Even the best of sports players, they know there’s something beyond their power that can shape the results.
And so, many sports players have their own superstitions. Some batsmen, when they go out to field, they look up at the sun, and if they can see the sun, they consider it as a good omen. In this cloud, when they can’t see the sun, they think it’s a bad omen.
So, there was an Australian batsman, Mark Taylor, whenever he would go out to bat, he would first go to the washroom and cover the lids of all the commodes, and then he would go out to bat. And if any time he got out early, he would come back, instead of going to the pavilion, he would go to the commodes, and if any of the lids were open, he would go and blast his team members. Why did you keep the commode lids open? That’s why I got out.
And logically, there is no correlation between his batting and the commode lids. But the point is, even he recognises that there is something beyond his batting capacity or his batting performance that determines the results. So, that unknown, in their own idiosyncratic way, they try to appease.
So, the unknown element in human life which determines the results, that is called as destiny. So, there is something which is in our hands, something which is not in our hands. So, what is not in our hands is called as destiny.
So, now, with this, the unknown that happens to us, that is destiny. And then, with respect to karma, let me take the first sense of the word karma, that is, the actions that we do. So, I would like to give an equation over here.
Karma plus daiva plus kala leads to phala. So, karma is the action that we do. Daiva is the destiny.
Kala is the passage of time. And phala is the fruit. So, let’s take an agriculture example.
A farmer sows the seeds and then ploughs the land. That sowing and ploughing is the karma. Now, after that, rains have to come.
In time, in proper quantity. The timely, adequate rainfall is daiva. After that, also, the harvest is not going to come immediately.
Time has to pass. It’s kala. So, karma plus daiva plus kala leads to phala.
When all these three come together, then the harvest will come. And the same principle applies in our life. So, karma, we could say, is that component which is in our capacity to choose wisely.
And daiva, destiny, is that component in our life which also shapes the results, but which is not in our control. So, you mentioned that there is the karma that the person does. Then there is the daiva, which is higher forces.
And there is kala, which finally gives the fruit. Now, the interesting part is, out of the three things that determine the fruit, only one seems to be in our control. Whereas, the daiva is an unknown force.
I don’t have any control over it. I don’t have any visibility of it. And the kala also, similarly, is something which is an abstract concept.
So, how do I understand this as a common person? How do I understand that the destiny which is not in my control, then there is a tendency for people then to blame whatever bad is happening to them on daiva. Oh, this is God’s will, or this is somebody else’s bad curse upon us, or whatever. It leads to a very fatalistic view.
So, how do we understand this? So, karma and daiva, both are important for the falla. And to blame daiva for not getting the falla is to not acknowledge the role of karma. So, that means if a farmer says that, oh, I don’t know whether rains will come or not.
Anyway, rains may not come. So, I’ll not sow the seeds only. Anyway, the rains come, the seeds will not grow, weeds will grow, because the karma has not been done.
So, karma needs to be done. And if after doing our, so, first of all, daiva should not lead to fatalism, because fatalism is the idea nothing is in my hands. Nothing is in my hands, I can’t do anything.
Everything is just time. That is not this philosophy at all. It’s a misunderstanding of the philosophy.
So, we are expected to do our karma. And the point of the famous verse in the Bhagavad Gita, karmanye vadhika arasthi ma phaleshu kadachana. That, do your work, but do not be attached to the fruits of your work.
That is actually an empowering philosophy. Empowering directive, because it helps us to focus on that which is in our control, and not worry about that which is not in our control. If I’m constantly worried about whether I’ll get the result or not.
If a student is preparing for the exam, and they’re worried, what kind of paper will come tomorrow? What kind, will this question come? Will something out of the syllabus come? Well, that is simply going to fill the student with anxiety. Focus on your studies. Karmanye vadhika arasthi.
Focus on your karma, the result will take care of itself in due course. So, the principle of acceptance of daiva is not at all a rationale for fatalism. It is simply an acknowledgement of the fact that there are things beyond my control.
And when we don’t acknowledge this, then we end up beating ourselves up unnecessarily. Because if I think that I alone am the producer of my results, of the results, no role for destiny, if I think like that, then that means when the results don’t come, then I alone am responsible. But sometimes, despite my best effort, the results may not come.
So, not accepting daiva leads to deforming failure from an event to a person. Just because a farmer does not get a harvest, does not make the farmer a bad farmer. It’s a bad season.
