How Free is Free Will?
Karma or the consequence of activity is classified into three categories: sanchita, prarabdha, and agami. Sanchita is the accumulated karma of the past and agami is the karma that is being accumulated at present for the future. Prarabdha is that portion of sanchita that is responsible for the present. Prarabdha has, by definition, to work itself out in this life; but the consequences of the activities of this life may have to be experienced entirely or in part in this very life. While on this topic, the enquiring mind naturally asks, “Of what avail is freewill against destiny?”
Karmic law is divine, laid down by God. So, it does provide some motivation for a spiritually purposeful life. Bhagavan assures us, “The Law of Karma is not an iron law; by dedication, by the purification that invites benediction, its effects can be modified and its terror assuaged. Do not despair; do not lose heart.”
Man must open his mind to the influence of the ever‑present inner motivator. For, the unity of the soul and the Supreme Being is the ultimate truth. This knowledge is the consummation of all sadhana [spiritual effort]. The consciousness of Divine presence is the prerequisite for transcending the bondage of karma. This being the ultimate object, the main task of free will becomes (1) developing calmness and fortitude toward one’s prarabdha, and (2) regulating one’s thoughts and activities in such a manner as can lighten the karmic load and even shed it altogether.
The intellect should be trained and developed, in order that it might bring the mind under control. With the mind under control, its responses to the sense stimuli can also be controlled. The standard of values gets elevated. There comes about a progressive detachment of the mind from the world of objects and an increase in a reliance on the consciousness within.
This is what the Lord tells Arjuna, “Let him gain, little by little, tranquility by means of reason, controlled by steadiness and, having fixed his mind in the Self, let him not think of anything else” (Gita [Song of God] VI 25). As a result, a person who would have faced a situation with anger and hatred or with sorrow and remorse, will, in the course of time, meet it with calmness and composure. When free will is enlightened by intellect, he develops viveka, discrimination. By preventing his baser passion from influencing his character and coloring his vasanas or tendencies, he has created an atmosphere in which his physical acts would not breed malevolent results. It is common experience that patience and forbearance, apart from being virtues, are also positive attitudes, exerting beneficial influences on one’s own mind and character, as well as on the environment. Directing thoughts and actions into virtuous channels lightens the karmic load a great deal.
But salvation lies in transcending karma altogether. Good karma drags one back into birth as relentlessly as bad karma! The links forged by good karma continue to be part of the chain that binds the soul to physical existence. Salvation lies in ending this chain. Is this ever possible? The answer is a positive ‘yes.’ The most effective means for this is propounded in great detail in the Gita. It is karmaphalatyaga, the renunciation of the fruit of action.
Ramana Maharshi [a saint] said action is jada (inert). It has, by itself, no capacity to bind. It is the attachment to the fruit of action that binds. We sow in order to reap; we act in order to obtain a result. The desire provides the link between the activity and its consequence. If the desire is given up or is absent, the link is broken. If all actions, prompted by prarabdha or otherwise, are performed with this attitude, no further links are added to the chain. There is no short cut by which karma can be transcended.
No doubt, if one can desist from action, no result can accrue. But the Lord affirms, “No one can remain even for a moment without doing action” (Gita III‑5). Also, there is no sense in anyone giving up his responsibilities and priding himself that he has given up activity. “Nor by mere renunciation does one attain perfection,” says Krishna (Gita III 4). In fact, the Lord enjoins Arjuna to do his dharma [duty], to fight (yuddhaswa), without being obsessed by the consequences. Freedom from desire, not physical abstention from action is ‘non-action’. It is an inward attitude, not an outward conduct. The Gita describes a sanyasin as a person who does the work he ought to do, without seeking the fruit (Gita IV‑1). As a practical step in this direction, as a sadhana that will promote this attitude, Krishna advises, “Whatever thou dost, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou offerest, whatever thou givest, whatever austerities thou dost practice, do that as an offering to Me” (Gita IX‑27).
“As long as you feel yourself the doer, so long you are bound to enjoy the fruit. But if you try to find out whose karma it is, you will find that you are not the doer! The doer of the action is not the real ‘I’ or the atman’. It was the false ‘I’ or the ‘ego’. If we identify ourselves with the real ‘I’, our responsibility for the action and the fruits of the actions ceases. Thereafter, the actions become only offerings to the Lord.”
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, referring to [the concept of] karmasanyasa, as expounded in the Gita says, “No attempt need be made to run away from the duties of one’s station and status. Remember those duties have to be done as ‘worship’, as ‘offerings’ of one’s intelligence and skill, qualities, thoughts, and feelings at the feet of the Lord, in a spirit of thankfulness for the chance given, without a trace of egoism or sense of attachment to the fruits of action.” Karmaphalatyaga [renouncing the fruit of the action] is therefore the supreme sadhana.
While engaged in this sadhana, one can derive strength from the Divine within, the Divine manifesting its grace in various ways, mostly unexpected and miraculous. Faith in Karma engenders humility and by inducing in us a mood of justice and charity (which constitute the essence of spirituality) we expose ourselves to the intercession of the Supreme for our progress in the spiritual path. Many, including puritans among the philosophers, may doubt the possibility of such Divine grace. But we have the experience of many devout aspirants to substantiate this truth. Grace has come down on aspirants belonging to all religions. The cosmic will under its own law works wonders in the lives of genuine seekers. Lord Krishna has assured His grace to such souls. With the same authority, derived from His being the same Supreme, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba says, “I will guard you even as the eyelid does the eye.” “The Lord,” He says, “seeks the aspirant even more intensely than the aspirant seeks Him.”
Let us have a quick look at the jivi [individualized soul] who has through the exercise of viveka [discrimination], and vairagya [detachment], through adherence to karmaphalatyaga, and through Divine grace, realized the identity with the Supreme. Such a soul is called a jivanmukta (released-even‑while‑alive). Sankaracharya [saint] expounds the characteristics of the jivanmukta in his [work], `Viveka Choodamani’, thus: “He is steady of wisdom. He experiences endless bliss. He is free from desire. His concern about the world has stilled. In the absence of `I ‘ and ‘mine’ concepts, the body persists for him, like a shadow. Seeing everything with an equal eye, he is not perturbed by pleasure and pain. To him, prarabdha has virtually ended, because he is no more identified with the body, through which the prarabdha has to work! His sanchita cannot take effect, since he has no future birth. And agami does not arise, since he has no sense of agency. He lives in the world, in endless bliss, unconcerned with everything worldly, until his body drops off like a dry leaf. His soul is already in tune with the Supreme and there is no further birth (and consequently no death) for him.”
The law of karma is a perfect law; but as Bhagavan says, it is not an iron law. Karma does not doom us to complete fatalism. It makes us responsible for our thoughts and deeds. Man can wipe out his destiny, by the exercise of his free will, through discrimination and detachment. “You reward and punish yourselves,” says Bhagavan; “You are here, because you wished to come here. You gravitate to the level to which your deeds drag you or lift you; you make your own future by your thoughts, desires, and deeds.”
Bhagavan also assures us that the ‘writing on the brow’ [‘handwriting on the wall’], which is by one’s own hand, can be wiped off by the same hand.
~C. P. K. Nair, Pattambi, Kerala
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Oct. 1977
