Do you believe that people have control over their own fate, or do they succumb to outside forces?

If we understand the core science behind our fate, we will be in a better position to relate things correctly.

As per Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, the Enlightened being,

“Give what you would want to receive. That is the principle of karma.”

Whatever seeds of karma you have sowed in your past life, you will have to bear the fruits of it in this life. You give good, you will receive good; you give bad, you will receive bad, no outside force is responsible for it. This is the science of karma.

Whatever is destined to happen will happen and it cannot be changed. No one has the power to change it. We must have done something wrong in the past, hence something wrong happened with us. And when good things happen, it is due to our own good karma of the past.

Our past intentions (causes) are responsible for our present fate (the effects).

Our inner intent is the cause, the effect of which gets reflected in our actions, thoughts and speech in the next life.

For instance, suppose we donate five hundred dollars to charity. That is our fate. It was predetermined to happen as a result of our intent in the past, hence it happened. We have no control over this.

What kind of control do we have over our fate?

But while donating, if internally, our intention is, ‘How I wish I had more money so that I could donate even more money here’, we would bind good karma, which would give rise to good fate in future. And if the inner intent is, ‘Oh! I was compelled to and pushed into giving money or else I would not have given a single dime to these cheats’, this would bind very bad karma, the consequences of which, we shall have to bear in our next life, as our fate then.

This new intent of “I don’t want to donate” becomes the cause, which will bring forth such fate that we will not be able to donate in the next life.

Thus, we actually don’t have any control over the outcome that has happened today. But yes, we do have control over what we intend our future to be (in the next life)!

We cannot control today’s fate, but can certainly decide what we intend to have as our future fate

Now while our present untoward fate is unfolding, if we have remorse in our heart that, ‘I wish I could donate for a good cause’, once again we plant a new cause, as a result of which, destiny will bring forth a wonderful opportunity for us to donate to a good cause, and thus, we will end up doing the act of kindness once again.

This is how the cycle of cause and effect, effect and cause continues. Knowing this science, we realise that whatever actions are happening by us (in our current life) are not in our control. But to improve our future destiny, we need to keep our present intentions pure.

How to keep our intention clean?

Param Pujya Dadashri suggests that every morning, we harness the intention of, “May no living being be caused the slightest hurt through my mind, speech or body.” We must repeat this prayer at least five times.

When you have the intention of not hurting anyone, then no one will come to hurt you! So through this intention, we sow new causes that are good, the effects of which will come in the form of a wonderful destiny in future. This is how we are said to have control over our fate. We do not succumb to outside forces, rather we understand the reason behind the outside forces in play, and accordingly counter the past wrong intent (due to which the outside forces came into play) with the right intentions so that our fate in future is not dismal.

When we are not happy with our current fate, for example, we are facing a lot of obstructions and negative effects in life, then we may ask for forgiveness (pratikraman). Pratikraman means, with great repentance in our heart, we seek forgiveness from the Lord for our past mistakes (of having wrong intents) and also ask Him for strength to not repeat the mistakes again. This is how we can bring about a change in our bitter circumstances, and make them bearable, and at the same time, shape a better fate for future! Such is the control we have regarding our fate!

Since we do not have enough strength and the right understanding to face situations boldly and bravely, we tend to succumb to outside forces. Rather, we can actually ask for strength from the God of our faith to help us face any situation with equanimity i.e. without any attachment or hatred towards any situation or persons involved. Once we gain even little inner strength to face our fate with equanimity and not succumb to difficult situations, then by the scientific law of multiplication, our strength will keep increasing multi-fold.

And if we want complete freedom from the perpetual cycle of cause and effect, we must attain Self-Realisation fro, the Living Enlightened One. Outside forces, be they positive or negative circumstances, both are the result of our ignorance of the Self. With the grace of the Enlightened One, once ignorance leaves and the real knowledge of ‘who am I’ sets in, no circumstance i.e. outside force shall then affect us anymore.

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