From a previous post in 2007

 In conversation with regards to:  Fate versus free will

By Gunabalan -2007

There is this wonderful problem in our modern life of fate versusfree will. In almost any discussion on the metaphysics of life, I’ve encountered this yard stick by which the whole conversation gravitates around/on.

I’ve concluded and thus actually have arrived at an answer to this, which I will briefly outline. I found the answer in one of the Stobaeus fragments of the Corpus Hermeticum, in which Hermes is talking to his disciple Tat, as the name is usually transliterated.

Tat asks: “Tell me again about fate, providence and necessity”. And Hermes after much intermediate material ends up with the statement along the lines of, “Fate concerns the body, necessity concerns that part of the mind that works only with the body, and providence is concerned with the mind that is fully conscious of the body.” What is made clear in this statement (by my humble interpretation!) is that there is no one such thing as fate.

There is a fate that is due to our being material beings of a certain species. No matter how hard you try, no amount of free will ever converts you to a dog or a cat in this life time.

You cannot fly without a plane – unless (perhaps) you are a certain kind of Vedic meditator – you cannot walk through walls without a door, you cannot see through walls without a window, you are limited by natural law. That is the fundamental meaning of fate in ancient Greek philosophy. It is physical law.

At this juncture we shall depart to modern metaphysics; whereby, there is the fate due to ignorance, called necessity.We get ourselves caught up in situations where we simply cannot conceive of an alternative, because we have all these considerations about what must be so and what must not be so, and we are determined by the consequences of past decisions and current actions.(both numerated and perceived)

That is most of what our fate consists of- to those of this ilk. It has nothing to do with the fate!

And then, finally, there is the other fate that is absolutely irrevocable, called providence.

You have no choice but to be who you are. In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna enumerates Arjuna on this: Your choice is to be who you are at the highest possible level or you choose not. (Cue Master Yoda!)

And I would go so far as to say that who you really are preexists who you are at the present moment, and it is pulling you forward to itself/your real self, and that pull is inevitable. This is also aptly described by old Asian folklore that relates how one should not confuse anger at another with fate because their action is part of their character.........

(the story of the frog and the scorpion, relates how both animals need to cross the river and the scorpion needed the frog’s help in crossing though the frog is against the idea knowing the scorpion will sting him but in the end the frog pities the scorpion and does carry him across only to be stung mid-stream and when questioned why,the scorpion says it was nothing personal, just his natural instinct kicking in and both animals then drown. )

Your getting all the way here, becoming a fully realized human being, is not inevitable- ie you choose to through your own Free Will.

Circumstances, accidents and of course the ever-present stupidity, or unconsciousness – whatever you want to call it – will all in varying degrees prevent us from getting to that perfect self-realization.

This is one of the things the old writings have taught us, but the modern living as we know it, makes the practice of what we know so much harder!..

As such, the Free Will dogma flown high by many is in retrospect nothing more than their karma catching up with themin addition to their choices made in each life.

To end , I would like to quote the Gita once again, Pages 626-Chapter 12-text 12:

Sreyo hi jnanam abhyasad

Jnanad dhyanam visisyate

Dhyanat karma –phala-tyagas

Tyagac chantir anantaram

Translation: If you cannot take to this practice,*(constantly thinking of God) then engage yourself in the cultivation of knowledge. Better than knowledge, however, is meditation, and better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action, for by such renunciation one can attain real peace of mind.

FINIS

*My personal addendum, not in scripture