Niyati

(“destiny”) Niyati was the central
philosophical assumption for the
Ajivikas, an ancient and extinct philosophical school. The Ajivikas were
fatalists, who believed that niyati inexorably predetermined all things.
Human beings can do nothing to influence destiny, since they can only do
what has been preordained. The
Ajivikas compared the process of reincarnation (samsara) to a ball of string,
which would unroll until it was done,
and then go no further. The word niyati
still carries this sense of “fate” or “destiny,” but with one important difference: While the Ajivikas conceived
niyati as an impersonal and uncontrollable force, in modern times one’s fate
is believed to result from past karma.