KNOWING WHERE YOU ARE GOING

This title, "Knowing where you are going," may also be stated as, "Knowing where you are headed."  Do you control your destiny, as the first title implies, or does your destiny happen quite apart from you, as implied in the second title?

To begin with, which destiny are we talking about exactly, personal destiny or destiny of the spiritual kind?  In the case of personal destiny, you might become a great statesman, a champion boxer, or maybe an award-winning chef, or possibly an average mechanic, a typical bookkeeper, or even a skid row drug addict.  You might get married and have lots of kids, or you may be perfectly happy remaining single.

Your spiritual destiny, however, is different matter.  Here, we all share the same destiny.  Even though the particulars of that destiny, the how, when, and where of it, will vary, the end result will be exactly the same for everyone.  We are all destined to "awaken," and, according to Vedanta, this awakening is the doing of the Atman within each of us.  The Atman awakens into its counterpart the Brahman in an inevitable manner.  More than one lifetime may be required for it to come about, but it will occur eventually.

This is not to say that we have no responsibility in the matter.  Our task is to create a favorable environment for the event, which means meditating at least twice a day, along with what is called "recollection," which is simply recalling God,  Atman/Brahman,  throughout the day.  As we do this, the Atman grows ever stronger within us, ever more present, until at last it realizes its destiny which is union with Brahman.  This is where we are all headed.