THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

VII. 9. Fate and Free-Will381and speech in this life, which materialise in the next as good fortuneor evil fortune. Again it produces by its action for the good or illof others a necessity of happiness or sorrow for ourselves inanother birth. It produces, moreover, a tendency to persistenceof that habit of thought or feeling in future lives, which involvesthe persistence of good fortune or evil fortune, happiness or sorrow.Or, acting on different lines, it produces a revolt or reaction andreplacement by opposite habits which in their turn necessitateopposite results for good or evil. This is the chain of karma, thebondage of works, which is the Hindu Fate and from which theHindu seeks salvation.If, however, there is no escape from the Law, if Nature issupreme and inexorable, there can be no salvation; freedom becomesa chimera, bondage eternal. There can be no escape, unlessthere is something within us which is free and lord, superior toNature. This entity the Hindu teaching finds in the spirit everfree and blissful which is one in essence and in reality with theSupreme Soul of the Universe. The spirit does not act, it is naturethat contains the action. If the spirit acted, it would be boundby its action. The thing that acts is Prakriti, Nature, which determinesthe svabhÀva of things and is the source and conditionof Law or dharma. The soul or puruØa holds up the svabhÀva,watches and enjoys all the action and its fruit, sanctions the lawor dharma. It is the king, Lord or ÈÙvara without whose consentnothing can be done by prakÐti. But the king is above the lawand free.It is this power of sanction that forms the element of freewillin our lives. The spirit consents not that itself shall be bound,but that its enjoyment should be bound by time, space and causalityand by the svabhÀva and the dharma. It consents to virtueor sin, good fortune or evil fortune, health or disease, joy orsuffering, or it refuses them. What it is attached to, that Naturemultiplies for it, what it is weary of, has vairÀgya for, that Naturewithdraws from it. Only, because the enjoyment is in space andtime, therefore, even after the withdrawal of consent, the habitualaction continues for a time just as the locomotive continues tomove after the steam is shut off, but in a little while it slows downand finally comes to a standstill. And because the enjoyment is