The Gita’s Ethics (A Critical Study)
by Arpita Chakraborty | 2017 | 59,351 words
This essay studies the Ethical Teachings of the Gita, as presented in the Mahabharata in the form of a dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna. Ancient Indian ethics as evolved from the Vedas developed through the Upanisads, the Gita, Mahabharata, Ramayana and finally reached the Dharma-Shastras such as the Manusmriti. As the means to liberation, the e...
5. Determinism and Free will
Determinism means that all actions are determined by previously existing mental, moral, physical, or environmental causes such as education, temperament, ancestry and the like. The will of man is a mental process of producing actions. It is true that will is bound under certain limitations created by environment, heredity, education, temperament etc. Though the alternatives between which it has to choose, are determined, yet the choice that it makes between those alternatives, is not determined. What is important is not the freedom of will, but man’s consciousness of freedom. Past karmas influence man in two ways, internally and externally. Internal influence is called the character, while the external influence as fate. Character consists of mental tendencies while fate represents the situation in which man has been kept to work. But what we call fate is also the result of our own deeds. Fate is a ruler whom we ourselves have made to rule. According to the theory of karma in Indian philosophy, fate is not a blind chance, but is the result of our own work in the past. Free will is a necessary corollary of this theory. What man made, he can unmake. Hence fatalistic attitude in the theory of karma is altogether missing.
Says Manu:
“Thou cost not gather what thou does not sow
As thou dost plant the tree, so will it grow.”[1]“Whatever the man is where ever he is, whatever he suffers or enjoys, is the result of his own actions”.
The Gita says…
Let a man live himself, by himself; let him not degrade himself;for the self alone is the friend of the self and the self alone is the enemy of the self.(vi,5).
Thus Indian theory of karma says that man’s downfall is due to his own fault, due to the abuse of his free will. None else is responsible. Thus destiny depends on self-efforts. Man can change his bad into good and good into better and best.
Thus we see that the theory of karma, by admitting the free will, saves us from skepticism.It explains the universe in rational terms. So we find that there is nothing mysterious or blind about the working of karma and therefore it would be an entire misconception of the doctrine of karma to confound it with fatalism. As this doctrine teaches that as a man sow so shall he reap, so it cannot be regarded as ‘fatalistic’. Hence, free will and the working of karma are not open to the charge of fatalism or determinism.