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Articles: Devotion | Is the world a Stage?
- Prof. venkata ramanamurty mallajosyula
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The entrance and the exit.
Is There Such a Thing as ‘Free Will’?
Does this mean man has no free will or choices to make in his life on earth? A pre-destined life is comparable to a dog’s leash and the dog is free to move within its limits. Man too has chosen his own limitations prior to birth, and we call it his Prapthi (Prarabdha karma), which is already determined in the astral plane. It is the writer’s firm belief that man has some choice as to how he could play his role on earth, and with what kind of attitude; but he has neither a choice over his role he plays nor over the events that surround him. He is born with his script, and this cannot be altered on the stage of the earth, except when the Avatar intervenes. With what attitude one plays his role is influenced by his tendencies (vasanas) from past lives as well as the conditioning since birth. If human life will unfold according to a pre-destined path, one may cleverly argue why on earth should anyone bother to work or strive for anything?
Lord Krishna Himself gives the answer to this question. Arjuna, the great warrior, was in a quandary and his ego got the better of him. Arjuna wanted to walk away from the battlefield, as if he was the one to decide whether he was to fight or not. He turned to the Lord in such a confused state, but Bhagavan Krishna emphatically told Arjuna, “In spite of you, you will do what you are destined to do. You are a warrior and your role is to fight injustice.” Here Lord Krishna hinted that the outcome of the war and Arjuna’s role in it were already pre-determined, long before the event was to occur. Arjuna’s choice was limited to his understanding as to how he would fight and with what kind of attitude he would face the situation. It also implied that Arjuna had no free-will to decide upon his role in the war, whether to fight or walk away, neither its outcome.
Arjuna had the choice of destroying the enemies with hatred, anger and doership, which would have added to his karmic load, or, become an instrument of the Lord and surrender to His Supreme Will, thereby absolving himself from incurring any karma to be carried forward, but fight he must. Both ways, the outcome would have remained unchanged. Christians pray to the Heavenly Father: “…. Thy kingdom come; Thy Will be done on Earth, as it is in heaven.” It means, our life has already been ‘landscaped’ in the astral life before taking birth and events in our life are inevitable. It is like a movie film already containing what is being projected. So, where is the question of Free-Will?
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