If we work hard doesn’t that hard work become the cause of our positive destiny?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So if we are working hard, doesn’t that mean that because of the hard work, destiny owes us the result? Well, life is not so fair. That’s a fact of life we just need to learn, that life is not fair from the short-term perspective.
There are times when we may work very hard, but, I’ll give you an example. A student works very hard, but say, before the exam, he’s going to fall sick. What can you do with it? All the hard work is there.
Either they can’t appear for the exam, or do it, they appear, but just not sharp enough to write properly. It is just happening. So, we, if you see, Krishna tells you, karmanleva adhikara sthe mahadeva shukta bhaji.
Now what does it mean? It says, we have a right to the work, but it does not be attached to the work. Some people take this to mean, how can you work without dreaming about our goal? You have to work, and you think, ok, I’ll achieve this much mark, I’ll go to this college, I’ll get this job, I have many self-help teachers, and visualize your success. And Krishna says, don’t be attached to the work.
It may appear that what Krishna is telling you is completely impractical, but what Krishna is telling you is something profound. You see, after the Bhagavad Gita was spoken, there was the Kurukshetra war that took place. And in that war, everywhere the Pandavas were setting goals.
As you see, on the 14th day, Arjuna set a goal that, by tonight, I will avenge the death of Bhagavad Gita by killing Jaidra. That’s the goal. And then Krishna did not tell him, Arjuna, you forgot the Bhagavad Gita.
He did not do that. So, there is a difference between goals and results. Goals are what we set to increase our focus.
Results are what come after the work is done. The Bhagavad Gita is not against setting goals. Because setting goals and increasing our focus is in our control.
So, in this equation of karma, daiva, kaal, niksha, phala, karma is in our control. And setting a goal, or in Sanskrit, we call it dheya, that helps us to do our karma more wholeheartedly. But phala is not in our hands.
Even after studying to the best of our capacity, something may happen by which we will not get the result. Or it may just happen that, we study very well, but then in that particular batch, there are just too many brilliant students. So, sometimes things may be beyond our control.
So, if we are attached to phala, if we are attached to the root, then we are attached to that which is not in our control. And that is disempowered. When we become dependent, emotionally, psychologically, on that which is not in our control, that is empowered.
Whereas, when we set a goal, that goal helps us to focus. And the focus is empowered. This is what I can do, this is what I will do.
So, that way, the karma is always, if we do our duty properly, that is always good. But that may not lead to permanent result. So, what may happen is, if we have done our duty well, that duty will contribute to our total karma balance.
And that will come as a good result in future. But that may not come as a result in future. So, that’s why daiva also plays a role.
It’s not that hard work alone will always be a result. We see that in this life’s perspective, life is not always fair. And by understanding the concept of destiny as something that is not in our control, we can prevent discouragement.
See, understanding the concept of destiny helps us recognize that failure is an event. Failure is not a person. That means, a person may fail sometimes.
They may try their best, but sometimes the destiny will be unfavorable. And because of that, they may fail. Often we may hear stories of people who persevered a lot and they got 10 failures, 15 failures, 20 failures.
They tried so many ways to make a wall. Hundreds of times, they didn’t make one. And finally, they made one.
So, now we hear these stories of perseverance. And they are inspiring stories. But here, what we understand, all the previous times when they did not get the result.
That means, at that time, destiny was not there. They were trying, but the result did not come. But they kept trying, and eventually, it worked.
So, failure is simply an event. But when we don’t understand the concept of destiny, when we don’t understand that there are factors beyond my control, which also shape the result, then, when we do something and the result doesn’t come, we start taking something that is wrong with us. And then we start developing inferiority complex, we may have self-esteem issues.
Sometimes people may even become chronically depressed or even suicidal. So, all this happens when we assume that we have the power which we don’t have. When we assume that we have the power which we don’t have, then we fail to use the power that we have.
By assuming that we have control over the fruit, the faller, by not acknowledging the diver, what happens is, if the faller doesn’t come, we start thinking something is wrong with me and we stop doing anything. So, the understanding of diver helps us to focus on that in our country. So, destiny doesn’t always owe us a positive result.
But we owe it to ourselves to do our best. And that, whether I bring the result immediately or eventually, that will depend on destiny. Any other questions?