Nothing can happen without the Supreme One willing it. None can circumvent His plans. If everything happens only because God wills it, then why must we make an effort to do anything? This is a question that we often ask ourselves.
The Mahabharata answers this through Bhishma, said Goda Venkateswara Sastrigal, in a discourse. Human effort and God’s will are both necessary for a person to see any result. The results of our past karma are kept in safe custody by Surya, until the time is ripe for us to get those results. When the results should come to us, they will. But for those results to come to us, again we must make an effort. Without our effort, we cannot get the results that are in waiting for us.
Yudishtra was destined to win in the war against the Kauravas. That victory was a result of his past deeds. But in order to reap the effects of his past deeds, he had to go and fight the Kauravas. If he had not fought them, he would not have got the results, which were waiting for him. So constant striving is needed, even to get the benefits of past good acts of ours.
Sometimes we may have some good results awaiting us, but we may unknowingly put some hurdles in the path of those results coming to us. Suppose you plant a mango seed. You are afraid rodents may dig up the seed. So you put a stone over the seed. Then you wonder why despite watering it, the seed has failed to sprout. Then someone comes along, who notices the stone and flings it away. And a few days later, the seed sprouts. Now if you argue that you were unlucky in not getting the seed to sprout, whereas the other person has been lucky, then the argument is obviously flawed. So we must not only act to reap benefits of past acts, but act in the proper way. If we do the right things, then God’s will ensures that we get the results.
