Talk:Fate Versus Effort (Prārabdha/Daiva and Purushārtha):‘Bhagavān Helps Those Who Help Themselves’
By Vishal Agarwal
The Devas do not like lazy people either. They help those who help themselves.
Deva-s desire one who presses the sap (of Soma, i.e., performs the required ceremonies). They do not like sleep. They do not sleep themselves and do not like dissoluteness. Ṛgveda 8.2.18
Deva-s are friends of no one except those who exert. Ṛgveda 4.33.11
Therefore, the Veda-s exhort us to not get dependent on ‘luck’ or ‘fate’ and instead work hard to attain success and prosperity.
Do not gamble but cultivate your farm and enjoy the wealth obtained thereof and value it. Ṛgveda 10.34.13ab
A modern scholar summarizes –
“You are like a farmer who has a plot of land. The acreage, the nature of the soil and the conditions of weather are all predetermined, but the farmer is quite at liberty to till the land, manure it, sow the seeds, water the plants, and get good harvest, or allow the land to remain as a wasteland.” [1]
Another consideration is whether failures are merely a ‘result’ of our actions, or whether we can use them to generate more positive saṃskāra-s in the future? A modern scholar explains, in a commonsensical way, how failures in life can create learning opportunities –
“That we may occasionally manifest under circumstances that are less than ideal for spiritual development may appear on the surface to suggest such a thing, even those incarnations we might consider “failures” are, in fact, a part of the growth process. They are what show us where we are on our path and help us to appreciate the value in striving to move ahead. As such, there is no such thing as failure in the absolute sense of the word, for even failure is a necessary part of the process. In effect, we cannot ultimately fail, since failure is already figured into the mix.
Consider it this way: when an inventor is working on a new invention, he may initially encounter numerous setbacks, failed attempts, and dead ends. It is recorded that Thomas Edison tried literally hundreds of materials as a filament for the light bulb before finally hitting upon magnesium. In the process, most of the materials he tried did nothing or immediately incinerated, while a few would burn brightly for a few seconds as electricity surged through them before burning out. Yet these were not failures in the strictest sense of the word, for Edison was working from a process of elimination. Each carefully recorded failure actually brought him one step closer to finding a substance that would work, permitting him to finally develop a practical light bulb and revolutionize the world.
It is the same for the soul that is striving for spiritual growth. It may frequently turn out to be a two-step-forward, one-step-back process, but it is ultimately moving ahead toward its own perfection…” [2]
Those who are not lazy, weak or cowardly will use their challenges and failures to progress further in their lives. The biographies of our Avatāra-s Rāma and Kṛṣṇa are shining examples of how they did not become despondent but harnessed their grit and determination to persevere and accomplish their goals.
A story is sometimes narrated about how we can turn around our lives even in the most unfavorable circumstances through sheer determination –
Story: The Thief Who Became a Saint
A young man who was a serial burglar got arrested and the judge sentenced him to 20 years of imprisonment. Worse, the judge ordered that the Sanskrit word ‘‘stena’’ (thief) should be tattooed on his forehead. The burglar’s life was ruined. He would be almost 45 years of age by the time he would be released from jail, and would bear the stigma of having been a thief for the rest of his life, thanks to the tattoo on his forehead.
But, he decided to spend his life in jail constructively. He paid attention to all the crafts that were taught to jail inmates and became very educated and skilled. He also requested and read many holy books. Gradually, he got transformed, and became a very Dhārmic person while still in jail. He loved to spend his last years in the jail doing pūjā, offering prostrations to a painting of Śrī Rāma that he had painted, and helping out other inmates.
Finally, when he was released, he went to his home, only to find that his elderly parents had died. His siblings refused to help him due to public shame. Helpless, he moved to another town where no one knew him. By then, the tattoo on his forehead had somewhat faded, and had become illegible. In his new surroundings, he used the skills that he had learned in jail to find odd jobs. Soon, he became well-known in that town as a skilled mechanic. Moreover, people marveled at his saintly character. He was very helpful towards others, and regularly participated in the Dhārmic activities of the local Mandir and the community. He served the elders in the area, fed the hungry, and taught children the beautiful tenets of dharm.
After a few decades, he became old and died. The townsfolk gathered to give him a cremation to honor his life. As he was being placed on the pyre, someone asked, “I wonder what these letters on his forehead meant?” The man next to him said, “I cannot read them properly, and the tattoo marker seems to have goofed up. But I am sure that they read ‘sant’ or a saint, because this man lived like a saint and inspired us all these decades that he had lived in our community.”
In fact, in Śāstras, there are many examples like that of Ṛṣi Vālmīki, of how individuals from humble and unfortunate circumstances became our ṛṣi-s, and great women and men. Hindu dharm honors the free will, determination, and efforts of these individuals by instructing us that “one must never investigate the origins of mighty rivers, of ṛṣi-s, and of pious women.”
Another story is narrated about how Pāṇini, a dullard in his young years, defied fate to become the greatest grammarian of Sanskrit. A second example is that of the fool Kālidāsa, who acquired scholarship with great efforts to become the greatest Sanskrit dramatist. We narrate the story of Pāṇini below.
Story: How Pāṇini Became a Great Scholar
Once, Pāṇini Muni went to a palmist for getting his hand read to determine his future. The palmist said to him, “You are fated to be an illiterate fool because the line of education is missing from your palm.” Pāṇini asked him, “Tell me where that line is.” When the palmist answered his question, Pāṇini took a knife and carved the line at that place on his palm. Pāṇini then decided to give up his laziness and worked hard to learn the grammar of the Sanskrit language.
After some time, he wrote the book Aṣṭādhyāyī, which is considered one of the greatest works of Sanskrit grammar even today, 2500 years after Pāṇini had lived. Pāṇini’s grammar consists of just about 4000 short sentences called sūtra-s, which can be memorized easily by students. It consists of eight chapters, of which two deal with the grammar of the Vedic scriptures, and the rest with the grammar of spoken Sanskrit and the language of other Śāstra. His grammar has six appendices, of which some are said to have been composed by other scholars. It is the most scientific and systematic grammar known among all the languages of the world.
