Assignments from God

What is my purpose in life? I constantly ask myself this question, and as I get older it resounds louder and louder in my head.  Was I put on this earth for a specific reason? Or is everything just random chaos? I was raised like Jasmine In Bharati Mukherjee’s novel of the same title to believe that everyone has some kind of predetermined mission in life. The assignment could be anything. Jasmine describes predestination in different extremes and even that one’s mission in life could be merely moving a flowerpot from one side the table to another. On a more serious note consider for a moment if everything does have a predestined fate, and how the repercussions of that specific mission affect everything else down the line. Were the events in Jasmine’s life predestined in order to mold the woman she has become, or is her headstrong personality mixed with a hurricane of life changing events the reason?

It’s easy when reading this novel to believe that everything is predetermined. Starting with the first page of the book. Jasmine as young girl learns from astrologer that in her life she would face “widowhood and exile” (Jasmine, Pg 3). Further in the book each of these events takes place. Did Prakash’s (Jasmine’s Husband) death happen randomly or did he finally complete his life’s mission. His death was foretold, and leads to Jasmine leaving India and then exile.  With out the untimely death of her father, Jasmine would never have had the chance to marry Prakash in the first place. As the Lahori friend told Jasmine’s mother “The lord lends us a body, gives us an assignment, and sends us down. When we get the job done, the lord calls us home again for the next assignment” (Jasmine, pg 59). Are these events predetermined assignments from God or just an unfortunate set of coincidences?

Jasmine believes at these happenings are assignments from God. Taylor her employer in New York is not convinced and can’t understand why Jasmine would buy into the notion of predestination. She argues, “Gods assignments are perhaps too vast for the human mind” (Jasmine. Pg 59), therefore comprehension is beyond understanding.  Taylor still cannot understand the incentive in life of having a mission, no matter how large or small it maybe. But Jasmine understands that the importance/incentive of the knowing you have a mission in life “is to treat every second of your existence as a possible assignment” (Jasmine, pg 61). This way everything you do has meaning, and you’re not wasting your life searching for the incentive, you already have it.

Does Jasmine’s value of life come from already knowing that there is meaning in everything? With out her belief in missions, assignments, and predestination would she have made it this far? Would she still have the same drive? I believe that prior knowledge of predestination helps her to transition between the new and old and deal with the traumatic events of her life.  She’s not stuck asking questions, she’s busy finding the answers.