Deed or Destiny

As a kid I always had a tough time deciding about whats leading my future - whether its been carved out of my hard work or is it my destiny which is been shaping my future. Unless, I came across this beautiful story from one of those story books which helped me to analyze my situation or with any others situation. To understand which is greater in life - Deeds or Destiny?? read through this story.

Long ago, there was a great sage in a hermitage who had many disciples on a quest for knowledge. Two among them were Ajay & Vijay.One day these two had a great deal of argument on certain point. According to Ajay, one's fate was above everything & one couldn't get anything unless he is destined to. However, Vijay had a contradictory view that there was nothing like fate or destiny and its because of one's efforts & one's deeds that one could shape himself. Both continued arguing & they failed to reach on consensus so they approached their teacher and explained their point of views.

Sage, after analyzing the situation he said that he will be able to give his reply the next day but until then they were remained shut in a room for 24 hrs and they weren't provided with anything to eat during that period. The day just passed by and it began getting dark in the room and both were feeling terribly hungry. Since Vijay was very hungry he set out on a search in that dark room to find something to eat as Vijay believed in hard work and making efforts. However, Ajay was still adamant with his view that no one will get more than what he is destined to & was seated in his place without putting any effort. Finally, with great effort, Vijay was successful to get hold of a mug kept in a corner and he was happy to find roasted grams in it. He began munching on them & in order to tease his friend he was justifying himself saying that his hard work paid off. In spite of this, Ajay insisted that fate is above everything. This irritated Vijay & gave him small pieces of stones which were mixed with the roasted grams & explained him thats what he is been destined to receive for hunger. Vijay happily accepted his share without any hesitation thinking thats what he is been destined to.

The next day, early in the morning they both got out of the room & met their sage and explained their experiences. First Vijay spoke about how he went in search of something to fill his hunger and decided to make efforts for which he managed to get a mug containing roasted grams, which also contained small piece of stones & how he decided to give those stones to his fatalist. For this Ajay accepted insisting again on fate saying its above everything and was destined to receive those small pieces of stones only.

The sage asked to look into those small pieces of stones for which Ajay took them out of his pocket and gave them to the sage. The sage explained that they were not pieces of stones but they were small pieces of diamonds. The sage explained to the disciples that the mug contained roasted grams and small pieces of diamonds. However, Vijay made efforts to get both but assumed that those diamond pieces to be pieces of stones & gave them to Ajay. And Ajay kept them as he was destined to get diamonds. This put the disciples in to the confusion again - which is greater? Deeds or Destiny?

For which Sage said that both have equal status. Because deeds & destiny move together both are complementary to one another. Hearing this both the disciples were satisfied with the reply from the sage and they never argued on that point again.

I guess, I was destined to bring this story here as I consider it as my deed!!