I was having a wonderful discussion with my wife yesterday on Destiny and Freewill which reminded me of a wonderful quote by Swami Dayananda Saraswati of Arsha vidya gurukulam (http://www.arshavidya.org/)

"What happens to you is Desitny, how you take it is Free Will."

As per my understanding of this quote, it seems like falling on road is destiny or getting admission to a school of choice or getting unexpected help from someone, are all acts of destiny but how we take them i.e. does we take them in positive spirit (actually I should not use words like positive and negative, good and bad because all these words are relative) so I will use words like ego, selfishness, hatred, love, etc.. So if an act of falling on road increases my hatred than a bad karma is generated, if getting admission in school of choice increases my ego than again a bad karma is generated. I got admission becuase of my past good karmas but by increasing my ego I have generated a bad karma for future..


So to me this single line explains everything about Karma theory, about how karma's are created, why things happen only us etc etc..

But after discussion with my wife I had a small question which I think this quote doesnt answer and that is "Does our thoughts, desires, wishes, etc are also act of destiny ?".

If Yes than it is truly said that we are just Witnesses in this world and are just puppets in a play with strings in HIS hands. He only makes us think, wish, do, react, act, etc... and untill we realize it fully in every moment and breath, we cannot be out of this play and have to keep playing our part in this play.

If No than it may open a box of many other unanswered questions...

I am searching for an answer if you have any clue feel free to leave a comment or email me.

Sai Ram