Are Karma and Destiny the same things?

What is Destiny?

The common definition of Destiny is “the predetermined course of events”.

Is it the same as Karma?

When I was asked this question the first thing that I thought was “no, of course not!” I was wondering how it was possible to confuse these two words. However, after some investigation I surprisingly found that these two concepts were usually used as synonyms.

On one hand we know that Destiny is a course or result of events. But, on the other hand the translation of the Sanskrit word “Karma” is “action”. Karma refers to all physical, verbal and mental actions that we make during our life.

That’s why we can argue that Karma results in Destiny. This means that all our physical, verbal and mental actions result in destiny. And this is why we support the belief that we ourselves create our own Destiny or that Destiny is in our own hands.

Is it final or can we change it? Why do we connect destiny to accidents and bad luck?

Destiny is never final. We are very powerful in our own destiny and we can influence it: we are the main actors of our own movie! It is true that many times we pass through unpleasant events and sometimes we don’t find reason or meaning. In fact we just don’t realize that when something “bad” happens with us it means that we have to learn from it and progress. All our actions are important physical, verbal and mental.

Did you know that…?

The word Destiny comes from the Latin verb Destinare, which means take aim. This definition seems perfect to me to help explain the relationship between Karma and Destiny. So here is my explanation based on the following example:
An Olympic Archer. This sportsman’s aim is to throw his arrow into the centre of a dartboard. During the competition we only see the final result, which we can call destiny. However, behind this result there was a sequence of actions, which we can call Karma.

– He has prepared mentally for the shot. He learned to focus his mind in the moment of drawing the bow.
– He trained his arms to hold the bow strongly.
– He trained his eyesight to become sharp and know where he had to look at the moment of pulling the arrow.
– He had to follow a special diet to be in a good shape for the competition.
– He had to learn to choose the right posture for a good shot.

Well, some people would say yes, but…the wind? Well, yes, but although the wind is something that we can’t influence, this well-trained archer might have learned the techniques to know how to pull the arrow depending on where the wind blew, or on how fast the wind was going. That is why the winners in life are those who have a goal, who train hard and put into practice their knowledge without loosing sight of that yellow spot in the centre of the dartboard.

I propose that you work as hard as the best-trained archer and you to will get to the centre of your dartboard.

Writer: Estela

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