Is There Freewill In Sikhism?

This is a curious question since I realised that even though our religion prohibits the five vices some Sikhs might commit them; however, do us human beings have a free will or is this pre determined by destiny or fate by God?

Jasdeep118 said:

This is a curious question since I realised that even though our religion prohibits the five vices some Sikhs might commit them; however, do us human beings have a free will or is this pre determined by destiny or fate by God?

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Is There Freewill In Sikhism?

Free-will is an interesting thing to ponder upon. In Christianity, this is used quite often as a weapon or a tool and/or as a carrot and a stick.

My question about the free-will to my Christian friends is if one has the free will, then god ceases to be omnipotent- all powerful. They have no answer for that which is expected.
Now let's try to separate the wheat from the chaff from both, the Eastern philosophy and the Western one.

The latter is based on a moral code etched in stone literally and metaphorically where dos and don'ts are its levers.
The former, which Sikhi is part of is based on higher consciousness which makes us seekers in the true sense of the word.
A seeker actually has the free will because it is up to us how we value ourselves.
Gurbani gives us the nudge to seek it in a succulent manner.
Although I have been advocating for the posters here to give full Shabad as a reference rather than a one-liner, in this context, this one-liner is quite optimal. It is quite long but this Shabad is famous for one particular line on page 441.
Here is the Shabad from our 3rd Guru

ੴ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ॥
Ik▫oaʼnkār saṯgur parsāḏ.
One Universal Creator God. By The Grace Of The True Guru:

ਆਸਾ ਮਹਲਾ ੩ ਛੰਤ ਘਰੁ ੩ ॥
Āsā mėhlā 3 cẖẖanṯ gẖar 3.
Aasaa, Third Mehl, Chhant, Third House:

[ਮਨ ਤੂੰ ਜੋਤਿ ਸਰੂਪੁ ਹੈ ਆਪਣਾ ਮੂਲੁ ਪਛਾਣੁ ॥
Man ṯūʼn joṯ sarūp hai āpṇā mūl pacẖẖāṇ.
O my mind, you are the embodiment of the Divine Light - recognize your own origin.

"O mind, you are the light within. Use this torch to map your own GPS"]

Sri Granth: Sri Guru Granth Sahib

Thanks & regards
Tejwant Singh

Free will is the very essence of sikhi.. It's what you choose to do with it that is important!

Karam - we reap what we Sow.

We choose what to sow, and we get what we deserve, whether dukh or sukh.

My observations-


Only humans have the option of free-will.

Free-will is the potential given to humans to get a perfect Guru on one's side.

The perfect Guru will protect, alter, or make destiny/prarabhdha easier.

The perfect Guru changes one’s perceptions.


Only humans have the option of free-will. That is the reason it is the most precious species. To start the awakening process, you need to have a perfect Guru in one of human lives.

The free-will is the choice to get a perfect Guru on your side. It means changing from manmukh to gurmukh. Even if no Guru is written in your destiny in this life, you can use free-will to make and follow a perfect Guru, who can alter your destiny. That is the only use of free-will. Your free-will gives you the potential to find and follow a perfect Guru irrespective of your destiny.

The perfect Guru will protect, alter, or make destiny/prarabhdha easier. Many sakhis point to that. The perfect Guru takes the karmas that the gurmukh can not go thorough. The perfect Guru will also fulfill worldly wishes if that is what is stopping gurmukh from merging.

The perfect Guru changes one’s perceptions. So, the gurmukhs stop to suffer. They become more centered. Like all the Singh Singhnian who despite unthinkable cruelty, bore it without suffering.

FREE WILL - Absolute or Quasi

It is indeed a very intriguing topic. Do we have free will to think, act, reflect etc.

If we do not have the ability to act freely, then why would Gurbani nudge us over and over again to do "all the good things' that it tells us to do to get and get to the stage where " the drop of water merges and loses its identity in the Ocean" - the merger of Jot and Joti takes place and this circular journey of life and death ceases to exist..

But then I got the following reflection.....

Other day, I was sitting with my laptop writing a long article on something for which I did a lot of thinking. And I did succeed in writing quite a bit but before I could save it in the computer, there was a power surge - my computer shut down- and I lost the entire write-up; I tried to retrieve a few times but no luck.

It was both frustrating and disappointing. But the incident presented me a new perspective and that is: even though I was working with my freewill to produce and achieve something .........I was unconsciously under the impression that I have full control on the output I was seeking, I soon realized my efforts to produce the output in the form of a written and posted article were secondary to the continuous supply of electrical power - the primary source. My freewill in writing the article was subservient to the Will of the primary source.

Let us take this insight into what we are trying to debate here - the existence of Freewill.....

Although Gurbani is nudging us reputedly do "Good things" in life, but our ability to think, act and the operationalization of these functionalities is dependent on the "lifeforce" - the jot -- that is embedded in us like "fire in a log". We have free will only when we are alive; if we are dead - without the life force we don't have any free will. In this sense as humans we only have "Quasi-Free Will" -- we do not have "Absolute Free Will"

Free Will - quasi or absolute - have two key components: 1) Action, and 2) Output. We may act with our freewill but there is no guarantee we will achieve the output. Output of any action can be predicted as "probable" but it is always unknown. With the Freewill we can act but we are never sure if we will achieve what we are intending to achieve. But every action has a reaction whether we like it or not - some reactions ( i.e. outputs) are instantaneous and other may have undetermined time lag. Gurbani tells us "as you sow so shall you reap". we have to pay for all of our actions - for some of our actions we pay while in this life and for others their "harvest" becomes our destiny for future life - Gurbani calls it "Poorbala Karam".

Guru Fetah Ji

The only use of freewill is in choosing to transcend Maya.