So, failure is an event. Failure is not a person. But when we don’t acknowledge the role of destiny, then we take failure personally.
We think, oh, I am a bad person. I am a good-for-nothing person. In fact, if we consider this 100 years ago, people did not have that concept of inferiority complex.
There was always diversity. So, some people were always better than other people. But people did not have these chronic mental complexes.
They have come, especially in the modern times, because our modern times are based on the denial of destiny. The modern mindset, by rejecting the role of destiny, actually makes us burden unnecessarily with negativities. If destiny is that inevitable, the way you put it, it gives the impression that, regardless of what karma I’m doing in this lifetime, because of the nature of destiny, which is coming as a result of previous activities, everything seems to be predestined.
Everything seems to be fixed in my life. It’s almost like I get a calendar, a diary, which is full of entries already. There’s very little space left for me to write anything on that diary.
The diary is already full. There’s only a few words I can squeeze in here and there to change what I’m getting in this lifetime. Since everything is predestined, then what’s the point in doing any karma? I might as well just sit back and enjoy the fruits of my previous good actions or suffer for what I did in my previous lives.
As I said earlier, that destiny is not something that determines everything in our life. There are significant things in our life that may be destined, but there is a lot of scope for individual initiative. I’ll talk of it for three levels.
First of all, I’ll talk of it at a philosophical level. Then I’ll talk of it through an incident from scripture. Then I’ll talk of it at a practical level.
If you consider the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavad Mahapurana, the scriptures of whichever religion, they all tell us, do this, don’t do this. They give guidelines, prescriptions and proscriptions. Now, if everything were destined, then this would be meaningless.
The very fact that do this and don’t do this, that means we have scope to do this or to not do this. We do have free will. So the very fact that we are expected to do certain things means that we have the capacity to do those things.
So everything is not destined. Now, with respect to your example of the calendar, that much of it is fixed already. I will take that same example and say that if you are living in North America, then, especially in the northern part of North America, there are certain seasons which are terribly cold, especially from, say, October end till almost March, February-March.
It’s very cold over there. Now, you can’t change that. That doesn’t mean that we have to always stay in our homes.
We have to prepare. So we could consider destiny to be like a weather forecast. So just as the weather shapes things substantially, whether it’s hot season or cold season, it’s a substantial change.
It’s an inevitable change. It’s an unavoidable change. But still, that does not control us completely.
Knowing in advance that, okay, this is a season which is going to be cold, we have warm clothes with us always. We readjust things. So destiny does not take away our scope for free will.
So we could say, to some extent, that destiny determines some of the things that happen to us. Free will is the choices that we have. So both of them can actually go together harmoniously, just as a person who knows that it’s going to be cold, they’re prepared and then they function in the cold.
They don’t necessarily have to stop functioning. But by denying that it’s going to be cold, they’re going to feel cold and they’ll be unprepared for that. So just acknowledging in our life that there are things which are not in my control, that helps us to focus more on the things that are in our control and do what we can.
Help me understand this. In a sense, destiny, you said, is not meant to be fatalistic, but it has been the general experience of the world that cultures which have no such concept of karma or destiny, like the United States, some of the European countries, where this concept of destiny was never there. In these kind of countries, they have been very, very progressive in terms of just by a sheer dint of hard work and intelligence and application.
These people have been able to rise to great heights, at least materially speaking. Whereas economies like India, which has got so many talented and intelligent people, but probably somewhere bound down by this concept of destiny, where if they face the hard time, the tendency would be to just blame it, well, it’s my destiny. And then the individual initiative does not rise above the weight of destiny.
So do you think that destiny is actually a limiting concept in that terms compared to what the Western countries who have no idea what destiny is, they just go by their, you know. It’s definitely true that from the material perspective, the West is much more progressive than India. Now, as I said, there is the reality of destiny and there is a psychology of destiny.
That means if psychologically we limit ourselves by thinking that things are destined and we don’t endeavour enough, then that is not a problem with the concept of destiny. It is a problem with our own comprehension of that concept or our misapplication of that concept. So there is an incident from the Srimad Bhagavatam in the 10th canto in Krishna Leela that when Krishna’s parents, Vasudev and Devaki are married and their wedding procession is going on.
So Kamsa, the cousin brother of Devaki, is driving the chariot. At that time, an akashvani comes. Celestial voice says, Kamsa, you fool! You are driving the chariot of the same woman whose eighth child is going to kill you.
