Does it
really matter if there is such a thing as fate or destiny? If whatever will
happen, will happen, then why analyze it, why agonize over it?
In a conversation we had with a friend
yesterday, we ended up discussing destiny and free will. My friend held the
view that trying to understand how destiny works or blaming it for everything
is simply futile. “Can your belief in or knowledge of fate, destiny, karma – whatever name you give it –
really help in undoing, or changing, your Life’s course,” he asked.
And I agree with him.
What are we going to do by knowing that
our lives are preordained? That really doesn’t change anything. Instead, the
simpler way to look at Life – and respond to it – is to know that while you can’t
do anything about what’s happening to you, you can at least act in a given
situation diligently, with full commitment to living! People call this
opportunity free will. I call it living. Just be, just live. Or, to further
simplify, while you can’t do anything about what happens to you, do whatever
you can in any given situation to make it better. And the best way to live
through, endure, any painful situation, is to immerse yourself in the moment
and to live it fully.
So, don’t dwell on whether your Life is
preordained or not. It’s meaningless, it’s futile to do so. The fact is that
you have this Life, a gift called this lifetime. You have no control over what
happens to you. But you can and must do whatever is possible by you to live
your every moment fully. You have that option, and no one can deny it to you,
so use it fully.
Osho, the Master, calls the fate-destiny-karma logic defeatist and escapist. He
says when we try something and don’t get what we want, we conveniently blame fate.
“What can I do, I am trying but my fate is such” is a common refrain we all
hear or even use at times. Osho urges us to stop this blame game! He says don’t
dump the responsibility of your Life on fate. Some people also dub fate as “God’s
will”. So they dump the cause of their Life’s course – and their attendant
miseries – on this, unknown, unseen, God. Osho asks, “You know why you blame
God for all the things that happen to you that you don’t want happening? You do
it because it is so convenient. God doesn’t talk back, you see. God doesn’t ask
you how dare you blame me for your Life? So, you go on dumping your Life on God
and you wallow in the comfortable cesspool of ‘my-fate-is-such’ thinking.”
Osho makes a powerful, unputdownable, point.
Blaming Life or karma or God is of no
use. Your Life – and mine – will unfold, go on, happen, in spite of you - or me. No
matter what. This is the nature of Life. The only way to live
this Life therefore is to accept it for what it is, the way it is, and simply
go on living…!
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