Why are we blaming destiny? That’s of our own making. We are creators of our own destiny. Yet we put the blame on destiny, and we think,
“Okay, I’m washing my hands of this because I’m putting the blame on destiny. I can’t put it on God anymore because I was told I can’t. I put the blame on destiny now. It’s not destined for me.”
If everything is predestined, then what is the point in doing anything? Why does God tell us,
“No, you must perform kriyāman karma (actions performed in the present)?”
There are three kinds of karma (action and its reaction) that you know about. One is sanchit (accumulated actions from past lives), one is prārabdh (destiny being experienced in the present life), and one is kriyāman (present, freely chosen actions).
So sanchit karma are the accumulated actions, uncountable actions of previous lives, that have yet to bear fruit. Some of them are being given to us in this life as reactions. That’s our destiny. That’s prārabdh karma. And regardless of these two, there is a third karma, a third type of action, which we are free to perform. These are kriyāman karma.
So God and Gurus, God and Saints have laid emphasis on kriyāman karma. They say,
“Don’t cry over destiny.”
कादर मन कहुँ एक अधारा। दैव दैव आलसी पुकारा।।
Kādar man kahūṁ ek adhārā. Daiv daiv ālasī pukārā.- Ramayan
“Only the lazy ones shun action and cry over destiny.”
So what’s done is done. We will have to bear the fruits of those actions. But never mind. Let’s not cry about the past. Let’s work in the present. Let’s perform kriyāman karma. Let’s be very, very careful in doing what we are doing in this life, because the kriyāman karma will become our destiny in the future. So God and Saints are telling us this; they’re laying emphasis on kriyāman karma, and we are routinely crying over destiny.
When a newcomer asked Shree Maharaj Ji, she asked Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj,
“Maharaj Ji, look at my hand.”
And Maharaj Ji feigned ignorance and he said,
“It’s a good hand. Very nice. Four fingers, one thumb. It’s intact. Very good.”
She said, “Oh, Maharaj Ji, I mean my destiny. Will I really ace that exam that I’m about to write?”
Maharaj Ji said, “You will, if you do exactly as I tell you.”
“Maharaj Ji, I’m willing to recite any mantra any number of times.”
Maharaj Ji said, “It’s nothing like that. Just do what I tell you.”
“Yes, Maharaj Ji.”
And she started listening very carefully.
Maharaj Ji says, “Study day and night. Night and day.”
And Maharaj Ji said, “I don’t tell your destiny. I create destinies.”
Maharaj Ji created destinies. He taught us how to create our own destiny. He didn’t tell us what’s in our destiny. He was too great for that.
So we routinely worry about destiny. So many people worry about destiny. They go to astrologers. They’re going to find out,
“Okay, there are palmists and palm readers and this and that. But it’s of no use.”
A very well-known astrologer got his daughter married to a young man, and he was sure that this young man was a perfect spouse for his daughter - long life, bright future. And a couple of months later, after the daughter got married, her husband died. The astrologer gave up astrology.
“I’m so well-known, and this is what has happened.”
If a person gets involved in astrology and palm reading and all that, he can never do devotion.
