Will versus Fate :

At a crucial point in  the discourse of the Bhagavat-Gita, Arjuna wails, (CH.4 – 34): ‘Restless indeed is the mind, O Krishna; it is vehement, strong and unconquerable; I deem it as hard to control as the wind’. 



Canchalamm   hi    manah    krishna    pramathi     balavad-drridham 

tasyaham     nigraham     manye    vayoriva      sudushkaram.



Arjuna has spoken for all of us. And Krishna replies: Yes, the mind is restless and difficult to restrain. But says He, it may be controlled by constant practice ( abhyasa) and dispassion (= vairagya). (CH-4 – 35):



asamshayam    mahabaho    mano    durnigraham    chalam

abhyasena     tu     kaunteya     vairagyena     ca    grrihyate.



The Will of man must be made more supreme than the mind. Everywhere in the Upanishads the ultimate appeal is to the will and not to the intellect. They would have us not only understand, but do, that is, realize God. This requires an action by one’s own will, to start making the effort. The sensations, thoughts, images and facies are all in the mind; but if the will-power is exercised properly with discrimination, all of them can be monitored and channelised. It is not as if man is a helpless creature as a leaf in the storm or a feather in the wind. Man’s will has an element of complete freedom. It is the power which enables him to act in directions opposite to his spontaneous tendencies (VasanAs). In other words, he can pilot the ship of his personality against his accumulated character and thus control his own future. In this sense Man is the architect of his own fate. Inevitably and ultimately man’s will must prove stronger than fate, because it is his own past will which created his present fate. 


Continues....