How does destiny affect our life’s ups and downs – how is it affected by our spiritual practice?
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so how does destiny affect one’s life in different phases we may have less or more difficulties and how does all this relate with our practice of bhakti and how does all this relate with our practice of bhakti yeah firstly Vidura explains to Dhritarashtra in the Mahabharata that destiny determines the consequences of our actions it does not determine our actions themselves destiny determines the consequences of our actions that means when a student studies for an exam destiny doesn’t determine whether the student studies or not destiny determines whether after studying the student will get a good result or may not get a good result so our endeavor is always in our hands sometimes we may have tough times sometimes we may have little bit comfortable times or less tough times but through it all our freedom is always there with us and broadly speaking if we consider when we go through life there are circumstances around us there are situations around us there is there are our dispositions within us the situations around us our own dispositions our own attitudes our own thought process within us and based on their disposition and their situation and their interaction there are decisions that we take so basically our life is determined by our situations our dispositions and our decisions now destiny determines our situations some of us remain financially stable situations some of us remain financially unsteady situations similarly with respect to health similarly with respect to relationships that is decisions sorry that is situations they are determined by destiny so now we all have our dispositions some of us may be more irritable some of us may be more prone to nervousness or tension or anxiety some of us may be more sociable some of us may be introvert some of us may be extrovert these natures are also determined by destiny now when we say destiny destiny is not some mysterious unknown arbitrary force destiny is simply the sum total of our past karma so in that sense we are ourselves the makers of our destiny so consider a water tank in which water is going in from one side and water is coming out from the other side so the water going inside is the present karma that we are doing that water tank is our destiny so the water that is going in that is the action that we are doing right now and the water that is coming out is the destiny that is coming upon us the part of the destiny that is getting exhausted by coming upon us so whatever destiny is there that is also created by our past karma itself now with respect to as I said destiny, there are two ways of understanding destiny destiny determines the consequences of our actions not our actions themselves that means I may take certain decisions and I may act in particular ways but always the same results may not come out so that is a result of destiny but our decisions themselves our choices themselves are always in our hands so with this background understanding of the fact that we always have freedom to make healthy choices now let’s look at how bhakti empowers us to make these healthy choices broadly speaking whatever behavior we have whatever decisions we make which is a part of our behavior they are determined by five factors one is our past karma which creates our disposition or what popularly called as sabha or what modern science calls as genes now all of us have certain genetic inclination genetic dispositions so our genes are the first factor that determine our behavior second is our upbringing the way the kind of impression that we had in our formative years they shape our behavior significantly the third is our association and now fourth is that in spite of these these three in sociological circles are called as genetic determinism parental determinism and social determinism that means our genes determine us our parents determine us and our society but the fact is that there may be two people exactly in the same circumstances there are what is called as monozygotic twins that means the same the same egg and the same semen are joined together and both the twins have exactly the same genetic content and still they are different they are different individuals with different inclinations, different interests so their genes are same their upbringing is also same their association is also largely the same they are twins but still they are different individuals so beyond these genes beyond the upbringing beyond association we have failure that’s the fourth factor the fifth factor is God’s grace we have certain capacity to make certain choices but when we connect with Krishna our capacity to access our freedom increases now a person with an alcohol addict that person at one level has the freedom to choose whether to drink alcohol or not, at another level the desire is so strong that it is almost difficult to say no to the urge for alcohol when it hits, but when we start practicing bhakti yoga we connect with Krishna यत्मनुध्यासिना युप्ता कर्मवर्ण्धीनिवर्णुच्यिनन्ति गौन्धास्तस्य पोनगुर्यार्घथार्थे in my point to point in the Bhagavad Gita it is said that remembrance of Krishna is like a sword यत्मनुध्यासिना आसीना is sword so remembrance of Krishna becomes like a sword which enables us to cut off the pull of our past conditions of our dispositions of our addictions and that way our freedom increases so whether we are devotees or not devotees certain things in our life are going to happen sometimes good things may happen sometimes bad things may happen but bhakti enables us to it empowers us to make wise choices to make intelligent and proactive choices amidst whatever circumstances we are in so in that way within whatever destiny we have that bhakti enables us to carve the most auspicious way forward now of course there is another dynamic that Krishna himself can change destiny in the sense that whatever karma is there Krishna can burn away the karma also and bhakti can do that at the same time Krishna does not entirely necessarily eliminate the karma he takes the karma and he uses that karma to at the same time with the devotee that means that sometimes if a devotee is going to get distress Krishna will minimize the distress that is what is the best for the devotee spiritual growth and sometimes the devotee needs to get realization about the temporariness of material existence then Krishna may let some sufferings come so that the devotee becomes detached and renounced and spiritually realized and that becomes more important so that is a different part how Krishna will work how Krishna will handle our destiny that is not so much in our hands but in our hands is what destiny determines our situation destiny determines our conditions also but our decisions are in our hands and our decisions are influenced by our genes our upbringing our association our own free will and Krishna’s grace when we get Krishna’s grace then the pushings that come from our genes that come from our upbringing that come from our association all those we can counter push and we can act we can access our freedom in a beneficial way and thus create an auspicious history for ourselves does it answer your question