Kamsa immediately catches hold of the hair of Devaki and is about to lop off her hair. At that time, Vasudev has to do what he can to protect his wife. And he tries various forms of reasoning.
And one form of reasoning he uses at that point is destiny. So Kamsa, if it is your destiny to die, then what will you achieve by doing something so grievously sinful? Killing a woman, killing your own sister, killing a woman who is your sister on her marriage day. So if it’s destined, what will you get by doing something so sinful? You will not be able to escape your destiny.
Now Vasudev could have turned that same argument around and he could have said, if it is Devaki’s destiny to die, all my argument is not going to help. So why am I trying all this? He did not do that. So the knowledge of predestination, so in English, the word, as I said, destiny has two meanings.
So to differentiate more precisely, when you talk about the idea that things are controlled, the more precise word is predestination. The knowledge of predestination of things, predetermination of things, that did not stop him from his endeavour to stop Vasudev, Kamsa from killing Devaki. Why is that? Because the focus was not on Daiva.
The focus was on duty, on dharma. So for him, his dharma as a husband was to protect his wife. And he was not going to use the rational, let any concept of Daiva make him irresponsible.
Then why was he reminding Kamsa of the concept of Daiva? Because Kamsa was forgetting his dharma. His dharma was also to protect his sister. So the point is that if we look at it traditionally, it has never been seen that people just passively accepted Daiva and became irresponsible.
Arjuna fought a war. Arjuna did austerities. Arjuna acquired weapons.
He did not think, oh, it was my destiny to lose my kingdom. We lost it, what can we do? He did what it took. So he was a top-notch archer and did not become an archer by just thinking everything is a strain.
He practised tirelessly. So in India, we have seen that there is art, phenomenal forms of dances, kinds of architecture, paintings, literature. The Mahabharata is a poem which is 110,000 verses.
It is longer than, it is seven times longer than the two of the longest poems in the Western world. Iliad and Odyssey. So if people had believed that everything is a strain and they are powerless, people would not have written things like this.
So as far as the tradition in terms of what is revealed in the wisdom texts is concerned, the concept of destiny has never been used to make people lethargic or apathetic. People have been proactive, active and proactive in whatever, in doing their responsibilities. In the modern times, from the mediaeval in the modern times, for various historical reasons, India was under foreign subjugation.
So I won’t go into the socio-political or socio-historical reasons for that. But the situation was such that Indians didn’t have political power. And that’s why Indians have a great capacity for malleability.
Whatever situation you are put in, find out somewhere and move on. So is this fatalism? Not necessarily, because we see that if Indians are put in a situation which is conducive for their growth, they are phenomenally productive. Now as a teacher of bhakti, I travel in different parts of the world.
I’ve been to Australia, I’ve been to America, I’ve been to South America, Canada, UK, Middle East. And everywhere that I went, I talked with the local people there, talked with the Indians. Indians are a highly respected immigrant community, wherever they go.
Now why is it, if the Indians are fatalistic, are supposedly fatalistic? No, it’s not like that. In all these countries, they also see, Indians are, if you see all these places, Indians are quite different from, Indian culture is quite different from their culture. But Indians have got a place of respect because they are industries, because they are responsible, because they are principled.
So to say that Indians are fatalistic and because of that India is not progressing, is an oversimplification to the point of distortion. It is, rather India has been historically subjugated by powers, by foreign powers. Many of them were exploitative and they plundered India’s wealth.
If you see that way, the foreign invaders who came to India, they came because India was wealthy. Nobody goes to a poor country to invade. The Mughals came to India, the Britishers came to India because India was wealthy.
Where did this wealth come from? It came from the industriousness, not in the industriousness in the sense of industrial revolution or industrialisation. Industriousness in the sense of hard work, diligence of the Indians. So now also, India has the potential to rise.
So in general, it is true that Indians are not revolutionaries. Indians don’t usually revolt against the existing system. They just try to work within the system and do what they can.
So in that sense, we have not had revolutions in India. And from one perspective, you could say it’s called a limitation. But from another perspective, that has provided stability.
If you see, among all the ancient cultures of the world, ancient civilisations, we consider Aztec civilisation, Mayan civilisation, Mesopotamian civilisation, Egyptian civilisation. None of them are existing today. Egypt exists, but the Egyptian civilisation today has nothing similar with the Egyptian civilisation of the ancient times.
