How Free Are We?-Part II

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If the mind and body are distinct and karma refers to the body, one may ask why is it that the mind too appears to be under its sway. This is only because of its attachments. Because of the pull of the past it is unable to dis-identify itself from what destiny brings to the body and is therefore affected by sorrow or joy which karma is yielding. If one learns not to pay attention to the event, if one learns to be detached from it, then where are destiny"s pleasures or pangs? This is quite obviously so, for any event can be blown up or belittled by the mind.

One may go under its weight or meet the event with equipoise and calm strength. From this arises the first basic point of Ramana that one is free to exercise his will either to identify himself with the event or to be unconcerned with it.

Ramana's reply to one Mrs. Desai would indicate this clearly. Mrs. Desai, quoting from the Gita, asked Ramana that if one is compelled to do the work for which he is destined, then, the question of free will could not arise at all. Ramana explained to her that it is open to each one to be 'free from the joys or pains, pleasant or unpleasant consequences of the work by not identifying oneself with the body". Let the body experience its allotted destiny, but it is up to each one to be unaffected mentally by it by exercising free will and untying the bond of attachments.

One has, therefore, to develop through spiritual practice to this state. Even at the very threshold there is freedom. Free will can be exercised to direct action on the right lines. Were it not so there would be no meaning to spiritual injunctions and the code of ethics enjoined therein. One has to discriminate between good and bad, between what is pleasurable and what is liberating, and choose wisely.

To believe that one is a helpless victim of karma is to fall into the trap of the mind"s making. If only we pause to think we can readily see that it is impossible to be truly passive, to be a mere onlooker of an event – one"s own nature will assert itself in one form of action or the other. When the feeling 'I am the doer" is alive and kicking it will leave no room for rest. Exercise of free will and action are inevitable. Free will has to be channeled in pursuit of such action as would purify the mind and enable one to escape altogether from destiny"s shackles.

It is necessary here to clear one point. To say that one must give a purposive turn to action should not be taken to mean that success is assured. A dispirited devotee told Ramana that he had come a couple of years earlier and had cultivated his will power thereafter but had met with a series of failures in his efforts. Ramana clarified that what will result is only the strength of mind which would enable one to react to success or failure with equanimity. He also made it clear that 'will power should not be taken to be synonymous with success". For, success or failure is the product of destiny, whereas free-will enables one to neutralize it by insulating oneself with an attitudinal change of mind.

Destiny and free-will: their interplay lasts only so long as one does not enquire 'who is it that is bound?" and 'who is it that is free?" Through constant vichara, ceaseless enquiry, one ends this doership notion. Then both destiny and free-will are cut at their very root as the person to whom they pertain has lost his separate identity. What remains is only the Self, ever liberated, always free