Do my choices Matter?

Do we chose what happens in our lives, or are our lives set in stone even before time began? This question of predestination is a hot subject with many people to debate about. It is a question that I can doubtfully answer, but possible provide some insight into the understanding of it. I believe that God is the divine truth and is all powerful, and when we talk about predestination, we have to think about the one who created us and is all knowing. If God is all knowing, then He knew who we were going to be before we were born and every decision we make as well. However, I believe He also made us with a choice or “free will”. The way I see it, I can live my life not worrying about what happens and not put much effort into anything because whatever happens is already predestined to happen, or I can live with a purpose and make sure that I am achieving (or predestining) the life that I want to live.

In the book called Jasmine written by Beharati Mukherjee the main character is a Woman named Jyoti (Jasmine later on). The book starts off with Jyoti as a younger girl in northern India, and goes on to explain what life is like for her in India. The subject of predestination comes into play real quick in this book. Jyoti is a young girl with a strong sense of self reliance from the beginning.  From pages 50-51 we have Jyoti, her father Pitaji and her teacher Masterji. Pitaji states that Joytis role in life is to have boys and run the home, she is predestined to be a home maker and give birth to smart boys. On the other side is Masterji wants Jyoti to further her education and become something amazing in her life because she is unusually smart for a woman at her age.

This situation is a good example of what culture was like for Jyoti in India. She was a woman and would never amount to anything more than a home maker. Even with her intellectual gifts she was still seen as a typical girl and was predestined to be a home maker. Jyoti was not going to fall into the Indian tradition. She has a very strong sense of self and tells her father to his face that she is not going to become like all the rest. She tells her father that she chooses to be a doctor and set up a clinic to help others. Her active choice to follow her dream and not what her father says is her role in life and proves to me that she is not going to believe in predestination when she has the ability to choose for herself.

There is another side to Jasmine that I must explain. She is not only an active girl who is going around defying what everyone says but she also has a passive side. Her passive side is shown when she runs to America. Jasmine goes off from India to America to further her education. A result from her earlier Active defiance of her father and choosing to further her education ultimately turns into a passive choice as well. The fact that Jasmine ran away from India to America show a passive approach to her choice for her future. She left India to get away from the influence she was around. She didn’t want to become like everyone else in India, so she ran away. In America she began her studies and too another active stance on life. Soon jasmine again took a passive stance and moved from New York to flat boring Iowa. She ran from the New York life to go to a more simple life in Iowa thinking that it would do her good.

Life is full of both passive and active decisions that we must make, and sometimes the distinction between the two becomes quite unclear. I think that Jasmine is making a wise decision in not accepting the life that others think that she is predestined to live. In a sense, Jasmines destiny, along with all of ours, is predestined to be whatever we create our future to be based on the decisions we make in this life.