India is practically speaking the only ancient civilisation that is continuing. And this sustainability is because of the capacity of malleability. Now going to the other part of the West, having taken the initiative and progressed, I’d say that is definitely true.
A credit has to be given where it is due. Western people have taken initiative. But there is also a flip side to that.
And that flip side is, the West is plagued by enormous levels of mental health problems. The main reason, I would say, for that is this whole idea of not acknowledging destiny. If I think everything is in my control, then if something doesn’t work out, then I am to be blamed for that.
And in general, sociologists have found out that in countries or in civilisations, where there is acknowledgement of the concept of destiny, people’s anxiety levels, people’s mental health, anxiety levels are lower, people’s mental health level is higher. So, this is actually paradoxical in a sense, because normally we associate anxiety with uncertainty. If I am going to catch a flight, and I am not sure whether I will reach on time or not, that uncertainty causes anxiety.
Now, if you consider the first world countries, like say America, there the uncertainties with respect to material resources are far lesser. If you turn on a tap, water will come, if you turn on a button, light will turn on. So, the uncertainties are there, relatively speaking, as far as material utilities and material needs are concerned.
But still there is anxiety. So, on the other hand, in India, there is so much austerity. But people are not just being eaten up by their minds.
So, acknowledgement of destiny can lead to fatalism, and in some cases, it may have led to fatalism also. But overall, to say that India has not progressed because of being fatalistic, or to say that America has progressed because of taking initiative, that is oversimplification. One last question from my side.
At a very practical level, there are people who are housewives, there are people who are working in companies, people who are business people, students, and for all of them, there is this classic divide between what is ambition, and how do I balance it with destiny. So, I tend to see this, that people have a lot of ambition, some people have a lot of ambition, and they tend to be the people who do not have too much of an understanding of destiny, or people who have a very strong understanding of karma and destiny, may not be that ambitious to get things done. So, at a very practical level, what would be your takeaway advice to people, that how should we balance between having material ambition, and tempering it with an understanding of destiny, that while it is good to have ambition, it is not always necessary that you will be able to meet it, because if destiny is not favouring you, you may not be able to do it.
So, how do we balance these two? It is a big question, and I had to give you a short answer. Well, actually there are three questions in what you have said, it is not just one. So, is it necessarily true that people who have a strong sense of ambition, do not accept destiny, or is it true that people who have ambition, who accept destiny, do not have ambition? Not necessarily, although it is possible.
See, the important point is to recognise these two things in life. There is something in my control, and there is something beyond my control. And focussing only on one at the denial of the other is detrimental.
Both ways, to think that everything is in my control is detrimental, it can lead to mental health problems. To think that nothing is in my control, that is also detrimental. There has to be balance.
Now, I will give a simple example to illustrate this. In the same situation, say I have an exam tomorrow. The student has an exam tomorrow.
And the student starts thinking, will I be able to remember? Will something out of the syllabus come? Will something which I have not studied so well come? The student starts thinking of all the things that are not in one’s control, that will lead to anxiety. But in that same situation, the student focusses on, okay, tomorrow is my exam, I have 12 hours now. Let me focus.
Let me revise what I have learnt. Let me clarify what is not so clear. Let me remember the formulas.
So, that can bring intensity. In the same situation, which can cause anxiety, when we focus on that which is not in our control, that can bring intensity if we focus on that which is not in our control. So, the point is not of things are not in our control or things are in our control.
Both are always there. So, if I would say people who are ambitious, they also know that there are things beyond my control. Nobody can actually function in life without encountering, banging one’s head with the reality that there are things which are not in my control.
So, you said that destiny doesn’t lead one to become resigned about their fate. It can also be conducive to ambition. Could you please elaborate on that? So, I think a year or so ago, there was a T20 World Cup.
And India in the semifinals performed very well. The Indian fielder, they went, actually leapt over the boundary and they took a catch. Two team members took a catch together.
And everybody was jubilant. But then they found that there was no ball. It happened not once, but twice.
And both were decisive. Both happened at critical moments and India lost the match. So, now it’s a superlative performance and still they lost.
So, the point here is, there’s acknowledgement. There was an Indian cricketer, Saheb Agh. I saw once a newspaper headline.
He had scored a double century. And after a century when he had scored, at that time, he hit a shot and it went a catch. A straight forward catch to one of the best fielders in the West Indian team.
