“You’re destined to receive this reading when you are 20 years, nine months and three days old,” Chakrapani Ullal— Los Angeles’ most reputable Jyotishi (Vedic Astrologer)—began his discussion of my life’s fate.

Having provided him with only my name, birth date, time and location, he described my psychology more accurately than anyone prior—better than any shrink or counselor.

He knew about my relationship with my parents. He described the kind of work I’d be most happy doing. And he discussed my future as confidently as if he were unpeeling a fruit and handing it to me to eat.

Listening to a stranger narrate my life’s story with so much intimate knowledge made me feel awkwardly exposed. Yet I wasn’t ashamed or embarrassed. Instead, I felt authenticated. It was an entirely new feeling for me.

Someone, finally, spoke out who I am.

Jyotisha’s Spooky Accuracy

Then he hit on my life’s most pivotal moment—with shocking accuracy.

“You narrowly escaped death on August 31, 1985,” Chakrapani said plaintively. “You were supposed to be in a fatal accident early in life but instead you lived. Your friends would have died, but you were spared. This early event defined your destiny,” he concluded.

He was correct. The weekend before I commenced my senior year in high school tragedy struck.

Two best friends had arrived at my door to coax me to join them for an evening of revelry. They were headed to a drinking party—the last of the summer—and begged me to join them.

To this day I can’t explain why I didn’t join them. I just didn’t want to go. They left without me.

Several hours later, intoxicated and incoherent, the two friends entered a car. That car crashed into another carrying five teenage girls. Everyone was killed. When I surveyed the wreckage, I saw the seat I was supposed to have occupied—smashed in and filled with broken glass.

I should have died. But I didn’t. Instead, I lived.

“Your early experience with death defined your destiny,” Chakrapani explained. “Every decision you’ve made and will make throughout your life arose out of that early pivotal experience. It put you on your path.”

A Journey of Self-Discovery

Your life’s plan is also written in the array of planets and stars at the moment you took in your first breath. In Jyotisha (Vedic Astrology), this pattern is your natal chart—the blueprint that maps your destiny.

Every one of us has a destiny to fulfill. Each one of us is on a path…an actual path like Jesus and Mohammed and Moses walked. Like the Buddha defined and Gandhi led.

Even the least among us has a destiny to fulfill.

Your destiny is a self-discovery of the invisible hand at the helm of your life ship—guiding you through the murky waters of experience. It patiently offers you an easier way, while you try and fail and try and fail.

Your destined life is what you were born to do, whom you were supposed to meet, and the mission you were born to accomplish. When you cooperate with it, magic happens.

Things just work out without you having to control them. You happen to meet the perfect person who offers you the exact help you need. You’re in the right place at the right time. Your parachute opens at the last minute.

Your destiny is the air you breathe—easy as a flowing stream, steady as a mountain.

It’s Not All Roses and Butterflies

Yet you don’t always dance such a sweet tango with destiny. It steps on your toes with rude interruptions in the rhythm. Things are going along well and then you’re hit with something you can’t shake—like your best friends dying in a car accident while you lived.

Signs like these appear that make you wonder if there isn’t another path than the one you are currently on.

This is when Jyotisha becomes very helpful.

Just because you have a destiny doesn’t mean you don’t possess free will. Your natal chart in Vedic Astrology presents you with a map with which to apply your free will.

Your destiny isn’t a mystery. It’s something you can know. It’s your own success plan. And it’s something you can align the power of your intention with—so that things actually work out according to how you intended them to.

The Natural Order

In Sanskrit the word for intention is sankalpa, which means “to align with the natural order.”

The natural order for you is the way the sky was arrayed at the time and location of your birth. The position of the planets and stars reveals your greatest strengths and best outcomes. They present you with a roadmap for your life’s journey.

The planetary positions help you navigate through a sea of endless possibilities toward what’s right for you.

When you recognize what’s right for you and align your thoughts, speech and actions with it, you effortlessly achieve the success you crave.

For Best Results, Align Intention with Destiny

My client once struggled with the failure of her intention. For her entire life, she wanted one thing: to be a mother. She put all her attention toward having a family of her own.

Unfortunately, her intention didn’t work out for her. She went into early menopause and it was impossible to conceive her own children.

Yet when she aligned with what was possible for her—which her Vedic Astrological chart revealed was success in adoption through foster care—she was given three new-born babies the moment she and her husband were certified as foster parents. All three were adopted and recently a fourth baby joined their family.

My client achieved her desire for a family effortlessly—when she aligned her intention with the right outcome for her.

You also have an easy solution to your life’s problem revealed in the stars themselves. And you have the power to align with your life’s plan for the best and highest outcomes.

This is your free will—and your destiny.