You are the architect of your life and thus have the capacity to change and shape your destiny. You choose what you want to be. One way to understand this is to think of yourself as an archer. The arrows you have previously shot are the past, and you cannot take them back. They are gone and will not be returned to you. You cannot undo the karma you have performed and you will have to reap the fruits of that karma. Even though you have no control over your past actions, you can have perfect control over the arrows that you have in your quiver and that you are shooting now. These represent the present. The arrows you are holding on your back and intend to shoot toward the target later correspond to the future. The past is gone, but what you do now and in the future is in your hands. The present is the link between the past and the future. If you keep thinking only of the past or imagining the future, you are missing the link of the present.

Editor’s Note

This is an excerpt from Sadhana, the Path of Enlightenment: Yoga the Sacred Science, Volume 2, by Swami Rama. Chapter “If the Cause Is Imperfect, the Effect Will Be Imperfect,” page130.

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