Arthur Osborne in his book titled ‘The Mind of Ramana Maharishi’ states that Sri Bhagavan, in his interaction with a learned devotee, conveyed the following:

God has no purpose. He is not bound by any action. The world’s activities cannot affect Him. Take the analogy of the sun, the sun rises without desire, purpose or effort, but as soon as it rises numerous activities take place on earth, the lens placed in its rays produces fire in its focus, the lotus bud opens, water evaporates, and every living creature enters upon activity, maintains it and finally drops it. But the sun is not affected by any such activity, as it merely acts according to its nature, by fixed laws, without any purpose, and is only a witness. So it is with God.

God has no desire or purpose in His acts of creation, maintenance, destruction, withdrawal and salvation to which beings are subjected as the beings reap the fruit of their actions in accordance with His laws, the responsibility is theirs, not God’s. God is not bound by any actions.

So, the question is, is there such a thing as Destiny for us, a prefixed unchangeable programming of our life that each one of us cannot escape? It does not appear to be so.

Each one of us has the choice to think and act as we want to. However, we really do not reap what we sow as there are multitude of other powerful Forces, not in our control, at work in our Universe within each moment. So, the fruits that we receive depend not only on our effort but largely on the support we get from these Forces at work! These Forces are what we call Luck.

Strange as it may seem but a lot depends on Luck! Luck is what brings in all the necessary events and coincidences to occur for each one of us to survive, have good health as well as to succeed professionally and financially!

If a lot depends on Luck, why do we have to develop our capabilities, skills and put in our best effort?

Our experience shows that our capabilities, skills, interest and effort are definitely necessary. They are as important as a seed is for a tree to bloom and bear fruit.  Though not every seed will bloom into a tree, so we do need to plant as many seeds as we are capable of. Then with the help of all the necessary environmental situations and forces, called Luck, there will be greater chances for a few seeds to bloom!  

We can also attract Luck by remaining in the state of ‘Pure Awareness and Full Acceptance’ of the present moment. Pure Awareness will let us notice and act when opportunity knocks on our door! Lack of awareness leads to our missing many opportunities in life and this we incorrectly label as not being lucky! Full acceptance of the present moment, as it is now, keeps our Intellect calm and peaceful! This helps immensely in making the right decisions and carrying out proper actions which help build a beautiful future for us as well as others!

There will be many times when Luck does not support our activities and we fail. This is quite a natural phenomenon in everyone’s life and can be frequent too! But to see failure as a disaster and to torment our Intellect for failure is a self defeating activity and it must be avoided totally!

In every failure there is a definite and a unique experience, which is a great learning process, as well as numerous small successes from which we will always benefit for our future! Failures should really be seen as stepping stones to success and are indicative of an intelligent and aggressive Intellect and an active body that are willing to venture into uncharted territory where risks of failure are high! 

The elephant in the room when it comes to any discussion of success: (is) luck–

-Scott Adams, Cartoonist of Dilbert

Nothing in my life has been intentional, it’s all accident

-R K Laxman, famous Indian Cartoonist *