by C.V.Rajan

Created on: December 21, 2008   Last Updated: January 07, 2012

Western idea of determinism and Hinduism's concept of Karma have several similarities. While determinism as a philosophical idea does not involve God, the concept of Karma in Hinduism is intrinsically interwoven with God's will as a strong mediating force.

According to Wikipedia, "Determinism is the philosophical proposition that every event, including human cognition and behavior, decision and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences."

Hinduism's Karma principle concurs with the above definition to a large extent, except perhaps, with the phrase "an broken chain". Whether the chain of prior occurrences can be broken or not remains at the will of God, according to great Hindu Masters.

Does Hinduism totally negate existence of free will? Not really.

In Hinduism, everything in the relative plane involving name and form the entire cosmos, this world, all the sentient and non-sentient creations including human beings - is Maya, God's divine play. Man is deluded by Maya and this maya makes him identify himself with his body, mind and ego. This maya makes him think that he has the free will. Free will is strongly associated with ego.

Free Will and Ego:

In proportion to a man's dependence on his ego, he believes he has the free will to function as he wishes. On the other hand, a saintly person, who is more and more aware of the supreme divinity controlling all, who is able to decipher the wily play of egotism inside human minds, understands quite lucidly on the strength of his experiences and convictions, that it is God's will that is always done.

An egotistic person has the strong faith that he is the doer. On the other end, a saint who has surrendered his ego at the holy feet of God has the strong conviction that he is NOT the doer but it is God's will that acts through him. Hinduism links this sense of doer-ship to the inescapable necessity of enjoying or suffering the consequences of the actions by the doer.

Relationship Between Actions and Results:

Thus, if you engage in actions based on the whims of your free will, you have to own up the consequences or results or fruits of your actions. As a doer with ego, you have the freedom to act as per your free will. The actions you undertake in this way are known as "Akamya Karma" desire based actions. They will bring their fruits in future. But the enjoyment or suffering you undergo presently based on your past acts across several births, done out of free will, is known as "Prarabhda

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