And that fielder dropped the catch. And he said, when he dropped the catch, I knew God was on my side. Now, does God take sides in a cricket match? That’s a different philosophical issue.
But the point is, he also recognised. He could have got out in that. He did not get out.
So, even the best of performers, they know that there are things in our control and things not in our control. So, ambitious people focus on that which is in their control. People who are apathetic.
People who are lethargic. They focus on that which is not in their control. And focussing on that which is in our control is empowering.
Focussing on that which is not in our control is disempowering. Now, with respect to the whole analysis of focussing on higher understandings. Of how the two interplay.
Or how we can work in our lives. If you consider tennis, there is the players, they alternately serve and they return serve. Now, when the player is serving, at that time, the player has a lot of liberty.
They can serve at one extreme of the court, they can serve at the other extreme of the court. They can serve right into the body of the other player. They can decide how much spin to apply, how much pace to apply.
So, the player who is serving is in control. The player who is receiving has much lesser control. So, when the player is receiving, all that they can do is just try to get the ball back in the court.
So, for the receiver, the options are very limited. There are options still. Unless those options are executed well, the ball will not return back into the court itself.
But the options are limited. So, in our life, there are situations when we are serving and there are situations when we are returning. So, to recognise this is important.
So, there are times when our success, our achievement will depend on our initiative, on our drive, on our diligence, our hard work, our vision. So, those are the times when we are serving. And those are the times when we need to take initiative.
But there are other times in our life when we will be significantly circumscribed. Just too many things will come up and things may not be in our control. So, say if I am working in a company and I am made a project leader.
I have my own team and now I have a whole new project to work on. Then that’s like an institution I am serving. And okay, I can maybe be more creative, design my own work module and do a lot of innovations.
But there might be another situation where I am handed over a half complete project because other project leaders resigned or left the company. Then, already there is a deadline over there. Already the team is there.
Already the work is half done. So, at that time, I basically have to continue what is there. That time I am receiving.
So, if a player who is receiving starts acting as if they are serving, complete mismatch. They can’t do that. They don’t have that much control at that time.
So, like that we have to have the intelligence to recognise when the role of initiative is more prominent in our life and when the role of destiny is more prominent. When we are serving and when we are returning. And by practically, by thinking calmly, by recognising this difference, we can move forward and make wise choices.
There is that prayer, I think from St. Augustine, he says, Oh God, give me the strength to change the things that I can. Give me the endurance to accept the things I can’t change. And give me the wisdom to know the difference between the two.
So, all these three are important in our life. I had one clarification. Destiny and God’s will, are they the same thing or are they different? As far as the spiritual vision of life is concerned, the spiritual vision is actually not a vision of resignation.
It is a vision of ambition. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, sva-karmana tam abhyarcha siddhim vindati manava Svak, by your work, worship that supreme. And by that, siddhim vindati, you will attain perfection.
This means that Krishna is actually not just telling Arjuna, you just worship me. Do your work and through your work, worship me. And if you consider the student of Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna, he was a devotee, he was a spiritualist, but he was also an archer.
Not just an ordinary archer, he was a champion archer. That means that he practised tirelessly to become a good archer. And Arjuna won the war at Kurukshetra, not just by the knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita.
The knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita gave him the intelligence, the inspiration, but the practical skills necessary for fighting archery that he had learned earlier. And he used that. So, the material component of our life is not neglected by the Bhagavad Gita.
The Bhagavad Gita is a very world-affirming book. It is not a world-rejecting book. But it affirms the world in connection with the source of the world.
So, one way we could put our ambitions in context is that what we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. So, what we are is God’s gift to us.
If we accept this concept of destiny, then we avoid resentment. What I am right now, I am. If we don’t accept the concept of destiny, then we often become resentful.
Oh, why is this person? This person looks better than me. This person speaks better than me. This person is smarter than me.
This person has a better memory than me. Whatever. We always try to become like someone else.
We compare ourselves and often we will find people who are better than us and we will feel inferior. Accepting the concept of destiny helps us to become peaceful. If God had wanted me to be someone else, God would have made someone else.
God has made me. That means he wants me to be me. He wants me, of course, to be the best me.
But I have to become the best me. I don’t have to become the best someone else. So, accepting destiny… Now, destiny and God’s will, how are they connected? Actually, destiny is determined by our own past actions, the reactions under God’s jurisdiction.
