Whatever happens, happens for the best.

This is an old thought, perhaps as old as human communication itself. There are a great number of such quotes floating about the universe which we are aware of, yet have not spent enough time to decide whether we believe in it.

And then suddenly one day we come across it for the infinite-th time and are struck by how true it is, how our lives are the undying evidence of its truth.

Whether whatever happens is for the best or not, I leave you to contemplate. But the thread of what happens to us today, leads way back several years, to our birth or even beyond.

My immediate (mis)fortune does not owe its origin or reason to the events of yesterday. It leads back to choices I made years ago. If I really bother to go back and write down each instance that led to the next event in line, I may go back about fifteen years (at the very least). Some are decisions I made, some have been forced into me and some logical decisions just came my way and I followed their direction.

This line of thought has a negative effect. At some point, we may end up regretting the decision we made. Had I not chosen that path, maybe I would have ended up in a better place. Chances are you may have landed in a worse mess!

However, at least in one instance of my life I have found that, even if I had made a different choice than I did eight years ago, I would have ended up exactly here! Curious, strange perhaps, but true. The paths would have been different and many of the people I encountered would have been different, but I would have landed exactly (or very near) where I am now.

We Indians are by and large a spiritual lot. We may cover ourselves up in the most modern guise and use the international parlance, but somewhere inside we are still attached to the beliefs and traditions we were brought up with. We have often heard of “actions in this life affecting the next life” (which is an altogether different and lengthy topic!). Who knows, our actions and situations of this life may have their roots in our previous life.

This perhaps explains (partly) the train of thought that initiated this blog post.

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