Premanand Maharaj Ji

How do I know whether prarabdh or my effort caused my failure?

Effort and prarabdh work together

Both practice and prarabdh (fate from past actions) matter, and failure shows your prarabdh was against you. So practise more and try again.

If you meet failure, think: my effort was great, but I failed, so my prarabdh is very bad and it has put me down.