So, destiny is not arbitrarily determined by God. Whatever actions we have done in the past, the sum total of all of them, that is what is destiny. So, it’s like if a person has earned some money and has stored that money in the bank account.
So, all the money that they have saved, all that together is their bank account balance. So, like that we have a balance of our karma that we have earned in the past. So, whatever we have done in the past, all accumulated together is our destiny.
So, now God is the person who allots. He doesn’t determine our destiny, but he allots which part of our destiny will come to us when. So, destiny in that sense we could say is mechanical.
But the Lord of destiny is personal. And when we understand that whatever I am right now, it’s because of my own karma, but it’s under God’s plan. So, whatever I have is God’s gift to me.
That acceptance is the basis for achievement. If I don’t accept who I am, I can’t move forward and achieve. Probably the greatest cricketer in Indian history is Sachin Tendulkar.
In the early days of his cricketing career, he was aspiring to become a fast bowler. And he went and did some training in fast bowling also. So, he went to a fast bowling camp and then an Australian bowler, he told him, you know, you focus on your batting.
Now, that was a pivotal decision for him. He accepted. He did not have the frame.
He did not have the physique to be a pace bowler. So, he focused on his strength. You know, accepting what we are is what enables us to focus on what we have.
So, what I am is God’s gift to me. If we accept that, we avoid resentment, we avoid unnecessary comparison, and we start focussing on using what we have. Just like, suppose there is a programme after which there is a feast for everyone.
And in that feast, everybody is given plates. But this is a unique feast in which everybody is given different food items. So, now if I also have a feast, you also have a feast.
But instead of enjoying the feast that I have, I keep going, oh, he’s got that item. Oh, she’s got that item. Oh, he’s got that item.
I keep looking at all the things that others have. I feel dissatisfied. On the other hand, I focus on what I have.
I can savour that. So, unfortunately, if we don’t accept the role of destiny, then we don’t accept what we have. Now, in our case, rather than the plate being filled with feasts, we have talents, we have interests, we have abilities.
We may have to discover them. Some of us may have gifts which are rarely visible. Some of us may have gifts which have to be dug out.
But we all have gifts. So, accept what I am is God’s gift to me. Find out what exactly is the gift.
How I can develop it. So, our starting point is not in our control. Our starting point is not in our control.
We have to accept that. You know, a person who has the physique of a batsman, this person may not have the physique of a bowler. We have to accept that.
I am not a physique suited for a fast bowler. Just accept that. But then from there, what we are is God’s gift to us.
What we become is our gift to God. God has given us talents. God has given us abilities.
And we are meant to make a contribution through them. So, developing our talents, becoming the best that we can be, that is what spirituality inspires us to do. Normally, we want to become the best because I want to prove how great I am.
But for a spiritually minded person, it’s not just the ego that is the driving force. No, there is a love that is the driving force. We want to do the best that we can as an expression of our devotion.
As an expression of our attitude of service. We want to make a positive contribution in this world in a mood of service to God. And with this mood, actually, we can not only do wonderful things, but we can do wonderful things in a wonderful way.
Sometimes people do wonderful things but in a dreadful way. That means some people want to become the best but they want to become the best by trampling on everyone else. By dragging everyone else down.
No, if we have a spiritual vision of life, we understand that in the ultimate analysis, there is no competition. My best doesn’t have to come at somebody else’s worst or somebody else’s defeat. If we have a material vision of life, then life is a zero-sum game.
My success has to come at someone else’s failure, at the cost of someone else’s failure. But a spiritual vision of life fills our life with an abundance mentality. We are not competing against each other.
We are actually a team. And we all can bring our own contribution in life. So, yes, certain positions, there will be competition in life.
That’s practical. But we all are meant to make our own contribution. So, we are all a part of an orchestra.
Ishwara sarva bhutana, Vrindesha yajna tishthati. Brahman sarva bhutani, Andhra rudhani maya. God is the director of this orchestra.
And each of us has our own tone to play. So, if we focus on playing that, then we can make our own contribution. So, far from the acknowledgement of destiny disempowering us, we can actually become empowered by the knowledge of destiny.
Accept what is unchangeable and focus assertively on changing that which is changeable. Thank you very much. That was a very insightful answer.
Hare Krishna. Thank you. Happy to be of service.
Hare Krishna.