What factors determine our destiny?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
What are the key factors that control our destiny? And how can we improve it? Basically, we are all part of a whole bigger than ourselves.
And if we consider karma, we can say good karma and bad karma. Essentially, the idea is that if we are living in harmony with the bigger whole of which we are a part, then what we are doing is good karma. If we are living in disharmony, then that’s bad karma.
Say, for example, when we go on the road, we are driving. Now, we may be driving in our own car with our own gas, but we are a part of something much bigger than ourselves. We didn’t construct the roads.
So, we have to follow the rules of it. Then we can go smoothly. But if we break the rules, then we get a ticket.
Similarly, here what is happening? When we are participating in the road transport system, which is a whole far bigger than ourselves, if we function harmoniously, then we reap the benefit. If we are disharmonious, we reap the consequences. Similarly, we basically act, we are parts of three broad wholes, or rather three things which are bigger than ourselves.
One is, it is called our bodily circle. So, we need to live in harmony with our body. Say, if we eat too much or if we eat too little, then that is disharmony.
If we sleep too much, we become lazy. If we sleep too little, we become crazy. So, we need to be in harmony with our body.
Similarly, we live in a social circle. So, basically, in this context, good karma and bad karma would be what? If we are living disharmoniously with our body, if we are eating things which the body is not suited to eat, then that is disharmony, that will have its consequences. Some immediately, some eventually.
Similarly, when we are living with people around us. So, the way we live with them, like the golden rule which Jesus gave, it is not just by Jesus, actually, then all traditions do unto others as you would want others to do unto you. So, when we are cruel to others, when we exploit others, if we cheat others, if we hurt others, then sometimes they may not have the forward to get back to us and we may think I’m getting away with it, but the results will come naturally.
So, if we are kind and gentle and caring to others and we try to behave in a harmonious way in society, that’s also good. If we are harsh in judgment and condemning, that’s bad karma. This can go much further.
People can be exploitative and abusive and murderous. So, all that will be bad karma. Similarly, we look at the environment.
That’s also one circle in which we are living. And if we, the issue of mission is one ancient text which also says that we are a part of this whole and we need to play our part in it. We need to take what is meant for us and not more than that.
So, many of the environmental problems facing the world today are because of indiscriminate exploitation of nature and the disruption of the delicate balances in nature. So, we need to live in harmony with the environment that we live in. So, broadly, if we live in harmony, now, I didn’t go into this whole subject, but there is, these three are all holes and these three, they are bigger holes of which we are parts, but all these three holes are a part of the ultimate goal.
That is the, that is understanding the ultimate reality, the underlying unifying divinity. So, we are parts of that divinity. And to the extent we live in harmony with the divinity, by living in harmony with the smaller holes of which we are part, to that extent, we are creating a good future for ourselves.
So, there is, essentially, living in harmony is the way to create a brighter destiny for ourselves. So, the kind of actions that we do, some of them, they give results immediately. Some of them, if they are not giving results immediately, they are contributing to our future destiny.
Does that answer your question? Any other questions?