Fate Vs Free Will - Part 1

Here I am trying yet again, probably for the final time (as of now), to explain my views on eternal question of Fate Vs Free Will? Is everything happening around us is Fated/Destined by some superior power or We, the humans, are responsible for our life events?

I am splitting the article in two parts due to the length of the article. This is part 1. 

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Let’s try to understand it all over again under following points –

Earlier Articles.

Consciousness and Mind.

Initial Views.

Misuse of the concept of Destiny.

Later Views.

Different Levels of People.

Final Results.

How to know our level?

Is everything Destined?

Conclusion.

Let’s cover all points one after the other –

Earlier Articles – As I said, at different times, I have written different articles on this topic and I ended-up in explaining things in different ways and having different conclusions. You can find all these attempts here –

 https://www.astrosaxena.com/ffwse .,  https://www.astrosaxena.com/ffw2. , https://www.astrosaxena.com/ffw3 . ,  https://www.astrosaxena.com/FFW4 , https://www.astrosaxena.com/Destiny. 

I wrote 5 articles on this topic giving 5 different views and all look correct. It shows a few things -

• My evolution level at different times of writing each of these articles.
• Logic has no loyalty. With words, you can prove anything.
• And I am not a reliable person at all.

I feel this will be the final attempt but if I evolve any further and I happen to change my views again, I withhold my right to write those views on this topic all over again. So, you can consider these views as final conclusions as of today on this topic.

Consciousness and Mind – Before we go deep into this discussion of Fate Vs Free Will, we need to first understand two different levels of existence at which every human being can function; i.e. Conscious State Vs Unconscious State. I tried to explain these two levels in one of my recent article; Consciousness and Purpose of Astrology - https://www.astrosaxena.com/CPA1 which I am reproducing here –

 “What is Consciousness? – It is Consciousness which incarnates itself as Stone/Rock, River, Plant, Animal or Human beings etc. Most commonly used word for Consciousness is Soul. Awareness or Alertness is also good replacements. The concept of God is also nothing but this Consciousness. People may be surprised here that I am saying that even Stone/Rocks are incarnation of Consciousness but please let me explain how!

You might have seen many a times a small plant coming out from middle of road or even from middle of a rock which “looks like” the most dead thing in the world. But just think that if this rock is allowing a life from within itself to grow then won’t that rock will also have life in it? Can’t we see compassion of Rock towards this small herb that Rock is allowing the herb to break the Rock itself to live and grow? In case, people don’t want to have this philosophical approach towards Rocks then they can search for “Sailing Stones” or “Moving Rocks” to realize that there can be Rocks which are moving in consciousness towards Plant or Animal Kingdom. So, Consciousness is flowing ahead. Likewise, you can find species of plants or trees which change their position from one place to another place over a time period of years or decades. We can say that these plants or trees are amidst transition from Plants Kingdom to Animal Kingdom. Same Consciousness is now moving from Plant to Animal. Then we all are well aware of Charles Darwin Theory that Man has evolved from Monkeys. No matter how much it had hurt Religions and concepts given by Religions that Man is Son of God but as the time progressed, we had to accept the validity of Darwinian Theory. So again, same Consciousness moved from Animal Kingdom to Mankind.

So, we can say that Consciousness is the basic essence of life which makes you feel alive and through it we are able to experience the existence around us. Understand it like this, even a dead body can have eyes but it cannot see. The ability to see comes from consciousness. Likewise, for all our sense organs. The basic life force or essence of life within us which makes us conscious/aware/alert of life and living is Consciousness and everyone is born with it.

I hope I could explain it well enough for our understanding and purpose of this article.

Different Levels of Consciousness – Now, this consciousness can be at different levels for different people/plants/animals or rocks etc. We can divide it in following categories for our understanding purposes as human mind can understand anything by making parts and divisions –

Unconscious – We can keep Rocks or Stones or Mountains or Rivers in this category. They are unconscious of their own existence.

Semi-Conscious – We can keep Plants and Trees in this category. They are moving towards Animal Kingdom as they are in middle of Unconscious and Conscious, they can be called Semi-Conscious.

Conscious – Animals are Conscious of their existence. They are closest to Humans in this hierarchy.

Higher Conscious – Humans can either be at the stage of Conscious or Higher Conscious.  If a Human Being is only aware of his own existence then he is at conscious state. He is no better than animal as he performs only those activities which an animal performs for basic survival of existence.

