By Kollengode S. Venkataraman, written in 2000
In the last issue, Amitabh Dubey wondered about the incongruity of India developing chess, a game in which exercise of free will is central, and Indians’ widespread belief in fate. Fate, luck, or Gods’ will, when reduced to their abstraction, describe the unpredictability of events unfolding in our lives over which we have no influence. Even though Dubey wrote in a lighter vein, the issue he raises is serious.
Jayakantan, the most prolific contemporary Tamil essayist and novelist, once said that if itihasas and puranas are fruits, it is up to us to extract the juice and discard the grinds. So, what do our ancient texts, some of them in any case, say about fate and free will? Quite a lot, as a matter of fact.
My Tamil teacher in school taught us: muyarchi tiruvinai akkum. Efforts lead to fruition. This comes closest to the Gita expression siddhir bhavati karmaja — [all] accomplishments are born out of efforts. Not coincidentally, this phrase is the motto of the Chennai IIT. The above aphorism seems to be the essence of several ancient Indian thoughts and ideas.
From Yoga Vaasistham: Swamy Venkatesananda had translated into English Yoga Vaasistham from the Sanskrit original (Vasishtha’s Yoga, State University of New York Press), In this work, structured as a dialogue between Rama and his mentor Vasistha, this is what the mentor tells his disciple with Sage Valmiki interjecting occasionally:
“Rama, in this world whatever is gained is gained only by self-effort… what is called fate is fictitious and is not seen… Self effort is of two categories: That of past and present births. The latter effectively counteracts the former. Fate is nothing other than the self-effort of past lives……
“There is no power greater than right action in the present. Hence one should take recourse to self-effort, and grinding one’s teeth one should counteract fate by … present effort. One who says, ‘Fate is directing me to do this,’ is brainless, and the goddess of fortune abandons him.
“They are fools who are satisfied with the fruits of their past effort (which they call Fate) and do not engage… in self-effort now.
“Rama, sometimes a farmer’s efforts are destroyed by hailstorm; surely, the hailstorm’s power was greater than the farmer’s effort, and the farmer should put greater effort now. He should not grieve over … [his] loss. A wise man should know what is attainable by self-effort, and what is not. It is however ignorance to attribute all this to an outside agency and say that ‘God sends me to heaven or hell, or that ‘an outside agency makes me do this or that.’ Such an ignorance person should be shunned.
“Rama, Fate or divine dispensation is merely a convention which has come to be regarded as truth by being repeatedly declared to be true… In this world, except a corpse, everything is active, and such activity yields its appropriate result.”
Obviously, self-effort includes the exercising of freewill to pursue one course of action to the exclusion of all others using reason.
From Mahabharata: Here are S. Radhakrishnan’s translation of parts of Shanti Parvam, in Mahabharata from his Sourcebook on Indian Philosophy. I did not know the context of this chapter. But Tanya Koduri (Monroeville) and Murti Hari (Wexford) educated me that Shanti Parvam is at the end of the Mahabharata war when the victorious Pandavas are advised on statecraft thus:
“A weapon made by a carpenter is under the control of the person handling it and moves as he moves it. Similarly, the universe is controlled by action done in time, moves as those actions move it… You should always exert with promptitude. Without promptitude of exertion, mere destiny never accomplishes the objects cherished…
“These two, exertion and destiny, are equal in their operation. Of them, regard exertion to be superior, for destiny is ascertained from the results of what is begun as exertion.”
“Learning, penance, vast wealth, indeed, everything, can be earned by exertion. The king should therefore never depend on destiny.”
Whether we are princes, powerful, and rich or not, we are the kings and queens of our lives. Hence, the teachings of Vyasa and Vasishtha are addressed to us as well.
Jaina and Buddhist Ideas on Freewill: Jainism is an atheistic religion, whose 24th Tirthankara, or inspired teacher, is Vardhamana Mahavira. Tirthankara, literally, is the person who motivates you to cross the ocean of life’s misery. According to Ranganath Puligandla (Fundamentals of Indian Philosophy, Abingdon Press, 1975), “When the followers of Jainism pray and worship Tirthankaras, it is neither to seek mercy and nor to indulge in self-deprecation or confession of guilt, as so often is the case with theistic religions. Given the Jaina idea of Karma, each person must attain freedom and perfection by one’s own efforts and cannot expect to be saved by others, not even by the Tirthankaras. That is, each man must work for his own salvation. Meditating on Tirthankaras is to remind ourselves of our own potential for perfection and freedom, thereby inspiring us to tread the path for perfection. “
Buddhism, the agnostic religion native to India founded by Gautama Siddhartha, declares that life is misery (sarvam duhkham), and life is transience (sarvam anityam). But, having declared thus, the Buddha offers hope on how, by self-effort, we can transcend both the misery and transience of life. To come out our misery, the Buddha stresses on right views, right resolves, right speech, right conduct, and right effort, and so on, all explicitly grounded on self-effort.
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras: Patanjali, in under 200 pithy aphorisms, describes the eight limbs of yoga, of which the now-popular pretzel-like asanas are only one of the preparatory limbs. In his work Patanjali only briefly (two aphorisms) talks on people receiving samadhi (the total absorption in the object of meditation) by surrendering oneself to Isvara (God). That is, if one is “fated” to receive samadhi, one would get it simply surrendering to Isvara and waiting for His Grace.
Then, interestingly, in the remaining 180-plus aphorisms, Patanjali instructs those who are not “fated” to receive Samadhi by Divine Grace, on how one can inch towards it by one’s self-effort.
Sikhism, the youngest of Indian religions, with its concept of warrior-saints and emphasis on we earning our living by work, has integrated self-effort into its ethos. More on this in the next issue.
These indian teachings on self-effort are, indeed, responsible, refreshingly enlightened, and modern. And at least 2500 years old! Thus, contrary to the commonly held belief among many of us, and even though many heads of orthodox Hindu religious organizations do not acknowledge it explicitly, our scriptures do not condemn us to Fate. On the contrary, many ancient teachers of India teach that with self-effort we can extricate ourselves from the mess we get into, even if we are “fated” to be in it because of our past actions.
Luckily for us, the lives and teachings of 20th century Indian thinkers — Vivekananda, Tilak, Gandhiji, and Chinmayananda for example – exemplify what we are capable of accomplishing by self-effort.
Therefore, Amitabh, it is only natural that chess, a popular game among princes of ancient India that demands the exercise of free will in every move by two opponents that is complicated by the unpredictable interactions was developed in India.
But do exertion and freewill by themselves always guarantee the outcome we desire? The simple answer is No. But exertion almost always helps us to understand ourselves better and makes us better human beings. Often, exertion and effort lead us to recognize that there is more to life than what we initially set as our goals.