Question:
Is it Predestination or Free Will? This is customarily one of the top five questions hurled at a religious individual when the inquiring party discovers they are religious. The other four commence from do you believe in slaying non-conformists to will I burn in hell if I refuse your God? (We will leave out explicit details for politeness sake). The Free Will vs. Predestination conflict is one of the fundamental cornerstones on which the world of belief hinges. Does an intelligent Creator render our account prior to our birth; is everything we do pre-decided or do we retain free will? If so, then what agency do we have in avoiding hell/entering heaven? And if free will exists, how much free will is too much? What is the Sikh perspective?
The Pre-Ordained Writ:
From a prima-facie perspective the Guru Granth establishes the concept of the Pre-Ordained Writ, a seemingly apocalyptic concept. Note: seemingly apocalyptic and not actually apocalyptic. While anglophonic translations leave much to be desired in the way of conveying lucid simplifications of the Gurus’ word to non-Punjabi speakers, an exclusive focus on non-rhythmic translations preserving the essence and foregoing the poetic aesthetic clarifies the Gurmat stance on many sophisticated concepts. What then is Pre-Ordained Writ?
ਕਤਿਕਿ ਕਰਮ ਕਮਾਵਣੇ ਦੋਸੁ ਨ ਕਾਹੂ ਜੋਗੁ ॥
ਪਰਮੇਸਰ ਤੇ ਭੁਲਿਆਂ ਵਿਆਪਨਿ ਸਭੇ ਰੋਗ ॥
ਵੇਮੁਖ ਹੋਏ ਰਾਮ ਤੇ ਲਗਨਿ ਜਨਮ ਵਿਜੋਗ ॥
ਖਿਨ ਮਹਿ ਕਉੜੇ ਹੋਇ ਗਏ ਜਿਤੜੇ ਮਾਇਆ ਭੋਗ ॥
ਵਿਚੁ ਨ ਕੋਈ ਕਰਿ ਸਕੈ ਕਿਸ ਥੈ ਰੋਵਹਿ ਰੋਜ ॥
ਕੀਤਾ ਕਿਛੂ ਨ ਹੋਵਈ ਲਿਖਿਆ ਧੁਰਿ ਸੰਜੋਗ ॥
ਵਡਭਾਗੀ ਮੇਰਾ ਪ੍ਰਭੁ ਮਿਲੈ ਤਾਂ ਉਤਰਹਿ ਸਭਿ ਬਿਓਗ ॥
ਨਾਨਕ ਕਉ ਪ੍ਰਭ ਰਾਖਿ ਲੇਹਿ ਮੇਰੇ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਬੰਦੀ ਮੋਚ ॥
ਕਤਿਕ ਹੋਵੈ ਸਾਧਸੰਗੁ ਬਿਨਸਹਿ ਸਭੇ ਸੋਚ ॥੯॥
“In the month of Katak commit only good actions and do not blame others for your failings. If you forget the Creator then you are plagued by countless afflictions. Those who turn their back on their Maker doom their birth. The illusory pleasures they hanker after rapidly turn bitter. No one can alter the outcomes of such an act irrespective of whoever is cryingly invoked. None can escape the consequences of their actions for this is Pre-Ordained Writ. Great fortune allows us to meet our Maker and expel the pain of division. Nanak is protected by his Maker (from regression) who has annihilated all his confinement.”
-Guru Granth, 135.
Pre-ordained Writ, as the above verse clarifies, defines an aspect of reality namely: each action invokes a reaction the consequences of which we cannot escape irrespective of whatever efforts we make. This principle is a facet of reality or Hukam which the Sikh is expected to integrate with. It is unalterable as it is pre-ordained. However, is this principle necessarily negative? Consider the initial lines of the verse:
ਪਰਮੇਸਰ ਤੇ ਭੁਲਿਆਂ ਵਿਆਪਨਿ ਸਭੇ ਰੋਗ ॥
ਵੇਮੁਖ ਹੋਏ ਰਾਮ ਤੇ ਲਗਨਿ ਜਨਮ ਵਿਜੋਗ ॥
“If you forget the Creator then you earn all sorts of afflictions. Those who turn their back on their Maker doom their birth…”
-Ibid.
Consider the emphasis here on personal agency, ਪਰਮੇਸਰ ਤੇ ਭੁਲਿਆਂ (if you forget/ forgetting the Maker); ਵੇਮੁਖ ਹੋਏ (Those who turn their back/regressing from…). Put simply, we reap what we sow.
