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Question : Which is stronger, fate or freewill?
Man's actions are determined to a certain extent by his Praarabdh, yet he is free in his Kriyaman Karm. What is the line of demarcation? How far the Kriyaman Karm can bear fruit and how far they are determined by Praarabdh? When a man fails to achieve a desired object, is there a way to find out whether the failure was due to Praarabdh or due to deficiency or incompetency of his effort? At what stage a man should stop his effort, when they are supposed to be useless because of his Praarabdh?

Answer: An animal which is tethered to a peg by a rope of a given length has freedom to move within the circle drawn by that radius, the rope. But it has no freedom beyond that limit. It is bound to move within that specified range. Man is something like this. His reason and discrimination afford him a certain amount of freedom which is within their scope. But this reasoning faculty is like the rope with which the animal is tied. Reason is not unlimited and it is circumscribed by the nature of the Praarabdh which governs this body of the Jeev.

As long as the man has consciousness of personality, and in so far as it is possible for him and is within the capacity of his conscious endeavor to exercise the sense of selective discrimination or freedom of choice, he is responsible for what he does. He is an agent or doer of the action, and such actions as these are fresh actions or Kriyaman Karm, as they are connected with the sense of doership. But if events occur when he is incapable of using this power of understanding, as when he is not in his body-consciousness, or even without his conscious intervention therein, he is not to be held responsible for the same; for these are not fresh actions, but only the fruition of a previous deed or deeds of Praarabdh.

Though every experience is finally caused by Praarabdh alone, its connection with one’s consciousness constitutes effort or a fresh deed. Effort is nothing but consciousness of action as related to oneself, whatever be the thing that prompts one to do that action. It is not the action as such but the manner in which it is executed that determines whether it is a Kriyaman Karm or not. A Jeevanmukt’s actions are not Kriyaman Karm; for they are not connected with any personal consciousness. They are spontaneous functions of the remaining momentum of past consciousness of agency.

Experiences which are forced upon oneself, or which come of their own accord without the personal will of the experiencer, are the workings of Praarabdh. But others which result from a deliberate and conscious act, which has a pre-meditated background, show that it is a Kriyaman Karm, though it may be sanctioned by the law of the Praarabdh Karm itself. An experience caused by mere Praarabdh does not cause another fresh result but is exhausted thereby; but a Kriyaman Karm tends to produce a fresh experience in the future as it is attended by the sense of doership.

If a desired end is not attained even after all possible efforts on one’s part, it has to be taken that the failure is due to an obstructive Praarabdh. Of course, this is the same as saying that the failure is due to incompetency of the person concerned; for, through a greater effort allowed by a non-impeding Praarabdh - which, however, he is not enabled to exercise at present - he could have attained the desired end. As the Praarabdh determines even Purushaarth, it has to be said that the effort of man is the working of the Praarabdh itself as superimposed on his consciousness.

Praarabdh, when it is functioning, can never be defied or destroyed, but it can be exhausted through experience and non-commission of further Kriyaman Karm. Even this cessation from doing Kriyaman Karm has to be allowed by the Praarabdh itself; otherwise even such a cessation will not be possible. An evil Praarabdh will not allow the withdrawal from Kriyaman Karm and as long as it is not exhausted through experience, rebirth and pain cannot be stopped.

Only a good Praarabdh can allow higher effort, the rise of knowledge, and cessation from Kriyaman Karm. But, on that account, effort cannot be stopped; for the Praarabdh forces itself out in the form of effort as long as its appearance can be possible only through the individual consciousness. Sometimes Praarabdh manifests itself, not through the individual consciousness, but either through external agency or occurrences having causes beyond human comprehension.

Even when a person is goaded by another to do action or Purushaarth, it is only an aspect of his Praarabdh in relation to the other’s that works. In the state of supreme wisdom, however, such incitations and admonitions cease. Efforts are automatically (and not deliberately) stopped only on the rise of Self-Knowledge which is the goal of all effort, and not before that. As long as there is body-consciousness and world-consciousness , man will perforce carry on exerting to achieve his desired end. Effort is the natural concomitant of the consciousness of imperfection. Man, being imperfect, continues, by his own nature, to exert until the achievement of Perfection. The question of Praarabdh and Purushaarth is a relative one and it loses its meaning on the dawn of Perfect Knowledge.
[By Swamy Sivananda]

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