by C.V.Rajan

Created on: March 01, 2009   Last Updated: September 23, 2009

In Hinduism, both free will and fate (or predestination) have their place. As long as you think you are the doer of actions (Karma), you have to be the receiver of fruits of your actions (Karma phala). As long as you believe self effort is essential, you have the freedom of action. But, for for a person who has surrendered cent percent to God, there is only fate or predestination and God's will. He realizes that he has no free will.

Fate comes into play as a result of your past Karmas. i.e., whatever happens to you, the good, bad and the neutral are all the effects of the past, mostly consequences of your acts in previous births (and also, to some extent, your actions early in your life).

Hinduism says that in receiving the fruits of past karmas, you have no freedom choice but to accept the play of fate. But, by surrendering to God, you have the scope of receiving divine grace that can lessen the evil effects of your past Karma (but not totally avoid it). Sarada Devi (wife of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa) says that if your fate is such that you should be bitten by a poisonous snake, you may be let off with the prick of a nail, if you have surrendered to God whole heartedly.

But you have the freedom of action in your control. Your freedom of action is mostly influenced by your vasanas (your likes and dislikes based on impressions of your past experiences).

Let us try to understand this through an example.

Two persons attend a party where drinks are offered. One person had taken drinks once in the past and had developed a liking for it. The other person had no exposure to drinking; he is just curious about it, but he is not bold enough to try it. (See the difference in their vasanas). The first one readily accepts the drinks and he forces and cajoles the other person to try it. The second person too succumbs to drinking.

Over a period of time, both take to drinking. The first one becomes a regular drinker and also becomes an alcoholic, whereas the second, the reluctant one, drinks very occasionally, with a sense of guilt.

After a couple of years, the first one goes on with his habit without any health problem, whereas the second one (though a very moderate and occasional drinker) develops severe health problem in his liver (liver cirrhosis). The doctor says that his ailment was because of his drinking habit and warns him that he should stop drinking forthwith. He had to be hospitalized frequently for his treatment. His liver could never function to its full efficiency thereafter; he could never ever think of drinking and his digestive system became so weak that he can't take any fat-rich or difficult-to-digest foods thereafter.

That the second person (not a heavy drinker) got sick on account of drinking is purely to do with his Karma of previous births; his karma of in his previous births may only dictate that he has to undergo a severe hardship through a health breakdown and the original karma too need not have anything to do with drinking. Though the first person is an alcoholic and thereby should be better "qualified" to get his liver damaged, he may not get liver cirrhosis, if his past karmas were not destined to trouble him through any health ailments!

This is how fate and free will work in us.

We can see numerous real life examples like this. Take for example, contageous diseases. Several members in a family may get bed-ridden due to a disease like chickenpox, but a grand-mother, who is by nature frail in health, gets spared and she serves and attends to all the other sick persons in the family. Such happenings cannot be explained by other ways than by the idea of predestination.

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