Destiny and Free Will By Dr. H. Janardana Acharya

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Destiny

and Free Will

By Dr. H. Janardana Acharya

'There' is nothing

greater than 'Vishnu Sahasra Namam'.

Nothing else can give you in destroyable peace. Nothing can give you freedom

from pain and agony except recitation of Vishnu Sahasra

Namam at least once a day.

- Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji

 

Destiny and free will are synonymous. If

the life phenomenon is a coin, the

destiny is its obverse and the free-will its reverse. The relationship between

them is as old and good as the relationship between the plant and the seed.

Whether the destiny is the follower of free-will or otherwise is a never

answerable question.

 

What is one today is due to the

culmination of the play of one's freewill enacted yesterday, an

yesterday that can be carried to an action. The product of the free will is

called destiny or fate ('Adrishta'). Destiny is

invisible but it is the product of one's own making and therefore one has the

capacity to unmake it. The spool of destiny is wound by him and he himself

would be able to unwind it.

 

The Sahasra Nama admits that the problem of fate and freewill is

ponderous and formidable ('Gahano Guhaha').

However it clarifies the problem in ten words. The words 'Karanam

Kaaranam Kartha Vikartha' say that He is the instrument and implement, He

is the cause, He is the doer and He is the non-doer or undoer.

In conclusion these words combine to say that it is the destiny's hand that is

at work and that this phase of destiny in the phenomenon of life is

un-understandable and unknowable.

 

But the seeker should not be discouraged.

The reverse of the coin stamped ('Vyavasayah Vyavasthanah' etc,). It goads him to strive (Vyavasayah).

His efforts will not go unobserved Nothing goes amiss in orderly dispensation

and one's efforts will be rewarded (Sthanadah). The Dhruva is the

final firm reassurance to the seeker that the destiny will run according to

one's industry. It also illustrates the attainment of puranic

Dharma whose persistent endeavor and final reach of Shimshumara

Chakra, the pave of the universe are classically

proverbial.

 

This son of mutual relationship between

free will and destiny and the identity of them is the dispensation of His

supreme wisdom which is clear to the saints of the caliber of His Holiness Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji.

 

What is this supreme wisdom?

We shall bury our past. Let us build our

future not allowing the present (to slip away but making the best of the

present. Now is our time, not tomorrow. [Keeping the classical Dhruva as our ideal, we shall hitch our wagon to the plot

star and not minding the earth to which we are temporarily bound and pulled]

shall try to reach the vault striving, striving and striving.

Source Shri Sai Padananda April 1992 issue