Yuvacharya Mahashraman
Fate and Diligence
Though luck has an important role in one's life, but one can make one's destiny through hard work and diligence also. If the effort one puts in is sincere, then fate will also turn supportive for good for sure.
A certain king once summoned a storyteller. He used to listen to his story everyday. At the end of the story every day the storyteller used to say, "secret Philanthropy is a source of great piety".
Another wise man also used to come to the royal court. He was a fearless and self respecting person. He often used to say that it was not the king, but fate which decided success. This sentence made the king upset.
Once the king planned a week long program of story telling. The storyteller continued telling stories for the entire week. At the end of the week, the pleased king gave him the gift of a fruit called ‘kolha’. Theking remembered the storyteller's statement "secret philanthropy is a source of great piety" so he put a lot of precious gemstones in this fruit.
The storyteller went home with the fruit. Since he didn't like pumpkin, he exchanged it for some vegetables from an old woman who was selling fruits. Just then, the same learned man came there and bought the '‘kolha’ from the old woman. Back home as soon as he started cutting the fruit ‘kolha’ all the precious gemstones came out. He took the precious gem stones to the king and repeated the same statement, "it is not the king, but fate which decides success." Along with this he narrated the whole incident to the king. As a result of this, the king accepted the learned man’s theory.
Jain philosophy believes that a person's endeavours which make his destiny. With strenuous effort fate can be changed. The soul itself is the doer of happy and sad deeds and only the soul is behind their destruction. The soul, which is engrossed in good deeds, is a friend and the one that is engrossed in bad deeds is an enemy.
It is rightly said - "Whether a person reaches mountain peaks or crosses oceans, it is fate which is the decision maker, not the king."
