How Free Are We?

Add as a preferred source on Google

Ramana"s first spiritual instruction to his mother Azhagammal, was that the best course in life would be to accept the flow of karma. It would be futile to take up arms against what is bound to happen. What is not to happen cannot be brought about even by Herculean efforts. This was in 1898. Years later, in the 1940"s Devaraja Mudaliar recorded Ramana"s categoric statement that not only the major events in one"s life but also the smallest things are pre-determined. From these statements one might erroneously conclude that Ramana regarded destiny as irrevocable. If so, it would logically follow that free will has no place in the shaping of one"s life. Such a view would be quite contrary to the teachings of Ramana where we find the importance of free will being stressed quite often in the context of destiny. He would say that destiny and free will co-exist as long as there is a sense of doership. One transcends them both only when through self-enquiry the feeling of doership ends.

Let us have a close look at the exact domain of destiny and the role of free will in Ramana"s teachings. According to Ramana 'destiny concerns only the body".

Identified as we are with the body, it is hard to accept the idea that destiny affects only the body. For the logical implication of such a proposition is that the mind and the body are distinct and separate.

It is therefore necessary to go into this deeply. First we have to ask the question 'Why has the body come into existence at all?" The great ones do not have a karmic cause for their birth. They come for the welfare of the world and can retain the body as long as they wish. Ramana told Rangan that Yama would have to wait and take the permission of a jnani, and only when the jnani is ready to cast off his body can that event happen. As for the normal run of men, birth is part of the cosmic law, as a result of which one goes through the experiences consequent on this ethical balance sheet. It is because of this fact that we find infant mortality, the death of the young, sudden unforeseen deaths and the lingering on of the old.

Many people often question God"s laws and wisdom when children or the young die. Since, however, the body has come into existence as a result of karma, when that force is exhausted life becomes extinct. We find that the body, linked as it is to a particular karma which gave rise to its birth, comes to an end when that force is over. The mind may well be at the height of its powers, the body in perfect health, but its karma being over, death cannot wait.

We can also look at this from another angle. The great ones have demonstrated in their lives as to how one can completely delink oneself from one"s own body and remain unaffected by its changes or sufferings. Ramana"s body went through intense pain, caused by sarcoma, for over fifteen months. Not one moment did he complain of it though the pain must have been excruciating. When asked by Major Chadwick whether he was suffering, Ramana said 'No". But at the same time, he said 'There is pain" – the pain pertained to the body and not to him. Hence His bewitching smile and divine splendour, even on the 14th April 1950 when he chose to give up his body which had been racked with intense pain.