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Law of Karma
one may ask : “Do the past karmas determine our character ? Are we not really determined by our past karmas ? Are all our actions merely an effect of the past ones? Are free actions on our part denied by our past determinations ?" From all these it follows that the Karmas performed in this life will determine our future. Radhakrishnan holds that Karma and freedom are not incompatible with each other because the karmas are karmas performed by the soul. Freedom does not mean absence of any determining factor, it means being determined by nothing else but oneself. Secondly, Radhakrishnan says that man is determined by past karma, but is free to create prospective karma. He introduces here the word "choice" which means that man has many alternatives. It is for him to choose any of these alternatives. There is no pressure or compulsion in the process of such choice. One is free to choose according to his own will. “The cards in the game of life are given to us; we do not select them. They are all traced to our past karmas, but we can call as we please, lead what suit we will, and as we play we gain or lose- and that is freedom.”34
Dr. Radhakrishnan says that if our acts were irrelevant to our past, then there would be no moral responsibility. Free acts cannot negate continuity. Freedom is not caprice since we carry our past with us. The range of one's natural freedom of action is limited. No man has universal field of possibilities for himself. When a possibility becomes an actuality, it assumes the character of necessity. The past can never be cancelled, though it may be utilized. Though the self is not free from the bonds of determination, it can subjugate the past to a certain extent and turn it into a new course. Choice is the assertion of freedom over necessity by which it converts. “The human agent is free."'35 Free-will is action done by selfdetermination. When an individual performs an action of his own choice, the act done is a self-determined act. Will is the active side of the self. Freedom of will is the freedom of self. It means determination of an act without any external pressure.
But one may further point out that self-determination is not really freedom. A person may not be under pressure for doing an action externally but he may feel compulsion for doing that
| SR No. | 007009 |
| Book Title | Law of Karma |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Nirmala Jha |
| Publisher | Capital Pubishing House Delhi |
| Publication Year | 1985 |
| Total Pages | 168 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 9 MB |