ਆਪੇ ਬੀਜਿ ਆਪੇ ਹੀ ਖਾਹੁ ॥
“What you sow, so will you reap.”
-Guru Granth, 4.
The Pre-ordained Writ is a natural law then which should point our pathfinding compass in life. What we do minute to minute alters our destiny. The consequences of our acts, whether good or bad, duly find us irrespective of whether they do so openly or clandestinely. More comprehensively, what is the Writ which is Pre-ordained? To reiterate the above verse,
ਆਪੇ ਬੀਜਿ ਆਪੇ ਹੀ ਖਾਹੁ ॥
“What you sow, so will you reap.”
-Ibid.
There is, contrastingly, no declaration that Pre-ordained Writ is manifest Predestination i.e. the divine Creator has preordained that some of us will do good to earn good consequences and others bad to earn the relevant consequences even before our souls were brought into existence. The Maker is no mechanistic tyrant who arbitrarily dooms some created Beings and elevates others. Rather, within the parameters of Hukam (reality) man has been bequeathed Free Will to make his own way in life and eventually reap what he sows.
Blasphemous Inquisitiveness:
The Sikh Gurus articulated their position on the issue of Predestination and wholly rejected it.
ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਨੋ ਸਭ ਕੋ ਲੋਚਦਾ ਜੇਤਾ ਜਗਤੁ ਸਭੁ ਕੋਇ ॥
ਬਿਨੁ ਭਾਗਾ ਦਰਸਨੁ ਨਾ ਥੀਐ ਭਾਗਹੀਣ ਬਹਿ ਰੋਇ ॥
ਜੋ ਹਰਿ ਪ੍ਰਭ ਭਾਣਾ ਸੋ ਥੀਆ ਧੁਰਿ ਲਿਖਿਆ ਨ ਮੇਟੈ ਕੋਇ ॥੩॥
“The Satgur (divine truth) appeals to everyone and the world is involved in acquiring it. But without virtuous fortune we cannot acquire even a glimpse of it. The ones lacking virtue moan pitifully for the opportunity. Whatever the all-pervasive Maker wills so it transpires. Whatever the Maker has Pre-ordained none can alter it.”
-Guru Granth, 41.
How can one alter themselves to reap what is beneficial and not reap anything detrimental by one’s own hand? On the same folio,
ਭਾਈ ਰੇ ਮੈ ਮੀਤੁ ਸਖਾ ਪ੍ਰਭੁ ਸੋਇ ॥
ਪੁਤੁ ਕਲਤੁ ਮੋਹੁ ਬਿਖੁ ਹੈ ਅੰਤਿ ਬੇਲੀ ਕੋਇ ਨ ਹੋਇ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
ਗੁਰਮਤਿ ਹਰਿ ਲਿਵ ਉਬਰੇ ਅਲਿਪਤੁ ਰਹੇ ਸਰਣਾਇ ॥
ਓਨੀ ਚਲਣੁ ਸਦਾ ਨਿਹਾਲਿਆ ਹਰਿ ਖਰਚੁ ਲੀਆ ਪਤਿ ਪਾਇ ॥
ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਦਰਗਹ ਮੰਨੀਅਹਿ ਹਰਿ ਆਪਿ ਲਏ ਗਲਿ ਲਾਇ ॥੨॥
“Brothers, I have made my Sustainer my friend. Those lost in the love of their progeny and nearest and dearest consume a potent venom not realizing that none of these others will accompany them in the end. Those immersed in Gurmat (the divine intellect) embrace their Maker and remain forever in the celestial haven. They are forever joyful and continually acquire and expend honor. In the supreme court such Gurmukhs (the Khalsa) accrues great honor and is embraced by their Maker.”
-Guru Granth, 41-42.
Prior to the Gurus the Predestination vs. Freewill altercation incited much intellectual combativeness. The most assiduously scathing attacks on Predestination though were launched by the Bhagat Kabir. Consider the following verses:
ਹਿੰਦੂ ਤੁਰਕ ਕਹਾ ਤੇ ਆਏ ਕਿਨਿ ਏਹ ਰਾਹ ਚਲਾਈ ॥
ਦਿਲ ਮਹਿ ਸੋਚਿ ਬਿਚਾਰਿ ਕਵਾਦੇ ਭਿਸਤ ਦੋਜਕ ਕਿਨਿ ਪਾਈ ॥੧॥
ਕਾਜੀ ਤੈ ਕਵਨ ਕਤੇਬ ਬਖਾਨੀ ॥
ਪੜ੍ਹਤ ਗੁਨਤ ਐਸੇ ਸਭ ਮਾਰੇ ਕਿਨਹੂੰ ਖਬਰਿ ਨ ਜਾਨੀ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
“Where have the Hindus and Muslims come from? Who has actually started these faiths? Consider this in your heart as to who will enter heaven and who will be thrown into hell. Qazi, which book do you read? Countless others like you have read their books only to die and have failed to discover any truth within them.”
