Life is a journey from destiny to free will

As we go down the path of self-awareness, one question that comes up is how much of our actions are dictated by destiny? How much of life is a Life is a journey (Getty Images)

result of our conscious choice? Are we the masters of our destiny? Or are we mere puppets in the larger scheme of things? Different philosophical schools of thought believe different things. The two prominent and diametrically opposite views are: Determinism everything is pre-determined, and; Free Will we have complete freedom of choice.

Ancient Eastern philosophies have tended to lay greater emphasis on determinism, while there’s been bigger support for free will among modern libertarians.

The rise of individualism in modern society has furthered the notion that we create our own reality, shoring up the concept of free will. Determinism represents the view that every event is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. In its extreme version, it suggests that human beings have no way of changing the course of events. This sounds paralyzing but it may be grounded in truth. Using a biological approach, there’s the role of the genetic code the DNA carries the individuals entire history. The philosophy of karma decrees that human beings primarily act out the effects of past karma.

Meanwhile, free will espouses the existence of our rational agency through which we can exercise control over our decisions. It also implies that natures universal laws do not exert any power over individual will.

How to reconcile this with our intuitive belief that we are able to make independent decisions to create our own destiny through vision , talent and commitment

Personal experience often supports the view that we always have a choice. We choose the career we want to pursue, decide on the food we want to eat, determine the extent of hard work we put in, have the freedom to choose our leisure activities, and so on.

The debate between determinism and free will has to examine whether the laws of nature are causally deterministic of our actions . The universe is governed by laws of nature, such as the cycle of birth and death, and karma. Destiny is nothing but these laws of nature unfolding scientific and spiritual progress merely helps us understand these laws a bit better.

The law of karma also says our experiences are dictated by our cumulative stored karma.Thats why some people instinctively get angry in a situation that leaves others calm; why some are predisposed to be ambitious and others not. It is pre-arranged in our karmic psyche . We are born with this karmic psyche and every interaction with our environment means we generate and store additional karma.To that extent, all our decisions come from a pre-programmed disposition even though we may confuse them with free choice. In fact, they are at best an outcome of our conditioned will (not free will) and constrained by our hereditary and environmental limitations.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekanandas teacher, explained it thus: Man is like a cow tied to a pole with a rope, bound by the karmic debts and human nature , and the amount of free will he has is analogous only to the amount of freedom the rope allows. The argument strengthens the case for laws of nature to be causally deterministic of our lives. So does free will exist at all Yes, but it comes into play only when we make a conscious choice that we wont be governed by conditioned responses.

Our ability to make meaningful choices is determined by our level of mindfulness at that moment how aware we are of our true identity and how connected we are with our inner consciousness. This universal consciousness, alive inside each of us, can be a path to examining every situation with new awareness. But for this, we need to let go of conditioned responses and let our inner wisdom guide us.

Swami Ramakrishna completed his explanation of free will saying that as one progresses on the journey of spirituality, the rope of freedom becomes longer , allowing for greater access to authentic free will.

One fish said to the other: “Do you believe in this ocean that they talk about?”

One fish said to the other:
“Do you believe in this ocean that they talk about?”

This ancient Chinese saying well illustrates how narrow our vision of the world and the universe can be. We see the world from our limited perceptual framework. Despite evolution of our race, an average human mind is severely restricted by what it can perceive through the senses. What we hear is limited by the frequency our ears can process; dogs can hear many higher frequencies and hence, have a very different perception of the sounds out there.

Our sight is limited by the light frequencies our eyes can relate to; since pit vipers can sense heat from infrared rays (like night vision goggles), they must view the same world very differently. If we had a different mechanism, we would be seeing things differently. From our knowledge of science, we know so many things are just not what they appear — earth is not flat, the ground below us is not stationery and the sun doesn’t rise in the east.

The fact is that we see and hear what we can and not what the reality is. The world out there is an unprocessed and formless data, waiting to be interpreted by us. The human nervous system takes in only the minutest proportion of the total energy vibrating in the environment. Research shows that each conscious moment is actually comprised of many much smaller and unconscious “mini” moments, each appearing and disappearing rapidly.

According to Buddhist texts, it takes 17 mind-moments for a cognitive experience to register. As Marshall Glickman describes in his book ‘Beyond the Breath’: “This happens so quickly that we experience a steady state of consciousness, just as a movie appears seamless even though it’s made of many quickly flashed still photos.” We are so engrossed in this fascinating movie that we are unable to step aside to distinguish between the movie and the reality.

