Destiny and Providence
What the great hand has written — every tradition asks how the soul's freedom and the divine decree fit together, and gives no easy answer.
"A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps."
"Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written..."
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
"...being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:"
"No disaster strikes upon the earth or among yourselves except that it is in a register before We bring it into being..."
"Abandon all dharmas; take refuge in Me alone. I will deliver thee from all sins; do not grieve."
See this theme as a comparative study.
- Joseph and Yusuf
A favored son is sold into slavery by jealous brothers but rises to power in Egypt. He eventually forgives his family during a famine.
- The Descent of the Divine into Mortal Form
Heavenly beings cross the boundary between worlds — sired upon mortals, descended to teach, or born as men sent in every age. The motif recurs in the Torah's 'sons of God' and the Nephilim that follow them, in 1 Enoch's Watchers, and in the Hindu doctrine of avatāra — 'the descent' — woven through the Mahabharata.
- The Divine Warrior
The motif of the divine warrior depicts a deity engaging in cosmic or historical combat to establish order against forces of chaos or oppression. While the Hebrew Bible and the Rigveda present Yahweh and Indra respectively as active combatants who physically defeat chaotic monsters or enemies, the New Testament and the Bhagavad Gita reframe this violence through eschatological judgment and the metaphysical duty of righteous action. Scholars debate whether the shared Chaoskampf motif reflects deep cultural exchange across the ancient Near East and South Asia, or independent theological developments addressing the problem of evil and social disorder.