Freewill

[Vaidya Sundaram]

namaskaram.
 I could not resist giving one more post on this subject - please pardon me
if it confuses you more. I hope that atleast it gives us all more food for
thought ...

----- Original Message -----
From: "Prasad Balasubramanian" <besprasad at LYCOS.COM>
> detail. Still, at the end, the relation between fate and freewill
>  seems to be confusing to me, if we take up the above example of
> burying something in the past with some strictly unacceptable motive
> and digging it up now by exercising one's freewill in the right
> direction with repeated attempts aiming at achieving the treasure.

 One must be prepared to act with half understanding  ** but full faith **.
Here is why I say this. Consider the example from the Mahabharata, perhaps
relevant to our discussion of buried treasure!!
 The Pandavas conduct the Rajasuya yagam under the advice of their father,
Pandu, from heaven thru Narada. Now, Pandu asked his sons to do this because
in heaven he saw Indra personally offering seats and other reverential
treatment to Kings who had performed the Rajasuya. The Pandavas, using their
"free will", exerted themselves, and conducted this in a great fashion. No
doubt. But what happened after that? This caused Duryodhana's envy, the
gambling, the years in the forest, the decimation of the entire race!!!!!
How could this be???? Shri Krishna, the Paramatma Himself was overseeing the
yagam. Is it fate ??
 The answer given is NO. In exerting themselves, Arjuna and Bhima, without
knowing it, had collected gold from the vindhya (?) mountains where it was
"found" in a cave. They used it as gifts in the Rajasuya, a worthy purpose
in itself. But the problem with this is that, the gold belonged to
Brahmanas, to whom it had been given by King Bali in the previous yuga
during the famed sacrifice when Vamana avataara happened. The brahmanas had
hidden it there. So, in the end, while the end was good, and performers were
the great Pandavas themselves, HIS maya made it all happen the way it did.
 This is why I say we can understand only half of the rules of karma as laid
down - but what we do know and understand, we must execute to full
perfection - the Pandavas did that - that is why, although they suffered for
the many years in a forest and in hiding and then the war, they were the
ones who were finally victorious. they ruled all the worlds ... we still
speak of their glory, don't we??
 The moral from this for me is that we can never ever know all the secrets
of karma, however hard we try. It all depends on His Will. But that should
not stop us from acting. We must act. I go back to the same Gita verse I
quoted earlier - let us use shashtra as the guide in determining the right
and the wrong as much as we can, and act with the feeling that we are merely
employees under His service.

> Recently my friend told "Dont confuse with your fate and freewill.
> Leave everything to His Freewill."  It was quite punching.

 His freewill is to give the fruits of actions (or not), His free will is
NOT to do our actions for us.  If  we want to surrender unto Him, let it be
complete - sarva dharmAn parityajya - adandoning everything! With free will
come duties, and we must be careful not to abandon the duties thinking we
are giving up karma.Surrendering to Him actually makes it all the more
important that we ACT. Surrendering to Him is not a substitute term for
laziness!! All this action is possible only with the exertion of free will.

bhava shankara desikame sharaNam
Vaidya.



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