Besides the limitation in our ability to pick up the absolute truth in the first place, our perceptions are further clouded by our own thoughts and emotions. It is believed that 20% of what we see is objective data and the rest is a projection, biased by our thoughts and emotions. Neuroscientists highlight that the electrical impulses that reach our retina must also interact with the thinking and the emotional parts of the brain. Thus, we don’t see a mosaic of blue, white and colorless space, but sky and clouds.

As French author Anais Nin said, “We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are” — our thoughts and emotions project their own hues and colours to whatever we observe. We are also quick to dole out intrinsic qualities to things and people, thinking “this is beautiful, that is ugly,” without being cognizant of the fact that these attributes are assigned by our mind. As a Buddhist verse says: “Is anything on earth universally and unanimously recognized as beautiful? For a lover, a beautiful woman is an object of desire; for the hermit, a distraction; for the wolf, a good meal.”

As we gain deeper insight, we learn that the smallest units of energy are just in free flow thought it all. We create a three-dimensional world from what is a continuum of free flowing energy, comprising of electrons and neutrons. Like the fish in the Chinese saying, when we cannot see this continuum, we notice the separate parts of the creationthe trees, the animals, the objects —as disjointed from us, which in turn make us feel separate from the whole. The question is would a tree falling in a forest make any sound, if there was no one to hear it? It’s our presence and perception that gives way to the formation of reality as observed by us.

What is the truth then and how do we experience it? The powerful thing is that among all the living beings, only human beings have the ability to comprehend and experience this reality. We can get initiated into grasping this reality by starting to reach out to our inner awareness.

This inner awareness is not the mind, nor our thoughts; it’s the consciousness which allows us to observe the mind, and our thoughts and emotions. It’s this awareness which allows us to remember parts of a dream even when we are asleep. If we close our eyes and just observe the thoughts that arise in our mind, it’s the inner awareness which allows us to notice these thought patterns. While it’s easy for us to initially get swept away by the thought patterns and not be able to observe, steadily we can begin to recognize the observer as distinct from the thinking mind and the actor. We can then discover that this awareness is like a mirror — it only reflects what the mind is going through, without any projections of its own.

This inner awareness is who we really are. In our normal life, we are so busy with external stimulus that we lose connection with our true self. As we become more attuned to this awareness, we begin to get closer to understanding our own reality — which in turn allows us to better comprehend the truth out there.

Meditation can be greatly helpful in building deeper clarity as well. When we feel connected to this inner awareness, we realize that this awareness is never born, never dies; it’s vast and is in no way limited to time and space. We can then start to comprehend that this awareness is omnipresent, and governs everything; all of us are made of it, and are not discreet individuals, but just parts of a continuum of awareness.

It’s similar to knowing that God is in each one of us, and we are part of the same whole. Interestingly, this does not take us away from the regular worldly life but helps us live with greater joy and fulfillment.

As we make a conscious effort to stay connected with our inner awareness and our true self, we become better equipped to playing our roles as a businessman, doctor, husband, father or a friend.

This knowledge facilitates us to be like an actor who plays his role with sincerity but stays mindful through the movie that he is really not the character he’s playing — and thus not overly identify with the privileges and adversities of the dramatis personae.

Serve your parents

An 80 year old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45 years old highly educated son. Suddenly a crow perched on their window. The Father asked his Son, "What is this?" The Son replied "It is a crow".

After a few minutes, the Father asked his Son the 2nd time, "What is this?" The Son said "Father, I have just now told you "It's a crow".

After a little while, the old Father again asked his Son the 3rd time,What is this?" At this time some expression of irritation was felt in the Son's tone when he said to his Father with a rebuff. "It's a crow, a crow, a crow".

A little after, the Father again asked his Son the 4th time, "What is this?" This time the Son shouted at his Father, "Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again, although I have told you so many times 'IT IS A CROW'. Are you not able to understand this?"

A little later the Father went to his room and came back with an old tattered diary, which he had maintained since his Son was born. On opening a page, he asked his Son to read that page. When the son read it, the following words were written in the diary:

"Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa, when a crow was sitting on the window. My Son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied to him all 23 times that it was a Crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question again and again for 23 times. I did not at all feel irritated I rather felt affection for my innocent child".

While the little child asked him 23 times "What is this", the Father had felt no irritation in replying to the same question all 23 times and when today the Father asked his Son the same question just 4 times, the Son felt irritated and annoyed.

So.. If your parents attain old age, do not repulse them or look at them as a burden, but speak to them a gracious word, be cool, obedient, humble and kind to them. Be considerate to your parents.

From today say this aloud, "I want to see my parents happy forever. They have cared for me ever since I was a little child. They have always showered their selfless love on me. They crossed all mountains and valleys without seeing the storm and heat to make me a person presentable in the society today".

Say a prayer to God, "I will serve my old parents in the BEST way. I will say all good and kind words to my dear parents, no matter how they behave."