________________
The doctrine
fatalistic.
we know more of the laws of nature, the
more intelligently we can use them to our not own advantage and benefit : so the more we
know of the character and working on of the Law of karma-causality, the more firmly we become convinced intellectually and morally that it is a law that has always been affording us ample opportunities to right the wrong, to remedy the evil, to amend the effects of the past with a view of moulding the inner nature-hour character, for a higher form of evolution of a more and more perfect type of organism and for the attainment of greater perfection. And such is the teaching of our sages !
From what precedes, it seems to follow that every living being, specially the man who always keeps before himself as a goal, the realization of a particular end or idea, is free to think and act as he wills. Will, as we have remarked, consists in determining and selecting between the two or more alternatives. A man with certain object in his mind to accomplish, invariably finds on reflection that there are different alternative means by which he can
372
