FREE WILL, ITS ABUSE & REMEDY

When God created the universe, He (you could also say 'She', as Divine Mother, or 'It' as the Supreme formless Power) engineered and founded it firmly and impartially on two vital, fool-proof laws :  

(1). We are all free ('He made us in His own image') - just as He is free, He made us free to do whatever we like. This is free will - life's greatest gift to us, and alas, also the most abused !

(2). The second law : We are accountable for how we choose to use our Free Will, we would only reap what we sow  i.e. once we choose to use that free will in a certain way, the result of that choice would follow us whether we want it or not.

Now we make too many good and bad choices in one life, we create too many karmic seeds through thought, speech and action to be redeemed in one incarnation. So we are reborn after death. This law of reincarnation is thus a corollary of the law of karma - of cause and effect.

ABUSE OF FREE WILL : Bad karma, Masters say, is nothing but the abuse of Free Will and it can be redeemed in three ways :

1. Suffered and worked out, 2. Neutralized in effect (not in cause) by opposite good karma, or 3. Roasted by wisdom-guided, devotional surrender.

When we have worked out all our karma, and create no new karma through wisdom, we become Jeevanmukta, or free from life's three sufferings : physical pains, mental restlessness and spiritual ignorance. The scriptures say, 'Yat Gatwa Na Nivartante tatdhamam paramam mam' meaning 'My abode is that from which there is no compulsory return (to the world of sorrow') - The Gita, XV:06, and "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out" - Revelation 3:12.

There are two words of wisdom that are emphasized on the spiritual path :

1. Effort :  Action is the life-breath of this world ; we are stage-actors on the stage of life. Act we must - always. No success comes without effort. If at times minimal or even no effort apparently brings some kind of gain or success, it is because good karma has been created in the past - in this or a previous incarnation. But action must be wisdom-guided and that is the more difficult part which we shall discuss later.

2. Surrender : Just as not making effort cannot bring success, total dependence on one's own effort cannot guarantee success either.  Just as we all have experienced in life that sometimes success walks in without little or no effort, we have also seen that we make so much effort - crazy effort, real hard work - and yet success doesn't come. There are cosmic laws governing these issues, and I am sharing in this post my Master, Sri Paramahansa Yogananda's wisdom about these laws, and my own understanding of this subject through life's experiences.It is his picture that appears with the title in this post. 

Buddha said the world is essentially sorrowful. It is actually an 'ocean of sorrow' with tit-bits of false pearls of delusive sensory pleasures - until we are wise and liberated when nothing inwardly upsets us. This is an inner journey to Self-realization. The liberated masters outwardly live like ordinary people ; they do not flaunt  fairy-like wings - they may even appear to have physical suffering but inwardly they rejoice - as Christ did on the cross (or as saints like Shri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, St. Francis of Assisi, and the prophets of all religions meekly accepted suffering, like a 'lamb'). They usually accept others' karma out of compassion -just as one's financial debt can be compassionately paid by a friend -  since they have no bad karma of their own to redeem.

Buddha also said that the cause of suffering is desire. The desire that something should work out as we want it to. That's where the trouble happens. Do stage-actors decide the next scene ? No, it is the stage director who decides that. We are stage-actors here ; our job is to do our role-play. 'Karmanyeva adhikaraste...('Your job or control is about your action or karma only, not about the fruit thereof' - The Gita II : 47). Some people argue, if the result is not in our control, why should we try at all ? The answer is : Sincere striving attracts divine attention and blessing. Effort plus this blessing bring the ultimate success. 

So surrender means giving up not the action itself, but the desire for being the cause of the fruit of action. My Masters' beautiful prayer is, 'Lord, I shall reason, will and act but guide Thou my reason, will and action to the right thing I should do...'.  Now, many people ask, why surrender ? To them it is a defeatist approach.

We do not surrender effort, we do not stop doing our best - we give up desire to control the outcome according to our limited understanding. This is a bit tricky here.  Suppose, I am rushing for a flight and miss it narrowly. I curse everyone. Soon I discover the flight crashed, and now I thank God for making me miss the flight !

Or, suppose I am serving and nursing  a family member. Do I not desire that she should get well ? Of course yes. But that desire about the result should be humble and prayerful, not egoistic. That is, we should inwardly think, 'Lord, as I do my best to nurse this person, may Thy healing presence, may Thy grace heal her', rather than think that because I am doing such a fine nursing, or such a great doctor is attending and such expensive medicines are being given, she must be healed ! We all know that not even the best doctor can heal everyone ; the same medicine works in one case but not in another.

Surrender is not defeat, it is not escape., it is wisdom. It is about faith. To believe that our effort brings success - without needing any help from the Higher Source - is ignorance. Just think of this : Who digests our food, flows our breath or beats our hearts ? Our own human skill ? If yes, who do we sometimes get an upset stomach and yet  other times can digest even big banquets ? Why does the heart stop beating one day, why does the breath come to an end ? If we do not even control such basic life-sustaining things, what power do we have on results of our secondary karma in life ? 

So when we say, 'Let Thy will be done', it doesn't mean that we have to make no effort, but to make the best effort and yet know that effort is necessary but not enough - we need to pray for divine grace also. You cannot pray with ego - it can only be in the humility of surrender. So, Success = Effort + Grace and since grace comes through surrender of ego, Success = Effort + Surrender. Remember, it is never effort OR surrender but effort Plus surrender. They are not alternative to each other, but complementary. Effort is needed outside - in action, surrender must be there within - in attitude. 

“May every act of my will be impregnated with Thy divine vitality.  Ornament with Thy grace my every concept, every expression, every ambition.  O Divine Sculptor, chisel Thou my life to Thy design!” - Sri Paramahansa Yogananda. 

- Hans Dholakia // www.hansyoga.com // Life Coaching & Training that Bridge  the Material with the Spiritual.