It’s Always ‘OUR CHOICE’
“Man is the maker of his own destiny.”
- Pt. Sriram Sharma Acharya
Life is a journey from B to D: From Birth to Death. But what’s between B and D? It’s a “C”. It’s the Choice. To be in charge of one’s choices, one must understand the difference between fate and free will. Literally, ‘fate’ is the power that some people believe controls everything that happens. Whereas, the power or ability to make your own decisions is termed as ‘free will’. As per the definition ‘fate’ is predestined and ‘free will’ depends upon the choice one makes.
Master of one’s fate means being able to perceive the lengthy pattern of cause and effect, back into the dim past and forward into a bright future.
Taking the example of the movie ‘Matrix’, let's understand the relation between the two. At the very beginning of the movie there is an important conversation between Neo and Morpheus which confirms the clue about identifying the fate issue in the movie:
MORPHEUS: Do you believe in fate, Neo?
NEO: No.
MORPHEUS: Why not?
NEO: Because I don’t like the idea that I’m not in control of my life.
(The Matrix,1999)
This short dialogue represents the absolute unwillingness of Neo/Anderson to accept his fate: to accept that he is the chosen one.
In Greek mythology, there were three goddesses and each goddess had its own role. Actually, the time of the birth, the way of living, and the way of dying of each human being were determined by these three goddesses. Similarly, Indian teachings also teach that we don’t choose birth and death, but our karmic patterns and their calculations determine our Birth and Death. Therefore, they are not in our direct control. Fate represents an unavoidable and inevitable thing in our daily lives. It is a predetermined thing in each human being whose roots lie in our karma of all our births. One’s fate is decided by a complex combination of conditions and factors of our karma. This combination of conditions and factors has decisive moments of its fulfillment in the form of birth, consequences in life, and death. In the following shloka, Lord Krishna addresses the complexities of karma.
कर्मणो ह्यपि बोद्धव्यं बोद्धव्यं च विकर्मण: |
अकर्मणश्च बोद्धव्यं गहना कर्मणो गति: ||karmaṇo hyapi boddhavyaṁ boddhavyaṁ cha vikarmaṇaḥ
akarmaṇaśh cha boddhavyaṁ gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ- Bhagwat Geeta 4/17
One must understand the nature of all three types of karma and the truth about these karma is profound and difficult to understand.
In the first conversation which occurs between Neo and Morpheus, it shows us that how Neo’s decision is manipulated by Morpheus. Just as Neo leans to the red pill Morpheus starts his manipulation:
“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back.
“You take the blue pill. The story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe… whatever you want to believe.
“You take the red pill, You stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
“Remember. All I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.” (The Matrix,1999)
There is deep symbolical meaning from the above quotation. It expresses two extremely important ideas. The first one is Morpheus's manipulation of Neo. The second idea is the choice between free will and fate reflected in the choice between the red pill and the blue pill.
It is about the fact that each human being has his/her individual responsibility to make the choice between the real world and the artificial world. Free will and fate are two elements that are in an almost constant confrontation when it is about Neo and his personality. Even if we would say that Neo represents an example of free will, still fate plays a bigger role in Neo’s adventure than free will.
Similarly, everything in our lives is changing, everything in this Universe is changing from any point of view. Everything happens because of something. In numerous cases, it’s absolutely impossible to predict the final result of something with 100% accuracy.
Free will, represents a way of acting that does not refer to fate. It is an element that reflects the free-acting of each human being according to one’s free choice. The first moment is the time of the person’s birth. It represents the ability to make choice between two or maybe several actions. If an action is considered to be bad or good that means a certain person had the chance to make his/her choice, had a chance to proceed according to his/her free will.
Free will gives the opportunity to each human being to do different things. That is the essential point of free will. Therefore, free will brings different results to human beings caused by different actions.
As human beings, very often we do not like to believe that the exaggerated consumption of chocolate or meat can represent a real danger for our health but, this does not stop us to continue with this consumption, showing our rejection of our possible unfavorable fate.
जानामि धर्मं न च मे प्रवृत्ति-
र्जानामि अधर्मम न च मे निवृत्तिः ।
केनापि देवेन हृदि स्थितेन यथा नियुक्तोऽस्मि तथा करोमिJanami dharmam na cha me pravrttih,
janami adharmam na cha me nivrttih;
kenpi devena hrdi sthitena yatha niyuktosmi tatha karomi
I know what is dharma, yet I cannot get myself to follow it! I know what is adharma, yet I cannot retire from it! O Lord of the senses! You dwelt in my heart and I will do as you impel me to do.”
Therefore, it’s a matter of choice. What we choose is what we become, what we think is what we are, and what we visualize is what we transform into.
There are three ‘resources’ that every human being has since birth from which choices are made. They are:
1. Time
2. Labour
3. Intellect
When all these ‘resources’ as a seed, are planted for own selfishness, one leads to the ‘Preya marga’ or worldly path and when planted in the society, one traverses the ‘Shreya marga’ or spiritual path or yoga marga. Our utilization of Time, Labour, and Intellect determines our path.
Therefore, Karma is not ‘fate’, for we act with what can be described as a conditioned ‘free will’ creating our own destinies.
Thus, it is very important to take charge of ourselves in making choices. This is in the latent form in each one of us. But the ability to make the right choice needs some extra effort and ability. This needs to adopt a process, a lifestyle — i.e, Yoga.
