What is destiny and wilful action?

 

To explain this concept we have to understand what destiny is:

• The popular western view is that we are in control of our lives and everything that happens to us is as a result of our own choice.
• On the other hand the popular eastern view is that every thing that happens to us is not under our control and we are nothing but puppets in a preordained plan.
  
  

However neither of these views are completely correct. The answer according to the science of Spirituality is that in the present times 65% of our lives are ruled by destiny and 35% by wilful action.

But we can overcome the 65% of our destiny part, by using the 35% of our wilful action to undertake the correct spiritual practice.

Destiny is when you have no control over life situations.
Wilful action is that portion of your life which you do have control over.

An example of wilful action: Suppose there is a person who is drunk and has a badly maintained car. He decides to drive his car in a drunken state down a steep mountain side and he does so at high speed. If he were to at some point skid off the road down the mountain side, whose fault would it be? Would that be an accident caused by destiny or an accident caused by willful action?

Well, it is wilful action as he could have chosen not to drink and drive. He could have ensured that his car was better serviced and could have driven slowly.

An example of a destined event: Take the case of another driver who is sober. He drives carefully and maintains his car in a perfect condition. He too drives down the same mountain side observing all precautions. 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 is spiritual in nature and can only be overcome with a spiritual remedy which is spiritual practice. Depending on the severity of destiny, appropriate levels of spiritual practice needs to be done to overcome destiny. The following chart shows us examples of the different types of destiny and measures to overcome it:

Intense spiritual practice in terms of quantity would mean about 12-14 hours of practice a day. In terms of quality, it means that the person does all his daily activities as service to God, with a lot of desire and with the primary purpose to attain God. 

Please note:

Medium spiritual practice in terms of quantity would mean about 4-5 hours of practice a day. In terms of quality, it means that the person does most of his daily activities as service to God.