Pariprasna Q & A with Srimat Swami Tapasyananda (1904 to 1991), Vice-President of the Ramakrishna Order.
June 2019
QUESTION: When we are under the absolute control of the three Gunas of Prakriti how can we ever use our will? Is free will a misnomer? MAHARAJ: In Sri Ramakrishna’s sayings we get perhaps the best answer to this question. He says man’s condition is like that of a cow which is tied with a string tethered to a post. The cow has got some freedom. It can move about and graze over as wide an area as the length of the rope would permit, but not further. It cannot run away from the post except when the owner comes and releases it from the connection with the post. So also God has given some freedom to man. There may be determinism of Nature, but man being basically the spirit, the freedom of spirit is always there to counteract that determinism, if man would tap his spiritual nature. No doubt it is limited in the embodied state by the tether of the body-mind. If we exercise that freedom in line with the laws of moral and spiritual growth, we will get greater and greater freedom, until we are ultimately released from the tether of the body-mind. Ultimately only God’s will prevails or rather, it is the only Will. When we think of ourselves as separate from the Will, we are like eddies in the current of a flowing river. The eddy moves in its own way, but it is a part of the force working as the whole current. So also if we are identifying ourselves with God’s Will, of which ours is a part, then what we call our will is one with His will and there is absolute freedom. In separation however there can be only limited freedom. QUESTION: What is meant by ‘giving power of attorney to God’? When is a spiritual aspirant fit for it? MAHARAJ: This expression ‘giving power of attorney to God’ was used by Sri Ramakrishna with reference to a devotee Girish Chandra Ghosh. Girish was a man of tremendous faith, intelligence and sincerity; but he was an artiste and a bohemian by nature, quite hostile to all routine, rules and regulations. The Master gave him certain disciplines to practise regularly at certain parts of the day, but Girish could not promise to practise any of them, for the simple reason that he had no regular time for anything, even for his meals or sleep. He took life as it came and never planned. Being constitutionally incapable of any fixed discipline, he was asked by Sri Ramakrishna to give him the power of attorney. The idea is, legally when you give the power of attorney to a person, that person will do all things on your behalf and you need not exert or think about those affairs. In this way Sri Ramakrishna offered to take all the responsibility for the spiritual progress of Girish and Girish deposited his trust in him cent per cent. Here there are two or three important facts to be remembered:
33 The Vedanta Kesari
PA G E S P O N S O R : S M T. S H U B H A L A X M I P I T R E , M U M B A I
Approach the wise sages, offer reverential salutations, repeatedly ask proper questions, serve them and thus know the Truth. — Bhagavad Gita
