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Free-will vs Pre-determination

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jasn sn • July 31, 2002 


SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA.

Subject : Freewill versus predetermination.

Refer : The mails from Sri Ram Kumar, Sri Krishna
Kashyap and Sri Sadananda

Observation upon reading mails displayed  so far on
this subject:
#  There is a strong possibility to mix up the  jiva
as the doer and the jiva as having free will.
# Our discussion has to be  focussed on whether the so
called freedom to act, think etc is “notional or
actualÂ’ as Sri Sadananda asks.
#  The lord telling ways of doing Karma and
renunciation of the same seem to take us away from the
subject. Or can it be interpreted that the lord shows
the way. You take up the proper course (a case of
freewill?)
#  The quotes used in the second part of sri
Sadananda’s mail  talk about the ‘attitude’ that one
must hold on to–irrespective of whether it falls in
the context of action or non-action or inaction
- but less about whether the lord grants the person
the freedom to take the course 
- or whether the person chooses a course on his own
volition 
- or is allowed / influenced to  take a particular
course of action in which case predetermination can be
said to take precedence over free will
# There is also the possibility to slip into Kalai
nuances in this discussion and my humble request is to
stick to the core issue.

Once again coming back to the subject,
Is the lord granting limited freewill, or no free will
or complete freewill
- limited freewill:- ‘ niyatham kuru karma’ – do the
nithya karma
- no freewill :- ‘nimiththaani bhava’ – you are only
an instrument. Only I am making things happen.
- Complete freewill:- ‘yatha echchasi, ththa kuru’
–whatever I can tell, I have told you, it is now up to
you to decide. 
- Herein the onus of responsibility of the action to
be done falls on the jiva so that it is the jiva who
has  to face the consequences of action (spiralling
samsara begins). How not to get smeared by the
consequences of action is what the core teaching of
Gita is all about (the attitude, renunciation,
surrender etc, etc.) But this latter part hardly
explains the status of free will.

Now looking at it at another level,
Simple logic demands that if we say you must have
knowledge, then it pre-supposes that there is
something to be known. In other words, knowledge is
essentially discovery or finding what already is
there. 
Applying this reasoning, if we say that a jiva is born
to do certain karma – praarabhdha or whatever it is-
does it not pre-suppose that what he is going to do in
that birth has already been decided. Then where is the
scope for free will. All that the jiva can do is to
follow the lordÂ’s advice and reduce additions to his
karma back-log.

It may not be out of context to quote the famous
description by Jharaasandhan in Mahabharatha – a pet
quote for many a pouraNika.
He says that all the world is a puppet show and the
lord the puppet man.
The jivas are the puppets controlled by the strings
which are nothing other than the strings of karma
bondage.
The stage, the scenes and screen play are all decided
by the puppet man who, using the strings controls the
entire action of the puppets. The show is opened or
wound up as per his decision.
Do the puppets have any say in the whole show?
And thus it goes..

Once again calling up our learned friends to
contribute and enlighten us (or compound the confusion
– to quote an unforgettable phrase from one of our
friends:-)) 

Jayasree Sarnathan


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