Acharya Tulsi
Endeavour and fate—these are two opposite poles. Endeavour is inspiration for action. Fate is worship of the unseen. A diligent person is always engaged in action, whether he gets the result or not. A fatalist does not feel any sense of achievement in whatever he does. He regards even his successful efforts as something granted by fate. Some people believe in propitiating a deity. There are a growing number of people making rounds of the temples under the assumption that all their wishes would be fulfilled by worshipping a particular deity. Along with belief in fate and belief in deity-worship, a new belief is also growing—belief in astrology. Like people's blind faith in fate and deity, their blind faith in astrology is also becoming intense.
It is true that astrology is a discipline. Horoscopes are made on the basis of astrology. After referring to the horoscope, all the good and bad things happening to that person during the whole year are pointed out. All that is pointed out need not be necessarily correct. Probably, when the time of birth of a newborn is not correct, or the astrologer is not sufficiently knowledgeable or there is no concentration of mind while referring to the horoscope or for some other reason, doubts can be raised with regard to the validity of the science of astrology. In spite of this, blind faith in astrologers is growing. Some people even consider them God and believe in everything they say, and like visiting the temples, make frequent round of their houses or offices.
Some astrologers advertise in newspapers and magazines in which they give their telephone numbers. Thereby they create interest among people to know their future on phone. The thinking of even the people with most highly developed intelligence tends to be so stunted that they take the astrologers' words at their face value and spend money like water. The question is not just of money. With this kind of mentality, man becomes averse to making efforts. Wishing to achieve success without making efforts is a diseased mentality. By some coincidence, some persons may get a chance to succeed, but most of the people, by passing through such tragic times, face complete ruin.
It has been a tradition among the Indian people to note down the time of the birth of their child, based on which they get the horoscope cast. But a new practice has been followed for sometime past, according to which the auspicious time for birth has been seen first. Through the astrologers, they get the advance information about what the child would become when born at a particular auspicious time. Then the doctor is instructed that they would have the child born precisely at that particular time. The doctor does the operation and delivers the child at the fixed hour. How sensible is it to confine the birth of a child to a particular time in the same way that auspicious time is seen for starting other special works? How far this has simple looking method of changing the fate of the child succeeded? It is a subject for research. But it is beyond dispute that man is going forward on the path of avoiding diligence or endeavour.
The Indian way of life has been conceived in making efforts. No matter how strong the restriction of fate or destiny, the river of life will have to continue flowing. Water which is separated from the current either ceases to exist or remaining stagnant in one place, gets contaminated. Whether it is a brook or a river, its continuous flow alone keeps it clean. Diligence alone can give a new elegance to human personality. Lack of diligence is a clear indication of pushing the future into the dark.
