Does our Karma decide our Destiny?

This is an age old topic of discussion among the wise ones: Does our destiny decide our Karma or our Karma makes our destiny? Recently I came across a beautiful story from the Puranas about this topic that I would like to share.

In Sata-Yuga, it was a tradition to have Gyan Yoga discussion during festivals and all the auspicious occasions like marriages. When all the Deities assembled to participate in the marriage ceremony of Sri Ganesha, one of the Deities remarked, “it is the result of our past pious Karmas that we got an opportunity to participate in Sri Ganesha’s marriage ceremony. Then Prajapatiji said, “It might be that we were destined to perform those pious Karma as a result of which we are here today. It might be the result of our destiny.”

Hearing this Sri Ganesha said, “We got the topic of discussion for our spiritual discussion on the auspicious occasion of this marriage and it is: Does our destiny decide our Karma or our Karma makes our destiny? When we look at our past, this question arises in our mind- what is the root cause of the situations that we are in today? Is it our destiny or is it our past Karmas?”

All the deities, in the auspicious presence of Shivji and Parvati Mata, turned their attention towards Sri Ganesha and began to listen carefully. After a moment of silence Sri Ganesha continued, “Karma and destiny are not different from each other, but the two sides of the same coin.” Then he took one feather and let it fall in the Palace room full of deities. Everyone stared at the falling feather with curiously.

Sri Ganesha continued, “At this moment the destiny of this feather is dependent on the atmospheric air pressures present in this room. Neither does this feather has its own wish nor it has capability to change or to decide its destination. While gliding in the air it might be the destiny of this feather to fall on the dirt or on the flower bed.”

Everyone present in the Gyan Sabha nodded in affirmation.

“But humans and demigods are different. If we come across difficult times in our lives just because we didn’t perform our Karmas efficiently then we cannot blame destiny alone. This is because we are blessed with the power of discrimination (Viveka) with the help of which we have capability to choose between right and wrong, and hence act accordingly. If we skip our duties or if we make choices in our life just based on material desires then we should be ready to face the consequences. We should not just blame it on our destiny alone. However there is no doubt that if destiny is strong, then it affects our Karma. But at the same time, this is also true that the strength of our Karmas can change our destiny. The situations of our life are beyond our control, but how to react in a situation is in our own hand and in this manner we can control our destiny.”