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Fate and Free-Will
A
QUESTION
which has hitherto divided
human thought and received no final solution, is the freedom of
the human being in his relation to the Power intelligent or unintelligent that rules the world. We strive for freedom in our
human relations, to freedom we move as our goal, and every fresh
step in our human progress is a further approximation to our
ideal. But are we free in ourselves? We seem to be free, to do
that which we choose and not that which is chosen for us; but
it is possible that the freedom may be illusory and our apparent
freedom may be a real and iron bondage. We may be bound by
predestination, the will of a Supreme Intelligent Power, of blind inexorable
Nature, or the necessity of our own previous development.
The first is the answer of the devout and submissive mind in
its dependence on God, but, unless we adopt a Calvinistic fatalism, the admission of the guiding and overriding will of God
does not exclude the permission of freedom to the individual.
The second is the answer of the scientist; Heredity determines
our Nature, the laws of Nature limit our action, cause and effect
compel the course of our development, and, if it be urged that
we may determine effects by creating causes, the answer is that
our own actions are determined by previous causes over which
we have no control and our action itself is a necessary response
to a stimulus from outside. The third is the answer of the
Buddhist and post-Buddhistic Hinduism. "It is our fate, it is
written on our forehead, when our Karma is exhausted then
alone our calamities will pass from us"; — this is the spirit of
tāmasika inaction justifying itself by a misreading of the theory of
Karma.
If we go back to the true Hindu teaching independent of
Buddhistic influence, we shall find that it gives us a reconciliation
of the dispute by a view of man's psychology in which both Fate
and Free-Will are recognised. The difference between Buddhism
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– 379
and Hinduism is that to the former the human soul is nothing,
to the latter it is everything. The whole universe exists in the
spirit, by the spirit, for the spirit; all we do, think and feel is
for the spirit, Nature depends upon the
ātman, all its movement,
play, action is for the
ātman.
There is no Fate except insistent causality which is only
another name for Law, and Law itself is only an instrument in
the hands of Nature for the satisfaction of the spirit. Law is nothing but a mode or rule of action; it is called in our philosophy
not Law but dharma, holding together, it is that by which the
action of the universe, the action of its parts, the action of the
individual is held together. This action in the universal, the parts,
the individual is called karma, work, action, energy in play, and
the definition of dharma or Law is action as decided by the nature
of the thing in which action takes place — svabhāva-niyatam karma. Each separate existence, each individual has a svabhāva
or nature and acts according to it, each group, species or mass
of individuals has a svabhāva or nature and acts according to it,
and the universe also has its svabhāva or nature and acts according to it. Mankind is a group of individuals and every man acts
according to his human nature, that is his law of being as distinct
from animals, trees or other groups of individuals. Each man
has a distinct nature of his own and that is his law of being
which ought to guide him as an individual. But beyond and
above those minor laws is the great dharma of the universe
which provides that certain previous karma or action must
lead to certain karma or results.
The whole of causality may be defined as previous action
leading to subsequent action, karma and karmaphala. The
Hindu theory is that thought and feeling, as well as actual
speech or deeds, are part of karma and create effect, and we
do not accept the European sentiment that outward expression
of thought and feeling in speech or deed is more important than
the thought or feeling itself. This outward expression is only
part of the thing expressed and its results are only part of the
karmaphala. The previous karma has not one kind of result but
many. In the first place, a certain habit of thought or feeling
produces certain actions and speech or certain habits of action
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– 380
and speech in this life, which materialise in the next as good fortune or evil fortune. Again it produces by its action for the good
or ill of others a necessity of happiness or sorrow for ourselves
in another birth. It produces, moreover, a tendency to persistence
of that habit of thought or feeling in future lives, which involves
the persistence of good fortune or evil fortune, happiness or
sorrow. Or, acting on different lines, it produces a revolt or
reaction and replacement by opposite habits which in their turn
necessitate opposite results for good or evil. This is the chain
of karma, the bondage of works, which is the Hindu Fate and
from which the Hindu seeks salvation.
If, however, there is no escape from the Law, if Nature is
supreme and inexorable, there can be no salvation; freedom becomes a chimera, bondage eternal. There can be no escape, unless there is something within us which is free and lord, superior
to Nature. This entity the Hindu teaching finds in the spirit ever
free and blissful which is one in essence and in reality with the
Supreme Soul of the Universe. The spirit does not act, it is nature
that contains the action. If the spirit acted, it would be bound by
its action. The thing that acts is Prakriti, Nature, which determines the svabhāva of things and is the source and condition of
Law or dharma. The soul or purusa holds up the svabhāva,
watches and enjoys all the action and its fruit, sanctions the law
or dharma. It is the king, Lord or īśvara without whose consent
nothing can be done by prakrti. But the king is above the law
and free.
It is this power of sanction that forms the element of free-will in our lives. The spirit consents not that itself shall be bound,
but that its enjoyment should be bound by time, space and causality and by the svabhāva and the
dharma. It consents to virtue
or sin, good fortune or evil fortune, health or disease, joy or
suffering, or it refuses them. What it is attached to, that Nature
multiplies for it, what it is weary of, has vairāgya for, that Nature
withdraws from it. Only, because the enjoyment is in space and
time, therefore, even after the withdrawal of consent, the habitual
action continues for a time just as the locomotive continues to
move after the steam is shut off, but in a little while it slows down
and finally comes to a standstill. And because the enjoyment is
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– 381
in causality, the removal of the habit of action is effected not
spontaneously and freely, but by an established process or one
of many established processes. This is the great truth now dawning on the world, that Will is the thing which moves the world
and that Fate is merely a process by which Will fulfils itself.
But in order to feel its mastery of Nature, the human soul
must put itself into communion with the Infinite, the universal
Spirit. Its will must be one with the universal Will. The human
soul is one with the universal Spirit, but in the body it stands out
as something separate and unconnected, because a certain freedom is permitted to it in order that the svabhāva of things may be
diversely developed in different bodies. In using this freedom the
soul may do it ignorantly or knowingly. If it uses it ignorantly,
it is not really free, for ignorance brings with it the illusion of
enslavement to Nature. Used knowingly, the freedom of the
soul becomes one with surrender to the universal Will. Either
apparent bondage to Fate in Nature or realised freedom from
Nature in the universal freedom and lordship of the paramātman
and parameśvara, this is the choice offered to the human soul.
The gradual self-liberation from bondage to Nature is the true
progress of humanity. The inert stone or block is passive sport
of natural laws, God is their Master. Man stands between these
two extreme terms and moves upwards from one to the other.
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– 382
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