Destiny and Free Will
“Success or failure is your own making; you decide your own destiny; the Lord has no share in deciding it,” says Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. While the `writing on the brow’ (the handwriting on the wall) has to work itself out, Bhagavan reminds us that it is not written by any hand other than our own and assures us that the hand that wrote it can also wipe it out.
The universe is not the result of meaningless chance. It is the creation of the Supreme and is also pervaded and sustained by the Supreme. The individual soul is a spark, a ray, and a reflection of the Supreme. The embodied soul or jiva consists of the gross body, the prana (principle of breath), and the manas (the principle of the mind). Prana regulates all the unconscious activities, and manas, using the five indriyas (organs of knowledge) and the five organs of action, regulates the conscious activities. All these are organized by the buddhi (intellect). The ego is the center around which the experiences of the senses and the mind gather. The individual ego is subject to avidya (ignorance). It attributes to itself a separate existence. This sense of separateness develops ahamkara (egoism). Ignorance prevents the ego from realizing unity with the Supreme or Brahman, with other beings, and with the world of objects that the Supreme pervades and sustains.
The human predicament
The individual engages himself in action throughout his life. The soul, assuming the role of the doer and the enjoyer, reaps the fruits of such actions and survives the death of the physical body. It gathers around it the impressions arising out of the experiences conveyed to it by the mind and the senses in their contact with the external world. These impressions, called vasanas (predispositions), color and influence the individual’s actions. Unable to exhaust the accumulated vasanas and to overcome the enveloping ignorance, the ego persists even beyond the fall of the physical body. It is reborn to continue its unfinished work. Inevitably, however, the march of the soul is toward evolution. The forward and backward movements of the soul in the scale of divinity in successive lives do not negate the Divine purpose. Time, against which the span of life is measured, is insignificant as compared to eternity, which is the measure of the Supreme. The bondage has necessarily to be broken and this happens ultimately by the ego waking to the Divine call through sadhana, either on its own volition or under the pressure of circumstances.
For the soul thus released, the world is nothing more than a stage to complete the remaining part of its destined role. Once the curtain falls and he retires, he does not appear again. Embodiment ceases for him.
Destiny
The hard facts of life do not however permit the ordinary man to dismiss the material world as a dream or illusion. It is an illusion to one who has woken to the reality of divine consciousness; but to the ordinary man, bound by ignorance, the world is an objective reality. One is born high, one low; one rides the crest of luxury, another wallows in hunger and pain; one is the oppressor, another, the oppressed; one is virtuous, another is vicious. The self-same Divine is in all, but no two lives are the same, not even twins born to the same parents, in the same environment, and at about the same time. While those who enjoy success, happiness, and luxury may ignore the realities so long as the going is good, others who are caught in the grips of pain and suffering wonder about the riddle of life. Some deny God, some censure Him; the humbler accept their plight as something beyond their understanding, beyond their control, and surrender to what they call `the dictates of destiny.’
It is no doubt, destiny; it is not, however, the inhuman and capricious decree of a tyrannical God. The Lord is all compassion, all grace. He is nearest to us, in the innermost recesses of our being. We have only to be conscious about this and direct our steps inward. When we are moving outward we are getting away from Him at every step; the reversal of the steps takes us nearer and nearer to Him; the world of objects slowly fades in the distance. As we proceed, we will also find the grace and guidance necessary for us to reach the goal. As Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba Himself has assured, for every one step taken toward the Lord, the Lord takes ten steps toward the devotee.
Law of karma
The world of `becoming’ is subject to the divine law of karma (action) that acts justly and allows each the freedom to work out his own destiny. Under its operation good begets good and evil brings about its own retribution. As Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba says, “There is a law of cause and effect; every karma has a consequence, whether you like it or not, whether you anticipate it or not. A good karma produces a good result; a bad one has to produce a bad result.” The Lord does not interfere with the operation of the law. The high and the low, the saint and the sinner are all the same to Him. He declares, “I am the same in all beings. None is hateful nor dear to me“ (Gita, IX‑29).
Karma, literally meaning action, is a very comprehensive term. From the smallest activity of an individual at one end, it embraces the activity resulting in the cosmos coming into existence at the other. Explaining the cosmic evolution, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, “Karma is the name given to the creative force that brings beings into existence.” It also includes the rites and sacrifices embodied in the Vedas [sacred texts], since they contemplate actions performed to please the Gods or for obtaining certain specific results. We are concerned here with karma as the law that governs human destiny both in its prospective and retrospective aspects, and as the means of transcending the karmic results by conscious effort, i.e., by the exercise of free will.
We must start from the premise that this life is a continuation of several past lives and that it is also a link in the chain of lives yet to follow, unless in this very life one is able to break the bondage and attain salvation. The individual comes into this world with his karmic load. It is the same law of karma that determines when and where he should be born, and what his environs would be. The nature of the karmic load also influences his gunas (qualities), whether his character would be satwic [pure], leading to a virtuous life; rajasic, one predominated by passion and pomp; or tamasic, mean and slothful. His attitude to life and his propensities in life are also influenced by karma in the form of vasanas [tendencies], which, as we have already seen, are nothing but the impressions left on his subtle body by his past actions.
The ego, which is in a seed form initially, develops as one grows and engages himself in activities. It should be noted that the term ‘activities’ covers not only the physical acts involving the karmendriyas [organs of action], but also the `acts’ of the mind. The thoughts that are the activities of the mind are as much productive of results as of the organs of action, if not more.
Karma in action
We know that one’s character sets the quality of his earthly life. Thoughts build character. An individual develops in his everyday life, consciously or otherwise, an enormous assemblage of mental images. This is done by the mind engaging itself in `action’ all by itself or in conjunction with physical acts. When one sits and thinks about a person whom he hates, the passions of anger and hatred predominate in his mind. The tamasic or darker vasanas already in him get further strengthened and the baser qualities get a firmer grip on his ego. On the other hand, if his mind is engaged in kindly or pleasant thoughts, or in prayer and meditation, his baser propensities not only get dissipated, but his satwic or finer qualities are enhanced, the ego also sheds some of the dross enveloping it.
Just as thoughts build character, deeds build environment. Environment in this context is not only the physical environment; it also means the total situation in which we live including the attitude toward and relations with fellow beings and society. No physical action is ever performed unless the mind wills it. Someone attacks a person only after the mind acting in conjunction with the intellect works out the intention. Here, apart from the mind invoking the darker passions and thereby influencing the character and ego, the physical act of attacking has its own results such, as, reprisals, counter‑attacks, and the animosity of the victim, leave alone the special consequences. Likewise, a kindly and virtuous act brings into play the finer emotions and divine qualities and creates an atmosphere of love and goodwill apart from exerting an ennobling influence on character.
To sum up, every action has a result. It may be physical, moral, or spiritual, or a combination of any of these. The ego, which as the doer, is instrumental in providing the stimulus for such actions on the basis of accumulated vasanas becomes also the one who experiences the results. Strengthened by the new experiences, the ego continues to be in the meshes of samsara [illusion], and, unable to exhaust its karma it gets embodied again, in order to work out its karmic load. This continues, until consciously or otherwise the ego gets erased, and the soul attains liberation.
~C. P. K. Nair, Pattambi, Kerala
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Sept. 1977
