Journey Deep Within: 01/03/17

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Karma - Part 12

Dear All,

To summarize Swami's saying that there is no free will except God's will in the light of the understanding bestowed by Lord in meditation, started with you yesterday, let us further summarize with most clarity.

There is an old Tamil song which has these lines

Aandavane illaiye ( There is no God)...

Even while the listener feels awkward on listening the above lines and wonders... what???? There is no God??????

The poet, without putting a full stop with the above line, makes a comma and then continues....

Aandavane illaiye, again repeats, aandavane illaiye, then a comma, then he writes- Aandavane illaye, Tillai Aandavanai pol.............

There is no God,............ like the God of tillai, the Nataraja of Chidambaram

Thus, dear ones , it is and though our Lord Sai reveals to us

"There is no free will at all" ...., again a comma, then he completes (this completion part can come only in meditation of Lord's glory),

"There is no free will at all, except the one bestowed by me only to you which you have to use only and only to return to me and not for any thing else"

"Thus, Keep Moksha as the only goal and let Dharma, Artha, Kama- all be exercised ONLY for MOKSHA, freedom to be attained on annihilation of your ego so that you return, from where you started this journey, o child."- this seems to be what Lord has to convey that There is no free will given to you separately, other than Lord's will and Lord's will has been explained in so many posts under the label "Purpose of Human Birth"- TO TAKE YOU BACK TO HIM!

THERE IS ALSO ANOTHER WAY TO UNDERSTAND FREE WILL—SURRENDER--- DIVINE GRACE

Sun’s illumination is same for all. But the same sun shine is taken by someone who faces the sunshine directly whereas, the same sunlight, reflecting in a pot with muddy water, gets reflected into many scattered/diluted spots of sun light. In both the cases, does the sun shine maintain any partiality towards one who faces sun direct and is prejudiced towards the pot of muddy water???? NO.
Similarly, when we face lord and take His grace directly and fully, we get His grace fully. If we stand away from Him, far away, then we do not get His grace fully. This facing Him directly is exercising our purushartha or free will and standing away from Him is just carrying along life as per prarabdha and not exercising one's purushartha.
Thus, from the above, it is clear that God is not choosy about showering His grace. You have every right to get His grace and the same is directly proportional to the extent of your purushartha!.
Taking the clue of "SHALL REACH THEE, WITH THY GRACE", WE HAVE TO EXERCISE PURUSHARTHA/FREE WILL, WHICH IS GIFT OF GOD TO HUMAN BEINGS ONLY, TO EARN DIVINE GRACE!!.
THE ALL MERCIFUL GOD, EVER READY TO SHOWER HIS GRACE ON US, EQUIPS US WITH THE NECESSARY AID (FREE WILL, CHOICE OF NEW ARROWS) AND TELLS US, " I HAVE GIVEN YOU THE WISDOM TO EXERCISE PURUSHARTHA AND I AM WAITING FOR YOU TO EXERCISE THE SAME PROPERLY AND LOOK AT ME, I AM WAITING TO SHOWER MY GRACE ON YOU"!! HOW MERCIFUL HE IS!!!
(In the path of wisdom, this is explained through Absolute and reflected consciousness, chidakasa and chidabhasa, which, hope fully we will deal with later on, after a long time)

Sri Ramana throws more light on this debate of free will v/s destiny v/s surrender with his answers to couple of questions

Question: What becomes then of man’s freedom and responsibility for his actions?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: The only freedom man has is to strive for and acquire the Jnana (knowledge) which will enable him not to identify himself with the body. The body will go through the actions rendered inevitable by Prarabdha and a man is free either to identify himself with the body and be attached to the fruits of its actions or to be detached from it and be a mere witness of its activities.

Question: So free will is a myth?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Free will holds the field in association with individuality. As long as individuality lasts there is free will. All the scriptures are based on this fact and they advise directing the free will in the right channel.

Find out to whom free will or destiny matters. Find out where they come from, and abide in their source. If you do this, both of them are transcended. That is the only purpose of discussing these questions. To whom do these questions arise? Find out and be at peace.

