[Advaita-l] Free Will and/or Destiny - Part III

[KAMESWARARAO MULA]

Dear Sir,                    I would  like to have my opinion in this.
I feel that one should always follow the 'Chitta' with  free-will . By doing this, you may loose all the materialistic earnings/money/fame/family life and you may dishonored also some times. But one can live with freedom without attachment to any thing.Today I exists on this earth by following the Free will as told my chitta (mind) and could able to escape the kritya performed on me by surrendering to the lotus feet .By this approach, i might have lost the race and given up all the materialistic things which I earned in this physical body including that, but I gained the eternal peace/freedom of living and can act with free will.
we want to do some job, we have done that, then were is the question of going back??, so it doesn't arise. I follow my free will & you follow your destiny. Let us pray to TIME, it may help us.

The other approach is the Destiny, although it works some times and it may be reversible also which depends on the Nature. A place where you are going to live can be called as the destiny and the way of life we live is not the destiny. It is in our hands up to some time so we can change little its direction, once the time rotates, you don't have any control over it.Pls share your views cordially with some fine examples from history/purana's
with regardsKameswaraDr. M.Kameswara RaoSenior Scientist, P&T Division,Defence Research & Development Establishment, Ministry of Defence, Govt of IndiaJhansi Road, Gwalior-474002,IndiaPh 91-(0)751-2390368(0) Imp Note:The information contained in this electronic message and any attachments to this message are intended for the exclusive use of the addressee(s) and may contain proprietary, confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately and destroy all copies of this message and any attachments if any.
 

    On Friday, 12 January 2018 8:34 AM, kuntimaddi sadananda via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
 

 Free-Will and/or Destiny – Part 3------------------
Fundamental Human Pursuits:



 Life involves action. No one can remain idle for a moment without action – says Krishna. na hi kaschit kshaNamapi jaatu tuShTasya karma kRit.... and everyone is propelled to act because of his vaasanas or likes and dislikes. At the same time, the action does not give the result that one is longing for. Hence Krishna provides the laws of action and results in the famous sloka –karmanyeva adhikaarastE maa phaleShu kadaachana, maa karma phalaheturbhuuH, mate sangostvakarmaNi. One has the only choice in action and not in the result at any time, let the result not be the motivating factor for action, nor one should stop from acting when action is required- says Krishna. Some interpret the word adhikaara as a right to perform an action; however what one has only the choice of action – that includes to do, not to do or to do another way- kartum shakyam, akartum shakyam or anyathaa karthum shakyam.

As a human being, I have no choice but to choose the course of action. Not to do is also a choice that one has to exercise and be accountable for that choice. Some interpret this as we have no choice in action and all our actions are predestined, while some others think we have free will at any time to perform. Freewill vs Destiny has become a debatable issue in some circles of Philosophical discussions. The best answer to this was provided by Swami Chinmayanandaji. He said – what we have is praarabdha or destiny and what we do with what we have is purushaartha, or free will. Future praarabdha is past praarabdha modified by the results of present action.

Thus, while we are prisoners of our past, we are also masters of our future too. Krishna packs this idea in His statement: uddharet aatmanaa aatmaanam, naatmaanamavasaadayet, atmaiva hyaatmano bandhuH, aatmaiva ripuraatmanaH|| One has to uplift oneself by oneself, and not to degrade oneself. By uplifting oneself one becomes his own friend and by degradation of oneself, one becomes his own enemy. Thus the choice is ours. Thus a human being is endowed with free will to evolve himself. The scriptures provide some guidelines for evolution. Thus being born in a particular environment is also due to the result of our own action in the past and to be born in a better environment in future one has to work for it. In addition, by following the scriptural guidelines, one can evolve rapidly and end this cycle of births and deaths. The choice is ours.

Laws of Actions and Results:

One cannot but act as that is the essential expression of Life itself. As a human being, I only have the choice of action. The results are dictated by the laws of nature that are beyond my control. If I have a stone in my hand, I can throw it this side, that side or up into the air and pray that it does not fall on my head, or not to do anything with it. But once I throw the stone, its trajectory is determined not by me but by the laws of nature such as gravitational force, the frictional forces, etc. Lord Himself expresses in the form of creation, and thus the laws too, says Vedanta. Hence He is called karmaphaladaata or giver of fruits of actions. The factors that frame the results that I have no control on are grouped under daivam or in normal parlance may be considered as ‘luck’. Hence Krishna’s statement – maaphaleshu kadaachana – you have no choice in the results, once the action is performed. You can perform another action to counter the effects of the previous action – like saying I am sorry when you made a mistake. That is called repair action or prayaschitta karma; the result of that action also does not depend on you. Another way of looking at this law of action and result is that action can be performed only in the present, including the planning of future action. The result follows the action and hence future to the action. I have no control over the future. Thus Krishna provides an absolute law of action. I cannot act in the past since past is gone; and I cannot act in the future, since future has not come. I can sit down and ‘brood over’ my past actions or worry about future. These two only dissipate my energies and make me inefficient in the present action. Life involves action in the present. We can only live in the present since past is gone and future has not come. The irony is that most do not live in the present since their minds are always thinking about either their past or the future. Hence efficacy in the action comes by involving completely (body, mind, and intellect) to the fullest extent in the present action. To arrest the habitual tendency of the mind to run to the regrets of the past (or glories of the past) or worry or excitement about the future result and devote entirely in the present action requires the mind that is disciplined. A man of success lives in the present and enjoys the present. Another way to live in the present is to surrender the past and future at the feet of the Lord, and perform the action to the best that I can do as an offering to the Lord, that is, become a karmayoga. Krishna says – yat karoShi yad ashnaasi ... tat kuruShva madarpaNam –whatever you do, offer it to me with devotion. When we offer something to the Lord, a) it should be our best b) it should be dhaarmic – otherwise, He would not accept it. Hence a karmayogi is one who becomes very efficient in action, says Krishna – yogaH karmasu koushalam, dexterity in action follows karmayoga. He also becomes a righteous or dharmic person, which are essential ingredients for the evolution of the mind. Hence Vedanta says for proper action in the present one has to follow the four purusharthas, namely, dharma, artha, kaama and moksha. 

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To be continued
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