Destiny and the Law of Karma

However, neither of these views are completely correct. According to the science of Spirituality, in the current times 65% of our lives are ruled by Destiny and 35% by willful action. However, we can overcome the 65% of the Destiny part, by using the 35% of our willful action to undertake the correct spiritual practice.

Destiny is when one has no control over life situations. Willful action is that portion of one’s life, which is still under one’s control.

An example of willful action: Let us take an example of a person who is drunk and has a poorly maintained car. In this state he decides to drive his car down a steep mountainside, crossing speed limits. He loses control of his car and skids off the road down the mountainside. Would that be an accident caused by destiny or willful action? It would be due to his wilful action and not due to Destiny as he could have chosen not to drink and drive. He also had the option of keeping his car well maintained and could have driven it within the speed limits.

An example of an event influenced by destiny: Let us take another example wherein the person does not drink, drives his well-maintained car carefully, down the same mountainside within speed limits. All of a sudden, a portion of the road collapses due to a landslide and he meets with an accident. In this case, the person had no control over the landslide that occurred and hence this is a destined event.

Destiny heavily influences many aspects of our lives, such as the decisions that we make, with whom we spend our lives etc. All major events in our life such as birth, marriage, major illnesses, accidents and death are pre-destined.

Now, let us see why and how Destiny is created by us.

Destiny and the rule of Give-and-Take

According to the ‘Law of Karma’, every positive deed generates a ‘merit’ while every negative deed generates a ‘demerit’ or a sin. Subsequently one has to reap the results of one’s deeds as a part of destiny. Whenever one does a good deed to others, it is bound to give a positive return (in the form of some happiness). Whenever one inflicts harm, it is bound to give a negative return in the form of sorrow in some form. It cannot be undone by a simple ‘Sorry’! The ‘law of Karma’ is infallible. Throughout our lives, we are either settling an old account i.e. fulfilling our destiny, or creating a new one. If for some reason, the account cannot be settled in this birth, it gets carried over to the next birth. We are not consciously aware of the give-and-take accounts or the destiny that is generated in our previous births.

All major events in our lives such as the time and place of birth, our spouse, death, etc. occur as planned in our Destiny. One is born into a particular family, where conditions are conducive to undergo one’s destiny and where one has a significant give-and-take account with each member of the family. In addition, one also has a different give-and-take account with different individuals with whom one comes across such as relatives, close friends, neighbors, colleagues, etc.

If we continue to use our willful actions without undertaking spiritual practice then we will keep accumulating a give and take account thus increasing our destiny, and our spiritual growth will stagnate. This will keep us trapped in the vicious cycle of birth and death and away from the basic objective of achieving Liberation.

As Destiny is a spiritual root cause of difficulties in our life, we can nullify or reduce the effects of destiny only by undertaking the spiritual practice most conducive to the times. This is because destiny is completely a spiritual aspect, and can be overcome only with a spiritual remedy, which is undertaking spiritual practice as per the basic principles of Spirituality.

For details about destiny, the law of Karma, the percentages of give-and-take account with various individuals, how correct spiritual practice helps reduce the impact of destiny, how to stop generating new accounts etc. please visit the website of the Spiritual Science Research Foundation.