Ramesh's field has too little water this year. The forecasts are poor. A thought rises in his mind: if the rain is not in my hands, what is the point of sowing? Some people tie this to the Gita as well: it says that we have no right to the fruit, and destiny is counted among the causes.

But the Gita leads the other way. Destiny is one cause, not all of them. And the verse that denies a right to the fruit also denies attachment to inaction. The answer is to treat destiny as the open part and to do your own.

Where the Gita places destiny

The Lord names five causes of any action: the base, the doer, the instruments, the efforts and, fifth, destiny (Gita 18.14). The fourth cause is effort. So one of the five is destiny and one is effort. By this list effort cannot be called useless.

What it means to have no right to the fruit

Your right is to action alone, never to its fruits. Do not be the cause of the fruit, and let there be no attachment to inaction (Gita 2.47). The verse says two things together. That the fruit is not in our hands is true. But it does not follow that we should fold our hands, because the last part of the verse refuses that in plain words.

Effort is not wasted

The Lord also says that on this path no beginning is lost and that even a little of it protects from great fear (Gita 2.40). So even when the result does not come, effort has given the person something: a habit, steadiness, and a firmer footing against fear.

What this is not

It does not promise that effort will always bring the result you want. It may not, and the Gita makes no such promise. Nor does it say that destiny is nothing. It is counted among the causes. The point is only that destiny is no reason to give up your own share.

An example: what Ramesh does next

Take Ramesh again. He draws two columns on a page. Under "my part": ploughing the field, choosing a seed that needs less water, sharing out what water there is. Under "the open part": when it will rain and how much. He does the things in the first column every day. He looks at the second and does not lose sleep over it. Whatever the harvest, he has done his part, and he has a lesson learned for next year.

Going deeper

For the verses in order, the two opposite mistakes and how teachers differ on the meaning of destiny, read the detailed reading. The whole topic is in Who Is the Doer?.