Fate, Free-will and God's will by Sri N. Ananthanarayanan

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2.

 

What is this free-will? In Hindu scriptural lore, whole treatises

like the Yoga Vasishtha are devoted to glorifying free-will or

Purushartha. Stories, like those of Markandeya and Savitri, are

cited in support. In his " Sure Ways for Success in Life and God-

realisation " , Swami Sivananda himself names some persons who rose

from poverty to power by their own self-effort.

 

But then, in this world, for every person who is able to raise

himself by his own free-will or self-effort, there are any number of

others who are tied down to adverse circumstances by that unseen

power called fate. In the same Hindu religious lore which glorifies

free-will, there are any number of passages and stories to decalre

and assert the inevitability of destiny or Prarabdha.

 

The question naturally arises: Which is more powerful? Fate and free-

will are two separate entities. Swami Sivananda clares this

misconception. He says that the destiny or Prarabdha that we enjoy

or suffer in this life is the result of the exercise of our free-

will or Purushartha in previous lives. He adds that our actions in

this life will shape our destiny in future lives. Prarabdha and

Purushartha, fate and free-will, are not two different entities, but

only two different names to indicated the same set of actions viewed

from a particular point of time and from a particular angle of

metaphysical speculation.

 

Contd....