Question

write a page on this topic "doing right thing at the right time"

Answer 1

If luck is all about right people doing right thing at the right time with the right set of values and beliefs, then it isn’t really luck because luck carries the connotation of chance.

Chance comes down to something happening that has no discernible cause. It is completely random and unpredictable. If, as you question implies, there is a cause for what we call luck, then ‘luck’ is the wrong word.

I accept the Vedic version which holds that there is a cause for everything that happens in the material world. The cause may be discernible by us or it may not, but the Vedic wisdom is emphatic that there is always a cause for whatever takes place on a material level of experience.

We can see that some people are ‘luckier’ than others, and on the surface it would appear that there is no cause for their luck, but Vedic knowledge goes below the surface. It explains that for every action there is a reaction, and that the living entity is eternal and constantly shifts from one body to another to experience the reactions to previous activities, and set up a new series of reactions through its current activities.

Seen in this light there is no such thing as luck. Our past activities and desires will come together in this life to produce experiences. Two people may do the same things with the same set of values and beliefs and experience different results, so apparently there is something more than just activity and values at work. That something would be the reactions of previous activities. They are what determine success or failure; they are what determine good or bad ‘luck’, and obviously they aren’t random.

It is not even luck that one person can work at the right time with the right values and beliefs and succeed. Nor is it luck that another person can’t. These are determined by the influences of material nature upon our consciousness, so that some people are proactive and some people procrastinate, some people are reckless and some cautious etc. How material nature influences us is determined by what kind of association we keep, what kind of foods we eat, what kind of activities we do, what locations we frequent and on and on.

The experiences that come to us in this life are scripted before we even take birth, what is left for us, is how we react to those experiences. One man’s good luck will be another’s bad luck. Happiness and distress will come of their own accord, and in Bhagavad Gita Krishna advises us to tolerate them without being disturbed.

Then one may ask what is the point of trying for material success and happiness? And Krishna says there is no point because they are temporary, and we are eternal. The solution Krishna gives is to go beyond these temporary material considerations of luck, success, and happiness, and by taking shelter of Him rise above the dualities of material life and be fixed in spiritual happiness which is unaffected by material considerations.

It’s not easy, but it is doable with sincerity, patience and determination, and once done, all our problems are solved so that good or bad luck are irrelevant.