SHOULD WE BELIEVE IN DESTINY? :- One medicine cannot cure all the ailments or people. In the same way, one particular principle or be belief cannot be universally applied to all the situations. Destiny is also one such principle which should be taken into account only when one fails to succeed despite all the best efforts. Failure naturally leads to disappointment and frustration and also brings back lots of past memories of mistakes and lack of required help or support from others. People caught up in failure start finding faults with themselves as well as others and become agitated instead of trying to learn from their mistakes and not to repeat them in the future. In such circumstances, one may console him/her self by ascribing the failure to destiny or fate which may be appropriate medicine for that particular moment. It helps to pacify the person in the same way as aspirin temporarily relieves headache in fever.
But if people start misusing the belief in destiny or fate as an excuse for not discharging their duties, it will certainly lead to undesirable consequences. People may start neglecting their duties and self-effort. Hope, enthusiasm, courage and determination will all wither away. Our nation is facing almost a similar situation currently and we are becoming disinterested, incapable, irresponsible, careless, idle and unenthusiastic towards our duties. “Whatever is predestined is bound to happen, no one can change that;” “Our fate is sealed;” “One will get only that what has been decided by the destiny;” “ One can never change the destiny;” “ Success will only come when fortune smile on us.” Any such mistaken beliefs taking root in anyone’s mind will make him/her work-shy and feeling hopeless. He/she will keep thinking that everything would get alright once the luck becomes favorable and that his/her efforts will be futile without such a turn of luck.
The above ideology is totally contradictory to Indian philosophy which has always advocated self-effort, doing one’s best- and keep doing all these despite any hindrances-as being the indispensable qualities of our life. The entire India history and philosophy to abound in numerous instances that endorse these qualities. That makes one wonder how the distorted belief of destiny came into being? If we look into the root cause, it will lead us to the oppressive feudal lords of the medieval times who invented this idea to make the oppressed and exploited masses to meekly accept their plight believing it to be the result of their destiny. On their command, the clerics and preachers too started inventing some supporting mythical stories to pacify the agitated minds of the oppressed.
The tyrants and their corrupted collaborators used to pacify the aggrieved people by saying that their bad fortune was the main culprit that made them suffer at their hands, who were made to do what they were doing by the same mysterious force of destiny. The aggrieved people would resign themselves to enduring their misery thinking of being helpless against the mighty force of luck and the will of God. Therefore, it is essential that we get rid of such distorted and crafty beliefs which have been introduced by the oppressors to their advantage to save their skin from the anger of the aggrieved people. Remember that our deeds of today will become our destiny of tomorrow. What is milk today may turn into yogurt tomorrow? Therefore, if there is something known as fate or destiny, it is nothing but the reaction and the reflection of our deeds. Therefore, we should better pay attention to diligently performing good deeds rather than thinking of luck.