Fate Vs Free Will - Revisited Yet Again (Eighth)

In recent times, I again got into the age old discussion of Fate vs Free Will or we can say Divine Will Vs Individual Will. Hence, I am pushed to journalize this discussion and my insights again.

 

Let’s resume the discussion from where I left it in the last article on Fate Vs Free Will (https://www.astrosaxena.com/articles/FateVsFreeWill) that everything is happening on its own. The individual only keeps an illusion that he is doing something and that becomes the cause of all of his suffering because once you accept yourself as the doer of some action then it is impossible to separate yourself from the results of the same action. So, if I put it in bullet points, then –

 

• Everything is happening on its own as per the existential will or the divine will.

• Individual only creates this "illusion" for himself that “I am the doer” as he sees himself taking some actions which happen to bring some events. This causes the illusion of the doer. Important thing is that things are still happening as per Divine Will but Individual creates this illusion for himself.

• Once individual accepts himself as Doer of an action then it is impossible to separate oneself from the results of that action. “I did it, hence I will get this result” or “I did it so I got this result”.

 

Human Ego’s only pleasure is to accept himself as Doer. Without this feeling of Doer, mind becomes restless. If you tell someone that everything is happening on its own as per Divine Will, the natural response comes that “then what are we doing in this world?” or “what if I stop taking actions then how this activity or event will take place?”

 

You can guage from the spontaneity of these questions the restlessness of the human ego. Well we just need to ask these two questions to ourselves and the ego will fall flat -

 

• If you are the Doer then you must have planned to do or would have attempted to do many things in life. Could you achieve all your planned goals or ambitions? If not, then why? Who stopped you when you are the only one who is the doer?

• Also, if you are the Doer then there must be many events in your life which you never planned or worked for then how come those events happened in life?

 

An honest introspection on these two points will end this debate here itself about who is Doer and who is the non-Doer.

 

But then one of my friends brought forward this point that if everything is happening as per Divine Will then a person keeping the illusion of Doer is also as per Divine Will?

 

Agreed, but now the discussion can be moving in dangerous areas where a misinterpretation is very easy which can have its ramifications. So, I have to be very careful.

 

So, what is illusion?

 

As I see, there are only two major illusions for human mind –

 

• Death.

 

• Ego.

 

One illusion is Death as no one ever dies in this world. Things or people just change their shapes and sizes.

 

Another illusion is Ego that I am the Doer. We can also say that the Death as we understand it is also the death of individual ego as we were connected with person through his separate ego only. Neither we knew anything about soul nor he knew anything about soul.

 

So, in a way there is only one illusion and i.e. The Ego, that we are separate from this existence and we can do things as per our Egoist Will.

 

Now, in my articles on Spiritual Musings (https://www.astrosaxena.com/articles/SpiritualMusings) I tried to explain as to how this Ego takes birth in a child and how it develops through many lives. A child is born without Ego but the society conditions him and develops his ego.

 

This Ego or Human Mind (the tool to express the Ego) can work as per 3 Gunas of Nature; i.e. Rajas, Satva and Tamas.

 

So, every individual who is functioning through conditioned mind, is functioning through these Gunas. Either he can be a Tamsic prominent or Rajasic Prominent or Sattvic Prominent. Again, in the articles on Spiritual Musings I have tried to explain how these Gunas function and how we evolve through Gunas in our lives.

 

Now, there is another state of existence beyond the mind or beyond these 3 Gunas; i.e. Nirguna. The Enlightened/Awakened State. The Awakened One is not functioning as per any specific Guna. He has the balance of all Gunas. He is neither Tamsic prominent nor Rajasic Prominent or Sattvic Prominent. He is not going to prioritize any Guna as a choice. He will act as per the requirement of the situation of the current moment. This is why; people like Krishna can also dance with Gopis and then go to kill Kansa and then go as peacemaker to Hastinapur and then He can also go to the battlefield and tell Arjun to fight the war. So, An Enlightened One can utilize any Guna as per the need of the moment.

