Move –Series – “Whither Free Will”
The following three seemingly unconnected pieces from the epic the Mahabharatha, form the background of my rambling thoughts, which, I hope to connect, by the time I am through, with this piece.
When Duryodhana, in the throes of death, is asked as to why he chose to live the way he did, instead of being virtuous, he is said to have answered that, in spite of his best efforts, he repeatedly found himself unable to overcome the prompting from his inner self, which made him to act evil!!!
2 Katothgachan’s son whose head is beheaded by Krishna, even before the battle, is given a boon that he can watch every nuance of the kurukshetra battle. ( I am not sure of the exact character, but I think it was him) When he is asked as to what he saw, in the battle, he is said to have replied, that he saw a light entering every person who was in battle, before the arrow which took away their lives. In effect, he was saying that Krishna had already taken all of them in His refuge, and the battle itself was a mere formality, to be gone thru, for the sake of us mortals.
3 The Bhagavat Gita is about 800 slokas; It is the Lord Himself, who is the author, who seeing Arjuna, not fully comfortable even after being blessed with the Viswarupa darshan, at the fag end asks the latter, to just take refuge in Him, and He will deliver Him from all his “papam”.
Let me take up the last piece first, for the simple reason that the Lord asking Arjuna to just contemplate on Him, apparently is allowing for a “free will”. A doubt arises here; the cessation of birth/death cycle is possible only, if there is no residual “papam” or “punyam” in as much as the next janma is determined by these “karmas”.
Moksham (incidentally this is interpreted as Moha-Kshayam or decay of Moham by pujya Ramesh Bhai Ojha) can only come when there is no residual karma phalam to be experienced. In other words, Krishna must have said that He will deliver Arjuna from both “papam and “punyam” ( Aham twaam sarva papebhyo/punyebhyo cha Mokska ishyami.) and not just from “papam”.
This doubt is very nicely cleared by pujya Krupalu Maharaj. In one of his discourses, he says that any thing which is unable to liberate you from this cycle of “janma-maranam”, is termed as “papam”. In other words even “punyam” is essentially only “papam”!!!!! The usage of only “papam” by the Lord is thus adequate and covers “punyam” also.
What does one derive from this piece? Just take refuge in Him—implying total saranagathy- and He will liberate you…… Period. No elaborate mumbo-jumbo of the Vedanta path. To borrow Sheila’s phrase, they are just “varattu vedantam”.
The first piece goes one step further; Duryodhana says, his inner self is virtually dictating every action of his. In other words there is no such thing as “free will”. My pet piece “yadyat karomi thadhakilam Shambo thava aaradhanam” namely that every action of mine is Shambo your aaradhanam, therefore takes on a new meaning, which is that, being the prompter, every action of mine can only be His.
The famous Hindi saying “ uske marji ke bina pattha nahin hil saktha” makes it easy to understand the logic of this assertion. This however leads one to a scary thought though; namely there is no such thing as good/evil, papam/punyam etc, in as much as every one of these is nothing but manifestation of His actions.
The second piece is only a further extension of the first; it is He who decides. The kurukshetra battle, Arjuna’s so called early doubts and his later resolve and vanquishing all the enemies etc are all already determined by Him. Arjuna is a mere actor playing his part. All of which is a part of the great “magnum opus” produced, directed, edited and also acted, by the Lord Himself.
Just like in a TV serial say by Balaji telefilms,(Ekta) -- where every “katha pathram” is given a role, as either a hero/villain, or a supporting cast etc-- it is quite ridiculous to judge the character of a person based on the role one plays in the serial, it’s equally illogical, if not ridiculous, to judge anyone, when all of us are merely playing a role assigned by Him!!!!
As long as one is in the play, all that one can ask is for Ekta to give one a better role; similarly one can possibly ask Him. This is the only “free will” one enjoys. But while Ekta, can change, modify, and perhaps even dump you, as she wills, the Lord is ever compassionate, and it’s impossible to imagine that He will ever dump you, as He only wants to “liberate” you
In case there is still a doubt about what I am saying, let me get back to mythology. The famous story of Ajamila, is well known. A candidate apparently not qualified enough to aspire to an evolved soul status during his life time, calls for his son “Narayana” when in throes of death. This is said to be enough for the lords to give him “moksham”.
There are also a number of stories in our puranas/folklore; such as the one- a hunter- who in order to protect himself from a chasing lion, takes refuge in a tree, which happens to be a “bilvam” tree, and falls asleep. On awakening he finds that a small “patra” has fallen on the Shiva Lingam just below the tree. And the Lord promptly appears and gives him “moksham”.
Let’s take for instance, Krishna Avataar, He was born to Rukmini, who is in jail; he spends his childhood in yashoda’s place- The entire yadava clan is hardly the expected/known to be the blessed souls to receive the Lord’s anugraham. Pujya Ramesh Bhai Ojha says, vasudeva puts the child not in front but in the backside of Yashoda who is deep slumber; which is in a way akin to telling one that the lord will quietly sneak in from the back, without the recipient even remotely being aware of the fortune, when one is ignorant, and is to receive His Grace.
My query is this; Do the Ajamilas, the hunter, and the Yadava clan, any one of these, even remotely imagine, that (a) they were so blessed or (b) their paths qualified them for God’s preferences?
How then are we, to assume or worse judge as to whether we are either undeserving or otherwise? For every possibility of the former, there is this equal possibility that we perhaps more than deserve, going by the above illustrations.
It’s quite obvious to me therefore that, since it is He who decides, why not enjoy the role we have been given. With every action of ours, being prompted by Him, is there a doubt that He is only as keen to have us delivered?
Think it over…….. Vichu
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