Daaji's new book on designing destiny

Spiritual teacher Kamlesh Patel, popularly known as Daaji, addresses key issues related to destiny and how it shapes one's life in his new book. In "Designing Destiny: The Heartfulness Way", the author provides practical wisdom on how to use heartfulness practices to refine lifestyle and design destiny, including destiny in the afterlife.

He elaborates on the subject of consciousness, the role of evolution, and explains what happens to people at the time of birth and death - and how people can act in those pivotal moments when life takes a turn. In the book, brought out by Westland Publications, Daaji shares how beliefs determine the relative importance of fate and free will in people's lives. He also shares a set of simple heartfulness practices and lifestyle changes that can help people design their destiny.

As Daaji says, "We have tremendous freedom to design our destiny. If destiny were fixed, why would we work? Why would young people study, as the knowledge would come anyway if it is in their destiny? If someone is supposed to become the prime minister, do they need to campaign before an election? "All these activities would be redundant... Destiny is a very complex thing. Some part of it is fixed, just like our genetic expression. We have a fixed genome - nothing can be done about it. But there is an epigenome, which can be changed because it is susceptible to outer circumstances..."

The author also explores the meditative practices in the light of destiny besides fundamental aspects of well-being, like healthy sleep patterns, heartful communication, eating patterns, living in tune with natural cycles and so on. There is also a lot about lifestyle: how to manage personal behaviour, anger, fear, relationships, decision-making abilities, and many other life skills, he says.

According to Daaji, there are some fundamental principles that let us approach the topic of destiny in a practical way. The first principle of destiny is that we can only change it in the present. The past is gone and cannot be changed. It is advisable not to stay stuck in the past, as it wastes precious energy, especially as we will learn to remove the impressions of the past so as to erase the blueprint it has left, he says.

The second principle of destiny is that we create it for ourselves by our everyday thoughts — our wishes, what attracts us and repels us, our likes and dislikes, he says. The third principle is that we need to work upon the mind to design our destiny and for this, meditative practice is needed.

The final principle about destiny explored in the book is that we are not alone; we are all connected. "We are not only designing our own individual destiny, but we are also evolving together as a species and in communities. This is known as co-evolution. This can only happen when we first evolve as individuals."

There are three broad steps in the process of designing destiny, according to Daaji. First, everything starts from practice; second, practice leads to lifestyle; and lastly, lifestyle leads to destiny, he says.

(With inputs from agencies.)