-Guru Granth, 477.
Kabir is caustically attacking both Hinduism and Islam, questioning their self-proclaimed divine origin. Simultaneously he dismisses the allegedly divine books of both faiths elucidating that no truth exists within them ergo why rational individuals should avoid any belief in them. How does this tie-in with the Predestination vs. Free Will quandary? The successive verse:
ਸਕਤਿ ਸਨੇਹੁ ਕਰਿ ਸੁੰਨਤਿ ਕਰੀਐ ਮੈ ਨ ਬਦਉਗਾ ਭਾਈ ॥
ਜਉ ਰੇ ਖੁਦਾਇ ਮੋਹਿ ਤੁਰਕੁ ਕਰੈਗਾ ਆਪਨ ਹੀ ਕਟਿ ਜਾਈ ॥੨॥
ਸੁੰਨਤਿ ਕੀਏ ਤੁਰਕੁ ਜੇ ਹੋਇਗਾ ਅਉਰਤ ਕਾ ਕਿਆ ਕਰੀਐ ॥
ਅਰਧ ਸਰੀਰੀ ਨਾਰਿ ਨ ਛੋਡੈ ਤਾ ਤੇ ਹਿੰਦੂ ਹੀ ਰਹੀਐ ॥੩॥
ਛਾਡਿ ਕਤੇਬ ਰਾਮੁ ਭਜੁ ਬਉਰੇ ਜੁਲਮ ਕਰਤ ਹੈ ਭਾਰੀ ॥
ਕਬੀਰੈ ਪਕਰੀ ਟੇਕ ਰਾਮ ਕੀ ਤੁਰਕ ਰਹੇ ਪਚਿਹਾਰੀ ॥੪॥੮॥
“Circumcision is but done for sexual pleasure, I put no stock in it. If indeed your God had intended for me to be a Muslim then why was I not born without a foreskin? If circumcision renders me a Muslim then what of a woman? A woman is supposedly a man’s other half then why leave her a Hindu if I am a Muslim? Dump your book and instead focus on living the all-pervasive Maker’s will. Forsake these atrocious transgressions against Creation. Kabir has received the Maker’s support and left the Muslims far behind in failure.”
-Guru Granth, 477.
To break down Kabir’s words,
(1) The human body in its natural state is gifted with physical attributes retaining some crucial purpose and altering it without cause is an atrocious transgression.
(2) If the Creator wills a certain modification calling it divine than why is a modification necessary in the first place to signify the truth when the Creator in his perfectness could just as easily perform the modification naturally (in this case being born sans foreskin)? Kabir, evidentially, bases this on the notion of a specific God predestining some mortals for hell and others for heaven. When the paradoxical notion of free will is advanced alongside, the mental acrobatics performed are ludicrous. Kabir picks up on these and argues that if he is predestined for Islam and then alongside requires a circumcision why couldn’t he have been born without a foreskin to prove to his imperfect self and the world that he was predestined to be a Muslim from the start?
(3) Kabir was also aware of the division over female circumcision in Islamic jurisprudence. Some schools emphasized it (and still do); others treated it (and still do) as a non-issue. Why the vagueness on a woman’s status regarding divinely ordained (yes, Kabir’s sarcasm is still relevant) circumcision? Was the divine authority confused?
(4) The final portion, discard all allegedly divine books as they hold no truth and are innately contradictory and breed delusions and detachment from empirical reality.
Conclusion:
Summarily, what we do minute-to-minute second-to-second decides our future fate minute-to-minute second-to-second. We set our own path in life by committing actions and then subsequently accepting their outcome rather than evading them. This is a sign of true Khalsa, a true Sikh. The Creator has adjudged that we undergo the results of what we do. This is pre-set and cannot be altered. Will we reap good or bad? We have the freewill to sow whatever we want. The harvest though is inescapable.