It’s nature, nurture, genes & karma that shape your future

Every human being, or rather, every living being, is worried about their future. 

At basic level, food, clothing and shelter is everyone’s primarry worry. They are worried about where and how to get their food. Clothing signifies the infrastructure required for acceptance by society at various levels. We are all worried about fitting in — whether it is about workplace success, prestige or status, or about being aligned with society without compromising with one’s privacy. 

If not well-off, people are worried about being maked as poor. The rich are worry of being robbed or exploted. Whatever be the case, these fears exist. People, even after having a complete health check up sometimes come for a complete Ayurvedic check up to cover all possibilities, owing to its different approach. Then they visit an astrologer. In short, people resort to different ways to get answers about their future. 

Next in the line of worry is shelter. Will it be a nice house? Will it be open to western winds? Is it as per vastu? The questions are endless. However, a comfortable bed in a cozy room of a good house gives no guarantee of good sleep. Now, people want to know whether they will get good sleep.

In some way, we are all worried about tomorrow. We all have expectations about what should happen and then are anxious about whether it will actually happen. We hope that the things we do not own today could be acquired tomorrow. We spend so much time worrying about things. People brood over the number of tomorrows one is going to get in his or her life.

We hear things like modern science is developing a way to predict and study when a particular disease will infect a person. But consider this, if somebody is told about it, the person might fall sick sue to health anxiety even before. On the other hand, if someone believes nothing is going to happen for the next 10-12 years, they may adopt a careless lifestyle and fall ill ahead of time. In short, people want to know whether they can get all these things in life. How do we begin to understand this condition?

The base of everything is the body. We receive this body from our parents and they from their parents. The tendency of one disease may be from the mother, while another condition might have been acquired from the father. We also inherit positive qualities from them and traits like the tone of voice etc. Different segments of DNA pass down from your parents to make your unique DNA.

Groups of different types of cells make up the organs that work together to maintain your body. These cells continuously change — new cells are born and old ones die. All this depends on the food and nourishment we provide. If it applies to the body, it applies to the mind as well. The traits and programs received from our parents will contribute to several aspects in our lives — ne it good or bad. Let’s say one is born in a well-known and well-to-do house, isn’t it inherited from one’s parents? You might have inherited a small flat, but you have also worked hard to build your own properties. The result of what you get in different spheres of life is a mixture of all these — your inheritance (say 25%), individuality or jiva (another 25%), and then of course, karma (50%).

So, an individual retains his or her individuality in spite of heredity. Therefore, we find that in one family there could be four brothers and three sisters but each have different personalities and lives. Neither do parents gave birth to children of the same gender.

The three ingredients that create our lives are heredity, personality and karma. You may have knowledge, but unless you appear for the exam, you will not receive qualification. You may have a tremendous capacity to remember things, but unless you read the book, it will not make any difference. Thus, the responsibility for all that is happening, although affected in some part by heredity, is certainly your own. This is because destiny, or how your life plays out, is decided by Karma.

The individual also decides how one would enter the world and how one should present oneself to society. At birth, the soul takes up a body and personality. His or her life is also affected by the time and environment. If that soul has chosen to be born in the rainy season, its body may have a Vata constitution, as per Ayurveda. If he is born in Japan his eyes may look accordingly. If he is born in Africa, he may have curly hair. These are the environmental side-effects or karma of the environment. So the action you end up doing is dependent on the environment as well as you. Your karma includes the environment.

Time also affects one’s destiny. When the first child in the family is born, it may receive fewer facilities, since the father was relatively new at his job and had a modest salary. By the time the third child is born, the father’s salary had increased considerably. As per his father’s growth at workplace, the child might have receive better facilities at various ages. All this circumstantial effect goes towards building one’s personality.

While we worry about the future, we must remember that all these things affect what will happen to us. Your karma, added to your destiny, genes, nature and circumstances are all going to contribute to what will happen next.
To be continued...

The author is founder of Atmasantulana Village, a world-renowned holistic healing centre. ayurveda@dnaindia.net