The Riddle of Fate and Free-Will

[Swami Vishvarupananda]

Harih Om,

Here is an interesting excerpt from a conversation with Sri chandrasekhara Bharati Mahaswami, (head of Sringeri Sharada Peetham frin 1912-1954)which appeared in Tattvaloka June/July 1997 and was taken from the book "Dialogues with the Guru":
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THE RIDDLE OF FATE AND FREE-WILL SOLVED 

One evening a disciple approached His Holiness to get a doubt cleared. In the awesome presence of the Jagadguru he could not find words to express himself. His Holiness graciously came to his rescue by starting the conversation himself: His Holiness: I hope you are pursuing your studies in the Vedanta as usual? Disciple: Though not regularly, I do make some occasional study. 
H.H.: In the course of your studies, you may have come across many doubts. 
D: Yes, one doubt repeatedly comes up to my mind. 
H.H.: What is it? 
D: It is the problem of the eternal conflict between fate and free-will. What are their respective provinces and how can the conflict be avoided? 
H.H.: If presented in the way you have done it, the problem would baffle even the highest of thinkers. 
D: What is wrong with my presentation? I only stated the problem and did not even explain how I find it to be a difficult one. 
H.H.: Your difficulty arises in the very statement of the problem. 
D: How? 
H.H.: A conflict arises only if there are two things. There can be no conflict if there is only one thing. 
D: But here there are two things, fate and free-will. 
H.H.: Exactly. It is this assumption of yours that is responsible for the your problem. 
D: It is not my assumption at all. How can I ignore the fact that the two things exist as independent factors, whether I grant their existence or not? 
H.H.: That is where you are wrong again. 
D: How? 
H.H.: As a follower of our Sanatana Dharma, you must know that fate is nothing extraneous to yourself, but only the sum total of the results of your past actions. As God is but the dispenser of the fruits of actions, fate, representing those fruits, is not his creation but only yours. Free-will is what you exercise when you act now. 
D: Still I do not see how they are not two distinct things. 
H.H.: Have it this way. Fate is past karma; free-will is present karma. Both are really one, that is, karma, though they may differ in the matter of time. There can be no conflict when they are really one. 
D: But the difference in time is a vital difference which we cannot possibly overlook. 
H.H.: I do not want you to overlook it, but only to study it more deeply. The present is before you and, by the exercise of free-will, you can attempt to shape it. The past is past and is therefore beyond your vision and is rightly called adrishta, the unseen. You cannot reasonably attempt to find out the relative strength of two things unless both of them are before you. But, by our very definition, free-will, the present karma, alone is before you and fate, the past karma, is invisible. Even if you see two wrestlers 
right in front of you, you cannot decide about their relative strength. For, one may have weight, the other agility; one muscles and the other tenacity; one the benefit of practice and the other the coolness of judgement and so on. We can go on building arguments on arguments to conclude that a particular wrestler will be the winner. But experience shows that each of these qualifications may fail at any time or may prove to be a disqualification. The only practical method of determining their relative strength will be to make them wrestle. While this is so, how do you expect to find by means of arguments a solution to the problem of the relative value of fate and free-will when the former by its very nature is unseen! 
D: Is there no way then of solving this problem? 
H.H.: There is this way. The wrestlers must fight with each other and prove which of them is the stronger. 
D: In other words, the problem of conflict will get solved only at the end of the conflict. But at that time the problem will have ceased to have any practical significance. 
H.H.: Not only so, it will cease to exist. 
D: That is, before the conflict begins, the problem is incapable of solution; and, after the conflict ends, if is no longer necessary to find a solution. 
H.H.: Just so. In either case, it is profitless to embark on the enquiry as to the relative strength of fate and free-will. A Guide 
D: Does Your Holiness then mean to say that we must resign ourselves to fate? 
H.H.: Certainly not. On the other hand, you must devote yourself to free-will. D: How can that be? 
H.H.: Fate, as I told you, is the resultant of the past exercise of your free-will. By exercising your free-will in the past, you brought on the resultant fate. By exercising your free-will in the present, I want you to wipe out your past record if it hurts you, or to add to it if you find it enjoyable. In any case, whether for acquiring more happiness or for reducing misery, you have to exercise your free-will in the present. 
D: But the exercise of free-will however well directed, very often fails to secure the desired result, as fate steps in and nullifies the action of free-will. 
H.H.: You are again ignoring our definition of fate. It is not an extraneous and a new thing which steps in to nullify your free-will. On the other hand, it is already in yourself. 
D: It may be so, but its existence is felt only when it comes into conflict with free-will. How can we possibly wipe out the past record when we do not know nor have the means of knowing what it is? 
H.H.: Except to a very few highly advanced souls, the past certainly remains unknown. But even our ignorance of it is very often an advantage to us. For, if we happen to know all the results we have accumulated by our actions in this and our past lives, we will be so much shocked as to give up in despair any attempt to overcome or mitigate them. Even in this life, forgetfulness is a boon which the merciful God has been pleased to bestow on us, so that we may not be burdened at any moment with a recollection of all that has happened in the past. Similarly, the divine spark in us is ever bright with hope and makes it possible for us to confidently exercise our free-will. It is not for us to belittle the significance of these two boons forgetfulness of the past and hope for the future. 
D: Our ignorance of the past may be useful in not deterring the exercise of the free-will, and hope may stimulate that exercise. All the same, it cannot be denied that fate very often does present a formidable obstacle in the way of such exercise. 
H.H.: It is not quite correct to say that fate places obstacles in the way of free-will. On the other hand, by seeming to oppose our efforts, it tells us what is the extent of free-will that is necessary now to bear fruit. Ordinarily for the purpose of securing a single benefit, a particular activity is prescribed; but we do not know how intensively or how repeatedly that activity has to be pursued or persisted in. If we do not succeed at the very first attempt, we can easily deduce that in the past we have exercised our free-will just in the opposite direction, that the resultant of that past activity has first to be eliminated and that our present effort must be proportionate to that past activity. Thus, the obstacle which fate seems to offer is just the gauge by which we have to guide our present activities. 
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