But if a human being can be aware of his actions or his emotions and can take prudent decision as to what to do and what to avoid then he is at Higher Consciousness.

Few examples to understand this difference would be helpful.

A person who is a criminal and for his egoistic desires can commit any crime then he is no better than an Animal. May be he has just arrived in human kingdom from animal kingdom and that’s why; he is living life on same animalistic traits.

If a person can realize his mistakes, wrong actions and can improve upon himself then he is moving towards higher consciousness. So, when a human being becomes observant of his own emotions/actions/thoughts then we can say that he is at higher consciousness. This ability of observing self is not available at any of earlier level of consciousness. So again, if a Man cannot observe his own emotions/actions/thoughts and cannot make better choices regarding those emotions/actions/thoughts then he is still living an animalistic life.

This also means that to divert or guide your consciousness towards a particular emotion, you need to have at least Higher Consciousness. At Conscious Stage, you can’t be aware of your emotions/thoughts and actions if they are right or wrong. As we go forward in this article, we will realize how much it is necessary to be at Higher Consciousness level; i.e. to be able to observe our emotions/thoughts, so that we can divert consciousness in right direction at right time.

Super Consciousness – Then comes the highest state of Super Consciousness where a person can be in the state of Higher Consciousness permanently. So, difference between a person of higher consciousness and person of super consciousness is that person of higher consciousness comes to and goes off from the state of higher consciousness again and again. He comes into state of higher consciousness for few minutes and starts observing his emotions, thoughts and actions but again goes back into Conscious State of other humans and animals. Then after some time, he may again remember that he has lost the observant or witnessing state and he may again try to get there. So, a person of higher consciousness may have to make efforts to stay in higher consciousness again & again and despite those efforts he may lose the plot again & again. Whereas a person of super consciousness state is permanently settled in that higher consciousness state and that too without any effort. It is natural state of his consciousness. We can say that person of Super Conscious state is God or an Enlightened Being. Nothing wrong can happen from that state of super consciousness.

Now, if we pay attention here then we will realize that only human beings have ability to evolve from Consciousness to Higher Consciousness to Super Consciousness. A plant can only be a Plant in this life. A Dog can only be a Dog in this life. But a Human can either go towards animalistic behavior or he can move towards Super Consciousness. This is the privilege given to Human Consciousness. Human Consciousness is absolutely fluid, liquid and flowing. All options are available for a human. It is a Man’s choice whether he wants to become Gautam Buddha or Adolf Hitler. That's why; the whole responsibility is also with Man only. He can go in any direction he wants to go. All doors are open for Human Consciousness. This is privilege and curses both.

I think stage is set now to what I actually want to convey through this article.

How Consciousness gets covered? – When a child takes birth, he takes birth with Pure Consciousness. This is why every child is so happy always. They haven’t achieved anything in this life so far, they haven’t got any promotion or won any election or became PM/President and still they are super happy 24x7. But the drawback with a child’s pure consciousness is that it is equally feeble as child is not aware of it. Now, the families, societies, schools or colleges start giving some ideas or thoughts to the child. These ideas or thoughts are very necessary for functioning of society but the same has no interest in child’s spiritual growth. So, these thoughts, ideas and concepts start covering his pure consciousness. These false ideas of Ego, Position, Authority, Religion, Caste, Nations etc. cover pure consciousness to such a level that we are unable to believe that pure consciousness even exists. We start living in these ideas and thoughts and we start believing that getting next promotion is matter of life and death or if that girl doesn’t say yes for marriage then it is a matter of insult for me. This is where Pure Consciousness is totally covered.

But although it is covered, it is never absent. We may become oblivious from it but it is always there standing behind all our thoughts and ideas. We just need to dis-cover it to re-cover it”.

So, these are two broad levels of existence for Humanity; i.e.

• either Pure Consciousness or
• Conditioned Consciousness.

In easy language, we can say that a person can be living his life at two different levels; i.e.

• either at mind level (controlled by emotions and impulses or trying to control these) or
• at conscious level (not controlled by emotions and impulses).

In a future article, I may try to explain how soul incarnates in different forms. Writing all that information here can make this article too lengthy.

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End of Part 1. Please access part 2 here - https://www.astrosaxena.com/FFW5-2

Hope this helps. Thanks, 

Swami Premanand Bharti