This is one of my favourite topics because there are so many answers that we do not have and yet the curious inquisitive seeker in me would always question and seek and explore and so what does this seeker in me think about Choices / Karma and Destiny.
The first school of thought. Some people believe a grate deal in destiny, that everything here is not a coincidence and that there is a pattern to the events in our lives and we do not have much in control or nothing in control for that matter. Everything goes by design and so we are here to play our part in the larger picture and if we will be destined to it we will get there.
The second school thought. Other set of people believe in Karma and that our actions and choices make our life and that the only way to predict the future is to create it. There is nothing pre-destined and that it is our actions that decide the results.
So here I have tried to put down both the school of thoughts as simple as I can. I cannot go simpler than this. There can be lots written on both but the core idea would remain the same as written above.
What do I think ?
The beautiful part is that we don't have to choose between these two school of thoughts. For me these two co-exist. We as humans have the answer to the question as to when we can plan a life on Mars but we still do not have the answer to the question why are we here on this planet to begin with ? What is the reason for our existence, other than of course the scientific theories that we all know of from Big Bang to how human race evolved but it really does not take it to the basic question who made it happen ? Even the first atom, that one unit of atom, who put it together ? Where did space come from ? Where did we come from ?
There is a higher power, we cannot deny that. Some call it universe, some energy, some God, some define it as a coincidence but there is that something we refer to in many different ways.
Having said that, when we wake up each day from our heart beat to our digestion, if we pay attention, everything is happening withers own rhythm and sometimes the most healthy people just vanish away and sometimes we see people live for a 100 years. Looking at life in a simple way nothing is in our control, not even the next breath which we don't know if the next heart beat exists ? On the other hand everyday we have an opportunity to make a lot of choices and these choices decide our live's direction. But there are many many times when even the best choices lead to bad outcomes and sometimes we feel like even after all our efforts like nothing was in our control. The idea here is to not see Karma or Choices and Destiny in isolation but the two working together. There is definitely something that has a design which is not much in our control, like how many years we will live, how many people we will meet in this lifetime whether we will succeed with our projects etc. etc. but to know that our Karma has a great deal of impact on this design is the catch. Geeta Says, " Do your Karma without expecting the result and the result shall be awarded as your karma is ". When we take certain actions, every action has an energy that moves into this universe and designs our life in that direction. And I am a believer that Karma has the power to shift the design in the direction where the karma's energy flows and hence our destiny. By no means I am saying here that that means that by choosing our Karma we have a full control over our lives, but what I am saying here is that we can shift the design a great deal by choosing our Karma/ actions right.
Design here is nothing but the destiny that we assume is where we did not have much control. But I feel our Karma can shift this design a great deal.
Some people also put it this way that this design or destiny is the result of our past Karmas where those are getting settled with the current situations and people in our lives. And thus today's karma will then decide the future design of our lives. Well however you put it, whether you believe in past life and the Karma theory or you do not believe in Karma theory you will have to agree that even if we make best choices and take total charge of our lives rather than putting it on auto-pilot there are many things that are still not in our control and where we do not have much choices. but they are happening around us.
Until next time,
Hurratul Maleka Taj