Ask The Yogi
Fate vs Freewill in the Bhagavad Gita
Q. In several places the Bhagavad Gita seems to embrace the doctrine of determinism; it’s as though whatever action you take is, ultimately, the only action you could have taken. So, if this is the case, what is the motivation to act according to Krishna’s teachings? That is, if whatever we do, we would do anyway, what is the point?
Similarly, what is the point of attaining enlightenment if our self (Jiva–in my case, John) will pass away and never know Krishna, as will our Atman? Why not just engage in whatever kinds of nefarious activities we would like and then make the sucker in the next life (who will be reborn at a worse place) pay for it?
A. You are asking THE question of questions, fate vs free-will, determinism vs. choice. The answer, if there is one, is that it is all a great mystery beyond the mind alone, fraught with irony and contradiction. It can be considered as true that all is predestined and that every hair on your head is counted, and it is absolutely equally true that you shape and influence your own life as a conscious chooser and observer (there are now experiments in quantum physics that actually prove this, at least on a subatomic level).
The realization that this is all a great mystery is not necessarily shirking the debate of fate vs. free will — it is just such a confounding and miraculous process, this wheel of life, that for the mind to say “That’s it!” is probably the height of (a conscious or unconscious) arrogance.
Some of the greatest answers to this question have come through the inspiration of artistic creativity (poetry of ee cummings, Kabir, Rumi; fiction – Brothers Karamazov, Siddartha, Illusions; and even film — the Matrix deals with this debate as a huge underlying theme beneath all the latex and gun battles and comes to a pretty good representation of a “conclusion” at the end of the third part.) Answers have also come through great Master’s mystery teachings on faith and action (see Christ’s teaching on the mustard seed and the mountain, for example). However, any answer that comes from mind alone will be, by definition, limited to the realm of opposites from which it exists.
Another way to look at this question is this: Even if whatever action you take is the only ultimate action available, there is ALWAYS the choice of our attitude while we are in the midst of the action (some great Masters say that this is the only real choice we have — see also Victor Frankl’s comment on the last of the human freedoms while in Auschwitz). And it is here, in the changing of our minds, the changing of our attitudes (and perhaps in the recognition of the One who can change it) — that the great and glorious mystery comes in: when you change your attitude, when we become aware, when I become present (NOW!) everything then changes. And I have choice. But the choice is made THROUGH me as my own rather than by me on my own. And the former is so much more preferable to the latter that to describe the difference is beyond words.
So the answer is meant to be lived and experienced by engaging in action while following Krishna’s supreme counsel – acting while SURRENDERING THE FRUITS OF OUR ACTIONS. No fruit claimed = no karma. No karma (past action identified with positively or negatively) = no fate. Here all is unwritten. Here you are free. You are the Master unidentified with past conditioning or future yearning and you are liberation itself. And the actions from this place leave no traces and are untraceable, like the path of the birds in the sky — as Buddha noted in the Dhammapada.
Engaging in nefarious activities creates its own brand of suffering because it is based on the fundamental belief that you are separate and have something to get or gain from another or have something that the other can take or remove from who you are. This is the primary klesha of avidya that causes all other suffering. Engaging in such activities creates tremendous suffering because it reinforces that which is not true. You will never be ultimately satisfied from something you get from someone else whether they have forced you to receive it or it is given as a gift, just as no one can really take away anything from who you truly are. So the universe gives us pain as a karma or result to show that this is not the way, not the truth. It is not a sin or punishment, but perhaps we experience the pain because ultimately there is no one else in here and we are really only doing unto ourself in every thought, word and action.
In the face of this, some approach the schism between fate and free will and throw up their hands in complete confusion bordering on outright doubt. But “What’s the point?” or “Who Cares?” or “It’s beyond me” isn’t the answer either, as this poor substitute for true surrender is one of the great spiritual cop-outs of all time and leads to despair, lack of inspiration and dullness in mind and body. And since the doer (either unconscious and not caring or willfully nefarious) clings so ferociously to the idea of isolation and separateness in identity, then by definition the “sucker” in the next life who does not realize that his Jiva is Atman will be that same separate clung-to identity, unconscious as ever, reaping the harvest of that which was previously sowed in their own back yard.
Another approach is to believe we have the ability to create through free will and then beat ourselves up for creating so many problems and so much pain. But this too is only the illusion of choice. We use the idea of free will only in order to indulge in the isolating habit of self judgement. We separate our actions into good and bad and instead of taking responsibilty for our choices and the wisdom they can bring we create only blame and self-pity. Here our “choices” are just the repetition of past painful patterns. And the resulting guilt or feelings of unworthiness keep us stuck in “fate” or the repetion of yesterday today, plunging us deeper into the very patterns that we are trying to avoid.
As ye think, so shall ye become. As your faith is, so are you. Ultimately, it may just be more joyful to act “AS IF” we are free and have choice and AS IF there is possibility in a world of fate where these things do not exist. And in so doing we go beyond the world of duality and discover the very freedom that we thought was unavailable to us. Suddenly, then, the formerly impossible becomes the very breath of life and the very fabric of existence, so obvious //=;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;/;=that we laugh at our prior delusion the same way Masters are always laughing — with great compassion towards the extent to which we become caught up in our own delusions; delusions that are ultimately more insubstantial than the faintest smoke, as unreal as any dream. And all problems in all dreams, no matter how painful the dream, are “solved” instantly by waking up to who you really are.
Jeff Martens is a teacher, writer and co-owner of Inner Vision Yoga. All suggestions are voluntary. Consult a qualified teacher or your physician before you embark on any practice in which you are unfamiliar.
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