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Free-will vs Pre-determination - poser-I

From the Bhakti List Archives

jasn sn • August 6, 2002 


SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA.

Erudite explanation from Sri sriram!
Yet some posers are presented here that are left to
the scrutiny of readers.
This discussion is planned in 5 mails, taking up each
of the questions raised initially, along with the
replies given, in each mail. 

The Q-1 raised:- 

# Does the jiva enjoy / possess any freedom to act
(freewill)? Did the lord
mean this when He said in BG 18-63 __yathA echchasi
thathA kuru__ _do as per
your wish?

The answer from Sri Sriram:-

Yes, the jIvA does possess the freedom to act. Towards
the end of His
discourse/dialogue, Â…Â…the decision-making to Arjuna.
By this it is
clear that He expects the jIvA/an individual to take
the initiative and do
the right thing, given the knowledge/qualification,
and therefore the
implicit recognition of jIvA's freedom.

The poser:-

 Let us examine this scenario.
A bird is trapped in a room. The room has as many as
20 windows, all except one of which are bolted. All
that is required of the bird is to tap the windows.
The window that is not bolted will immediately open
upon tapping, but the bird can not identify this
window without tapping.
This scenario presents certain options.
The bird can either flutter around in panic and or do
nothing.

Or it can make some attempts to come out by tapping
the windows to find out whether they are open. 

In any case the bird is at liberty to use its freewill
– even if it is about not taking any effort and remain
mute and inactive.

This free will or freedom of choice of an option can
not be discussed in isolation, for every such act of
free will (here) is done with some motive and will be
inexplicably connected with a consequence/ outcome.
Only if we relate the consequences to the action, (in
this context free will) can we prove beyond doubt
whether it is freewill or guided action that has taken
place.
  
We know the motive here. And the result too. The
motive of the bird, or rather the result that the bird
expects is the escape from the room. The question is
whether the action it is going to take up has sprung
due to its own volition or guided by an already
programmed chip

Looking at the options-

1. It can keep on tapping one window after the other. 
   
2. It can try a few windows and finding no success, it
can give up the effort and lie down to face the
possibility of getting trapped for ever.


3. It can keep trying till the last window as the last
window happens to be the opening one

4. It might even happen that the very first window it
tapped opened up! So no need for further toil and
quick release from the room.

   In exercising these options, we are tempted to say
that the bird has free will to act or not to act! But
taking into account the toil it has to put up with and
the consequences upon delayed success or failure and
lack of endurance or initiative, we are forced to
reset our understanding. The said consequences have to
be inevitably taken into account, for, every action
here is accompanied by or bound by some karma.
It is like this.
 Suppose the bird finds the escape  upon the first
tapping itself. Its toil is less but happiness is more
/ enormous.
Suppose the toil is prolonged till the last window,
the bird is said to undergo a tough time in terms of
working out its karma.
Suppose the bird is not able to endure the search, its
karma once again is seen to be terrible as it has to
languish in the room for ever.

In other words,
 IT IS THE KIND OF KARMA IT HAS TO ENDURE THAT DECIDES
THE SEARCH IN TERMS OF FREE-WILL AND NOT THE OTHER WAY
ROUND.
If its karma is such that some minimal suffering has
to be undergone, it will be hitting upon the right
window sooner than later. Here its free will has not
decided that it will soon hit the right window, but
the karma – that which has already been decided as to
what must happen! 

If the bird just remains mute, leaving things to
happen on their own, (we characterise this as anathema
to freewill), it is because the karma clause has 
ordained so in accordance with the experience it has
to undergo in that condition.
If the bird picks up some course of action (which we
characterise as free will), it is once again because
the karma clause has ordained so-  in accordance with
a different set of experience to be undergone.

The Q-1 ‘yatha echchasi thtatha kuru’
God seems to tell the bird (here) the possible options
before the bird and tell it to decide whichever way it
wants to go. The way that it finally decides to choose
will automatically comply with the kind of karma it
has to endure in given situation.

 If it is not to be so, ie., if the spending off karma
in the course of the (now so-called) free will is not 
to be there, that is untenable. For, the texts do not
support such a notion. (More explanations in this
regard can be found in earlier mails on why of
creation)
 
 Only if the spending off the karma is taken as the
deciding factor, can there be justification for why
the lord has so painstakingly (!?) delved into the
different  dimensions of attitude with which one must
perform  action.
If you think that it is on your own volition, you are
gone. Think that you are only instrumental (proxy?)
and so on. This is akin to telling that you are doing
HIS will, and not applying your free will.
  As such freewill looks notional not real. Freewill
seems to be part of the greater design –what we call
the already pre-determined one.

Such being the case why did the lord say yatha
echchasi...?
Probable answers are-

# to inculcate ‘karmasu kaushalam’ attitude in
performing the action. When a person wishes /wills to
do something, complete involvement will be there. The
yogam, namely dexterity in action or perfection
(kaushalam)will be there. Without echchai, aasai or
involvement, results will not be forthcoming. (The
prescription in today’s terms – ‘Open the LID and
discover your DILÂ’-- L for liking, I for involvement
and D for dedication. If one proceeds in this fashion
he will have DIL - the heart in the job he does. This
results in karmasu kaushalam)

# Krishna has all along extolled the need to perform
and how to perform. Now Krishna says this as ArjunaÂ’s
moment of reckoning is drawing near.
Arjuna fittingly replies with complete understanding
of the import of the teaching, ‘karishye vachanam
tava” –I will do as you have said (not as I wish)



Jayasree sarnathan.

Food for thought:-
“God smiles on two occasions, 
one, when the doctor tells the mother of the
terminally-ill patient,  “don’t worry madam, I will
take care of your son”
and two, when brothers fight for the land, telling,
“This is mine and that is yours”
      
                - Sri Ramakrishna paramahams
                             


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