Is life predestined or on the freewill?

Question

If someone is in hard times, should he has to think that these problems are because of his past karmas for which he has to suffer or he should make an effort in order to get off of such situation?

If everything is predestined, why astrologers give remedies to overcome or handle some incidents? Because, as if it is predestined, whatever is already written will happen irrespective of the person does remedies or not. So, how come one give precautions to them?

If one is suffering problems, either should he accept the situation that he has to however, suffer them because of his bad karmas?

          *Or*

Should he follow some other way to overcome his hurdles?

Answer 1

This question has no answer, in Hinduism or any other religion. you could say I am perfectly free whether or not to touch my nose with my forefinger right now. but then you might have been pre-destined to make this experiment exactly at this point in time.

The aim of Advaita and core Buddhism is to reach a state in which this question becomes moot.

The Advaitic-Buddhist philosopher J Krishnamurti describes the state of ending of narrative time - the ground of causality:

http://legacy.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?s=books&tid=31&chid=56826

K: Now how am I to have that insight? That is the next question. Isn't it? What am I to do, or not to do, to have this instant insight, which is not of time, which is not of memory, which has no cause, which is not based on reward or punishment? It is free of all that. Now how does the mind have this insight? When I say, I have the insight, that is wrong. Obviously. So how is it possible for a mind which has been irrational, and has become somewhat rational, to have that insight? It is possible to have that insight if your mind is free from time.

DB: Right. Let's go slowly because you see, if we go back to the scientific, even common sense point of view, implicitly time is taken as the ground of everything in scientific work. In fact even in ancient Greek mythology Chronos, the god of time, produces his children and swallows them. That is exactly what we said about the ground; everything comes from the ground and dies to the ground. So, in a way, mankind long ago began to take time already as the ground.

K: Yes. And then someone comes along and says time is not the ground.

DB: That's right. So until now even scientists have been looking for the ground in time - and everybody else too!

K: That is the whole point.

Answer 2

There is only one way to reduce the effect of bad karma. That is to turn to God.

Nanda: "But how can we obtain God's grace? Has He really the power to bestow grace?"

Sri Ramakrishna (smiling): "I see. You think as the intellectuals do; one reaps the results of one's actions. Give up these ideas. The effect of Karma wears away if one takes refuge in God. I prayed to the Divine Mother with flowers in my hand: 'Here, Mother, take Thy sin; here take Thy virtue. I don't want either of these; give me only real bhakti. Here, Mother, take Thy good; here take Thy bad. I don't want any of Thy good or bad; give me only real bhakti. Here, Mother, take Thy dharma; here, take Thy adharma. I don't want any of Thy dharma and adharma; give me only real bhakti. Here, Mother, take Thy knowledge; here take Thy ignorance. I don't want any of Thy knowledge or ignorance; give me only real bhakti. Here, Mother, take Thy purity; here take Thy impurity. Give me only real bhakti [devotion].'"

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Chapter 43, Visit to Nanda Bose's House