Fate and Destiny--Is it true that what happens to us is destined?

 

I'd got featured on Bazaar India along with Shruti Hassan, Kubra Sait, Neha Dhupia and Zohra Shakti where we all answered questions of Fate and Destiny.

So for today's post I thought I'd share what I answered.

You can also  read the whole article HERE (and read what the others said about Fate and Destiny as well)

Here's what I believe 👇🏽

I do believe a  one hundred percent in Fate/Destiny. Ironically, I also believe that one charts their own destiny. The two might seem contradictory but they are not. While we cannot fight what is to come, we can certainly take steps towards our goals. Even dreams need  to be fuelled with actions, if they are to come true. However, if you did not get what you desired, I firmly believe it is because there’s something better in store for you. There were certain lessons to be learnt from that failure or the rejection, and it is preparing you for the better things that lie ahead.

I’m a tarot card reader, and unlike astrology where certain things/events are ‘fixed’ or destined, the tarot just shows us what could possibly lie ahead. Tarot is like a GPS which shows us what possibly could be on the path chosen by you. But it is up to us to choose the path and make the effort to travel down that path.

Destiny has certainly played a big role in my life. While I’ve always written, I never thought I’d become a published author with 15 books, all bestsellers. The sequence of events which led to this was destiny. However, the sheer hard-work and discipline it took to get to this point in my life, was all my own. 

My father who I was very close to, passed away all of a sudden in 2006, in the middle of a conversation with my mother. He had absolutely no age related ailments,  and was in fact very fit. He was 66. To overcome the deep  grief which I was drowning in, I started a blog, where I began writing about mundane moments of life, which make it special. Life is not always grand, but when we cherish the smallest of things, it becomes magical. When my father was snatched from me (that was destiny) it propelled me towards writing with a ferocity, I never knew I was capable of.

 

The lesson it taught me was that, we cannot fight destiny. We do not know what is going to happen in the next hour, even. We only have an illusion of control. All we have is this moment—the here and now. 

While we don’t have control over the terrible things that might  happen to us, we do have a choice in how we respond to it. We can use our grief as stepping stones, as agents of growth, and we can transform ourselves into the best versions that we can be.

My father’s death made me write every single day, and the final outcome of those consistent actions that I took, resulted in my first book. Thereafter, I put in the work needed and wrote 14 more books.

 

The advice I’d have given myself was ‘The best is yet to come’ and I wouldn’t have believed it! Yet, here I am living my dream, for which I am filled with gratitude.

 More tomorrow.
Today, I've had a very long day and I am exhausted.

Tell me in comments whether you beleive in Fate/Destiny or whether you think all that is just man-made perceptions.