Question: If what is destined to happen will happen, is there any use in prayer or effort or should we just remain idle?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: There are only two ways to conquer destiny or be independent of it. One is to enquire for whom is this destiny and discover that only the ego is bound by destiny and not the Self, and that the ego is non-existent. The other way is to kill the ego by completely surrendering to the Lord, by realizing one’s helplessness and saying all the time, ‘Not I but Thou, O Lord’, giving up all sense of "I" and ‘mine’ and leaving it to the Lord to do what He likes with you. Surrender can never be regarded as complete so long as the devotee wants this or that from the Lord. True surrender is love of God for the sake of love and nothing else, not even for the sake of liberation. In other words, complete effacement of the ego is necessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve this effacement through self-enquiry or through Bhakti Marga (path of devotion).

The following important points emerge from Ramana’s answers above :-

As long as man lives with his ego, he has to exercise his free will or limited freedom to perform all his actions- Dharma, Artha and Kama , with the only aim- to attain Moksha.

With proper understanding of purpose of Human birth or the ONLY purpose of human birth, man has to exercise all his free will or freedom to end the ego due to which he is exercising all free will, so as to end the ego and attain Moksha.

Interestingly, the essence of one statement given by chinamaya in his commentary on ashtavakra gita, applies here. Janaka says to ashtavakra- “The only purpose of meditation, in meditation, through meditation, is to end meditation where, the meditator reaches the supreme goal of meditation and then, there is no need for meditation specifically to attain the goal, as the goal has been attained”.

Similarly, the only purpose of free will, as per Ramana, is to end the EGO which says, I am this body and hence, there is need to use my free will to take up all such actions so as to kill my ego. The one who thinks, I am bound and hence I have to use my free will to get free, does not exist anymore, as he is already free (like in the ashtavakra gita statement, the meditator has already attained the goal/end of his meditation).

So, the ashtavakra Gita line applies here, in Ramana's explanation thus:-
" The only purpose of free will, through free will, is to end EGO so that, there is no more the egoistic individual reaches the supreme goal of all free will/ purushartha and then, there is no more need for free will or, in other words, there is no more individual with EGO, to even know that he is exercising purushartha."

Once my Ego is killed/surrendered totally to the supreme God/supreme consciousness, then I have attained the goal, all my purushartha has met its fulfillment, my sanchita karma arrows are burnt, let whatever prarabdha karma remains, remain, let whatever I have to undergo for the left over prarabdha karma, let my body experience the result of those left over prarabdha karma. I, the pure SELF, pure God, pure consciousness, have nothing to do with the I, the body which is still undergoing the experience of its prarabdha. I have nothing to do even with the new actions which my body is performing now, but mostly for the welfare of the humanity.

So, one has to understand clearly and foresee the other side of samsara and know – “ Only as long as I identify myself with my ego as this human being, I am bound by my destiny and therefore, I have to exercise my freedom/free will/new arrows in hand/ purushartha- to reduce all sins, evolve more and more spiritually so that I reach the other side of the samsara sagara where, I exist as Supreme God/Supreme Self, devoid of ego (Chidananda Roopaha Shivoham Shivoham).

If the above path, rather difficult to work on our ego and to exercise purushartha in spite of facing acute prarabdha in our life, the other way shown by Ramana is, Cry out to the Lord and say "I am helpless in exercising purushartha and winning my ego. So I surrender to Thee fully, let my heart with ego melt like a candle melts in fire, let me re-affirm to myself daily, every moment, it is not me but HE, HE, the Lord only and with that surrender let me slip through the circle of samsara as i have reduced myself to such a tiny being with my ego melted, that how so ever trouble-some the samsara chakra may be, I am still able to slip through the cycle and reach you and merge in You, O Lord!

Mera jeevan tere hawale Prabhu ise, pag pag tu hi sambhale!

Remember one thing clearly - total surrender is total realization. There is nothing left to achieve in spiritual path once you have surrendered yourself totally to Lord’s will, Lord’s existence.

As long as you keep on repeating the words “I surrender to you o Lord”, you have not surrendered because you are telling these words with your mind.

One who has truly surrendered, does not say that he has surrendered. He is silent, the world will then be aware that he has surrendered and merged with the Lord/ the Self!!

In one of the bhajan practice talks, one of the devotee told, “I surrender totally to swami”. The author asked, “Do you actually know what is true surrender? If you have really known and surrendered, you will be silent and the world, seeing the radiance in you, would declare, o yes, she has surrendered.”

Hope the devotee who said this, reads these lines and smiles and realizes the truth.

When you have reached that state of surrender, it is not that there is no free will in you but since your mind is surrendered to Lord, Lord works through your mind for all further free will exercised by you and you are not able to even realize that you are exercising free will!!!