Free will and fate Sometimes people wonder about the relationship of free will and karma (often understood as predestination which it is not). - Everything is controlled by Krishna but not our free will. He does not interfere with it, otherwise we would be mere robots. It would rule out responsibility and love and love is the basis of our eternal relationship with Him. - Karma and free will are not excluding each other, they work at the same time, as parallel tracks. - Krishna knows what beings conditioned by matter (us) will do. This can be found out even by astrology, etc. but is not limiting their free will in any way. An illustrative story: Once Siva and Parvati went to one village dressed as ordinary village people. They met a beggar asking for alms. Parvati asked Siva to give him something but Siva said it wont help him since he is not fortunate (having karma to enjoy wealth). Still, on Parvatis insistence Siva gave him a watermelon. The beggar was not very satisfied however because he didnt like watermelon, but he took it anyway thinking he could maybe get something for it. He found someone to give a few paise for it and then he went on his way. When the person that bought the watermelon cut it open he was surprised to find it filled with priceless jewels. The beggar that received the melon didnt know the great value of what he had been given so he practically just gave it away. (This is also the situation that we find when we distribute Srila Prabhupadas books. People receive these great treasures of knowledge, but because of not knowing what is the priceless value of them they throw them away, give them to someone else or or keep them in their house for years and years but never read them!) - Krishna is so great that our actions easily fit into His great plan to awaken all living beings to their real nature. When we realize this, inner peace will be ours. According to Vedic philosophy every living being transmigrating in material world from one body to another, is given a free will to act according to its desires, ideas and thoughts. When Shri Krishna narrated Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna, in one of the last verses (18.63) He said: Thus I have explained to you knowledge still more confidential. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do. Vedic scriptures say that desire is a father of thought and thought is a father of action. Desire originally comes from the soul, thought from the mind (subtle body) and actions from working sense organs of gross body. Living being has due to free will a certain, although limited field of activity. Vedic philosophy teaches that free will and predestination or fate are parallel to each other. By our present actions, performed out of our free will, we create our future karmic reactions. At the same time we reap reaction of our previous actions. Fate is not, therefore, any punishment from above striking on innocent ones (and which God does not want to or cannot stop). Law of karma is very strict because it must assure fulfillment of desires of all living beings in the whole material world in such a way that they do not contradict but complement themselves and that even one injustice does not go unpunished. American Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) describes it in this way (Lectures and Biographical Sketches, 1868): If you love people and serve them, you will be rewarded. Hidden rewards continue to reinstate balance of divine justice. This law cannot be changed. All tyrants, owners and monopolists of this world try in vain to disrupt this balance. Equator still keeps its place and people as well as insects, sun and planets must obey it or be destroyed by backlash reaction. Universe is ruled by strict and generally operative laws - like rules of a great game of life - which coordinate desires and mutual relationships among individual living beings. Thus each of them gets exactly as much as it deserves - neither more, nor less. According to Bhagavad-gita (2.70) the continuous stream of desires coming from the mind of each living being is like innumerable rivers which all enter one vast ocean. In this way originates endlessly complex, multidimensional web of actions and reaction which a man cannot understand. Here is apparent the influence of invisible hand of God who in His aspect of omnipresent Supersoul (paramatma) is accompanying all individual soul during their transmigration through various bodily forms. Bhagavad-gita (13.23) describes this aspect of God: Yet in this body there is another, a transcendental enjoyer, who is the Lord, the supreme proprietor, who exists as the overseer and permitter, and who is known as the Supersoul. Function of Supersoul is therefore to record innumerable desires of each living being and arrange for their fulfillment as well as observe activities of living beings and grant them corresponding reactions. This directing hand of God is called a law of karma. Hare Krishna ...
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 17:05:05 +0000
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