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PRACTICE OF KARMA YOGA
yourself. Poverty has its own virtues. Poverty infuses humility, strength, power of endurance and the spirit of struggle and perseverance, whereas luxury begets laziness, pride, weakness, inertia and all sorts of evil habits.
Do not grumble, therefore, of bad environments. Create your own mental world and environments. That man who tries to evolve or grow in adverse environments will be a very strong man indeed. Nothing can shake him. He will be of a sterner stuff. He will have strong nerves. Man is certainly not a creature of environments or circumstances. He can control and modify them by his capacities, thoughts, good actions and right exertions (Purushartha). Theeyra Purushartha can change the destiny. That is the reason why Vasishthaji and Bhishma have placed Purushartha above destiny. Therefore, dear brothers, exert, conquer nature and rejoice in the eternal Satchidananda Atma.
5. MAN IS THE MASTER OF HIS DESTINY
Some ignorant people say: "Karma does everything. It is all destiny. If I am destined by my Karma to be like this or like that, why then should I exert? It is my destiny only.” This is fatalism. This will bring inertia, stagnation and misery. This is perfect misunderstanding of the laws of Karma. This is a fallacious argument. An intelligent man will certainly
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