If a person believes there is nothing called ‘Free Will’, he can deliberately indulge himself in some wrong things, and justify it in the name of the Divine Will (not legally, at least philosophically). What’s your opinion on this?
Sri Aurobindo gave a very simple equation and it is this that, whether one believes in a free will or not, one is yet compelled to act as if there is a free will. Yes, there are a number of cosmic forces that push from behind, yet there is a point where one chooses. It is this choice that has been deliberately given to us, wherein we choose a line or course of action out of several possibilities. Based on the choices, the road to the future opens for the individual. We may call it fate or destiny or Law, but in essence, it is a constant learning and growing inbuilt within the cosmic Law. It means that whether we like the events or the circumstances of our life or not, we are compelled to grow, even compelled or pushed to make choices. Pleasure and pain, happiness and sorrow are our surface reactions to the consequences that follow. But it doesn’t always deter from taking the course decreed.
Such is the hidden determinism that no amount of philosophical idea that God does all will stop someone from being pushed by the sting of desire or the whip of ambition. And even when we know that God does all, we also know that yet we must put in our effort, though we know He is the inspiration and the power behind the effort. As long as man is caught up in the web of ignorance wherein he identifies himself with the ego and desires, he will be compelled to act.
And yet there is, behind everything, behind the cosmic Law is Grace. It means that whatever one may do and however one may stray, ultimately there is an inbuilt course correction that ensures that we yet will grow towards our highest and true destiny, – the Divine.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
