Karma and freewill

 

Some speak of laws if they were compelling forces in the universe, which are in fact nothing but our mental perception of the correlated accumulation of events.

Whatever is latent in our life, that is revealed by the planetary combinations and that only takes a new form which was laying dormant (Karma) but capable of being enlivened under efficient directing forces (Freewill). Karma or Fate or determination can exist side by side with freewill. Our action moves on the lines that ones own Karma is tracing itself. But the free will is free to fashion its Karma. Indian philosophy has always denied the existence of a merciless fate which would play with people as it pleases. Seers declared that we are in control over our actions but this action has no control over its outcome. If the future of us is determined by the planets and stars, there is nothing that we can achieve by our own effort. Life will be reduced to that of a puppet with obedience to the pulls of the operator.

People forget the element of human freedom when glorifying God.

They attribute every state of mind, conscious and unconscious, to God's impelling suggestion from within. If this is taken strictly, human freedom disappears. One will not be free to choose between good and bad. Freedom will disappear in all sense of responsibility, moral and all aspiration for nobler state of being.

The real situation is that we are partly free and partly determined. Our physical, psychological and spiritual nature and position in the cosmos are determined. The facts that we cannot change are; parentage, nationality, temperament, even the life fund of energy, is our capital. But we can use this capital in various ways so as to rise higher or sink lower in the scale of value.

We can modify the future while facing the consequences of the past and can convert it into strength with patience, acceptance and the determination to change for the future.