Willpower can change your destiny

There are thousands of people in the world who would give anything away to be somebody else. They would do anything to crawl into the skin of a different person with a different identity, life, destiny.  They would do anything to try on a different life like a beautiful dress in a posh boutique that they know they can’t afford.  But instead they just carry on with their miserable lives day after day, hour after hour, penny after penny.  They go with the flow of this dim bottomless fast-moving stream called life and don’t have enough strength and determination to get out of its devouring rapids and reach a warm sunlit quiet shore.  They don’t have enough willpower to change their life; they are too feeble and helpless to be in control of their destiny; their bright blue eyes have become bleak and colorless.

It takes a lot of inner energy and power to modify your life narrative. As great Buddha once said: “ I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act”.  In other words, you are in control of your fate and through your actions and decisions you can shape your life like a clayey jug.  But once you stop and join the flow, your fate will take over your life and will manipulate every step you make. People who have power over their destinies and know what they want to achieve in their life are spiritually vigorous with an incredible inner stamina and strength of mind.  A bright example of that is Jasmine, the main character of Bharati Mukherjee’s novel  “Jasmine”,  who demonstrates a great desire to control her own destiny throughout her life and is determined to break the strong ties of the fate and chose her own way to happiness.

Jasmine, the fifth daughter of nine children, born in a small Indian village Punjabi, is pre-destined to a certain life narrative by the circumstances into which she was born. The patriarchal system of her family and society she is surrounded with dictates the lifestyle she has to follow and rules she can’t violate. But since her childhood Jasmine reveals “a fierce will to control her destiny” (Burton, 87) and refuses to comply with the canons of her family and society.  Ever since she was a little girl, Jasmine has always wanted to be in control of her life. When an old astrologer foretells her future, she shouts in rebellion: “You don’t know what my future holds!” (3). She doesn’t want to be told what will happen in the future because she believes that she herself will be the decision maker in her life. After the forehead wound accident she refers to her scar as a “third eye” as she believes it will help her to peer out “into invisible worlds” (5). These “invisible worlds” that she wants to find represent her desire to run away from the pre-destined, predicted path of her life and discover her own passageway towards happiness, create her own destiny.

 Witnessing the life of other girls in the village, “who are like cattle; whichever way you lead them, that is the way they will go”, Jasmine refuses to go with the flow and knows that this is the life she doesn’t want to lead (46). “I know what I don’t want to become”,  states Jasmine, who by separating what she doesn’t want to be defines what she intends to achieve in this life (5). It takes a lot of self-will and self-control to identify things you don’t want to do in life.  It takes Jasmine a lot of willfulness and clarity of mind to tell her father that she doesn’t want to be a steno or a teller at the bank when she grows up.  Her focused and alert mind has already made a decision on what profession she wants to choose.  “I want to be a doctor and set up my own clinic in a big town” utters a little girl, whose wish to craft her own life according to her own interests and life principles is unwavering (51). Observing life around her Jasmine refuses to accept it and prefers to follow the pattern of her own perception of the world.  She has a strong desire to stay in school and get a secondary school education which is against any norms of what a typical Indian woman should do.  Her family disapproves of this decision, especially her grandmother who still lives according to the old traditional values and thinks that woman’s only important duty is “wifehood and maternity” (50). But despite all of this, Jasmine with the help of her school teacher is able to convince her parents to allow her to continue her education. Nothing can stop her to choose her own way; nothing can prevent her from following her heart and choosing her own life narrative.  She can achieve anything she sets her mind to as her resistance to obey the rules and desire to control the strings of her own fate is unbendable.

The incident with the rabid dog is yet more proof of her will power, sense of incredible awareness and control.  The wild dog, “almost the size of a wolf”, with a “bloodied head” and “red eyes” was about to attack Jasmine when she was taking a walk with the other women in the field (56). Any other girl would probably faint from terror and would be doomed to fall prey to the ruthless beast.  But not Jasmine. She remained calm and focused as she knew her life was about to slip away at that moment. She wasn’t ready to die.  She let the animal come close to her and struck it with the staff while it was still in mid-leap.  The little girl was in total control of a life threatening situation and through her ability to clear her mind of fear and stay in focus she demonstrated tremendous self-control. Control over a wild animal, control over her fear, control over her life.

Changing your life and controlling your destiny can be quite a challenging process. Getting out of the devouring rapids of life is not an easy task, but once you gather all your strength and finally get to the sandy shores, the warm sun will reward you with a bright beam of happiness…