 

As He has gone beyond the conditioned mind of society and has no choices as to good/bad, right/wrong or moral/immoral actions. He would be aware that everything is happening as per Divine Will because Divine accepts everyone and everything. Divine doesn’t discriminate. It is as such because this person knows that He is only responding to circumstances which are brought in front of Him. There is no intention or desire in Him to bring any event in life. Desires come only through mind.

 

But the people, who are functioning through conditioned mind or Gunas, they will prioritize a particular Guna and try to avoid other two Gunas. They will have priorities of life as per their conditioning as to good/bad, right/wrong or moral/immoral. They will not be able to accept that it is God only who brings War or Crimes. For that, they have to create another entity named Demon.

 

Moreover, as this person is working through mind, he will always keep an illusion of Doer. He has certain desires to accomplish as per his mind and for those accomplishment of those desires, he will take certain actions. When some of those actions will come into fruition then it will give him the illusion that he is the doer and things are happening due to his actions. It is difficult for him to accept that things happened because they were already in Divine Plan and it is one of the exceptional cases where his individual will was aligned with Divine Will, hence it manifested. Else he was taking actions in many other areas of life as per his desires/Gunas but those events were not happening.

 

Now, as this person goes through different lives, he will evolve through Gunas by exhausting the energy of these Gunas and eventually reach the state of Nirguna or The Awakened State. This is where He will realize that every good or bad experience He has gone through in many different lives was necessary and was required to break his ego or illusion of the Doer.

 

So, this statement that “even illusion of Doer is Divine Will” should be coming from the person who has gone beyond the illusion. This should be coming as the realization after attaining awakened state. Ideally, a person under illusion should never be saying that “even illusion of Doer is Divine Will” because right now, he has no idea of the Divine Will.

 

So, this is why; it can be a dangerous statement because a person under illusion may continue to remain under illusion as he may say that even this illusion is Divine Will. The biggest problem in spiritual journey happens when a student starts speaking the language of Guru and creates an illusion for himself of being a Guru.

 

Understand it like this. Suppose I am having a dream in the sleeping state. As long as I am in dream, I can’t realize that it is dream. At the time of dreaming, dream seems very real. If I say that it is/was a dream then it means that I am out of dream and awakened. That’s why; this statement that “even illusion of Doer is Divine Will” should be coming from the person who has gone beyond the illusion.

 

But again, if we are accepting everything as Divine Will then let’s accept this also that even keeping this sort of illusion of being a Guru by a student is also Divine Will. This is going to be the language of complete surrender or surrender by which whatever happens in this existence is considered as the part of Divine Will or Divine Plan and if someone can truly perform this sort of acceptance or surrender then in that moment only, He can come out of Gunas and reach Nirguna state as He is left with no choices or no preferences and accepts the life as it comes.

Hence, just like –

 

• A person, who has read Holy Scriptures, should only be the one saying that nothing happens by reading Holy Scriptures only. It should not be said by those who have never even opened any Holy Scripture.

• A person, who has visited all the Holy Places, should only be the one saying that nothing happens by visiting Holy Places only. It should not be said by those who have never visited any Holy Places.

• A person, who has surrendered to a Guru, should only be the one saying that nothing happens through a Guru. It should not be said by that person who never bowed down to even a Deity’s Statue.

• A person, who has attained Awakened State, should only be the one talking about it. Such talks should not be done by a person who is yet to start on Spiritual Journey.

 

Likewise, I agree that even having an illusion of Doer is also part of Divine Will or Divine Plan but ideally it should come as realization after attaining Nirguna State and not by just repeating the words of others. Such words should be spoken by a person who has come out of illusion and not by person who is still in illusion.

 

Last but not the least, the person at The Awakened State never leaves any action or karma. He only loses the sense of Doer. So, he will continue to do all his actions as is but will not keep a sense of Doer. So, all this philosophy of Doer Vs Non-Doer is based on letting-go of the idea of Doer rather than letting-go of Karma/Action itself. The Awakened One also acts (because it is impossible to exist without Karma) but he doesn’t keep any idea or illusion of Doer.

 

Hope this helps. Thanks,