Free-will vs Pre-determination - poser- 2

[Guest guest]

SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA.

The analysis continues:-

 

The next Q-2:-

 

# Does the ability to know, act and experience confer

any freewill to the

jiva.? (Sri Ram kumar_s mail)

 

 

The answer given:-

 

The jIvA is bestowed with knowledge and freedom.

Without the freedom to use

the knowledge the jIvA would merely be a slave and

"initiative" becomes a

moot point.

 

 

The poser:-

 

How does the jiva become bestowed with knowledge and

freedom,

When the ability to know, act and experience are all

determined by

1 karmic ‘limitations’

2.the combination of gunas decided by the above factor

3. ‘It willed and became many’ nature of Brahman in

conferring the above two and the (now) so-called

free-will too on the created ones.

 

When the above 3 are the determinants of freewill,

how can we call it ‘freewill’ at all?

 

 

1. Taking up the first notion,

when all actions of the jiva are bound or fashioned

by karmic ‘limitations’, the problem is not as much

to do with free-will as it is to do with karma. Karma

restricts the elbow room, how-much-ever the jiva is

willing to exercise the free will (if at all it can)

 

That the karmic limitation is greatly carried from the

purva janma is being narrated by Bhishma in the

Bhishma-yudhishtira sambhashana in Anusashana parvam ,

chapter –8, of Maha bharatha.

Bhishma recalls the discussion on issues like this

between Parameshwara and Parvathi and tells them to

Yudhishtira.

 

In the relevant portion to our discussion, we find an

answer to the hard fact of life.

Parvathy asks –

why do some people receive results in proportion to

their efforts,

And some people receive results even if they had not

made any efforts

And some people do not receive any or proportionate

results for their efforts?

The answer from Parameshwara include specific

references to efforts of sorts and the results that

accrue depending on the nature, attitude with which

they were done etc. In effect it is the kind of

karmic experience that the person has to undergo which

decides the nature of effort. (as discussed in the

previous mail (poser –1)

 

2. In what way the ‘limitation’ is put into operation

is explained by the guna factor.

The lord explains in Gita – the combination of the

three gunas as deciding the performance of action, the

gunas, in turn limited by the vasanas bequeathed from

previous births.

 

This factor is explained by the Sankhya school,

further seconded by Sri Ranmanuja himself in V.S

Accordingly, Creation is explained in terms of gunas.

(earlier we discussed in physical terms)

Creation or evolutionary process is possible only when

there is heterogeneity in the constitution of

prakriti. The heterogeneity is the result of

differentiation of the prakriti into the three gunnas.

When the differentiation ceases there is no creation.

Sattva represents the condition of completed

development and perfect equilibrium.

Rajas represents the condition of active up-building

heterogeneity, the want of equilibrium in which is the

cause of the progress of evolution.

And Tamas represents that other condition which causes

the evolved universe to tend towards dissolution.

 

Now the issue of interest to us:-

These three gunas make up the material of the body of

the incarnating soul which decide the mental and moral

qualities possessed by it in the embodied condition.

This material itself is so chosen as to suit the KARMA

of the incarnating soul, is what sankhya and Ramanuja

say.

In other words, the gunas, picked up by karmic

limitations are the determinants of our efforts. If

efforts presuppose freewill, then it is a fallacy.

 

 

3.Now the third, yet the primary determinant. (The

logical sequence is from 3rd to 1st. For the purpose

of better understanding, the reverse has been

favoured.)

It willed and became many -

Our learned readers must be aware of umpteen number of

interpretations in this regard.(in this context, Sri

sriram’s analogy (though a clever one) relating the

Brahman –antharyami- to quarks may not stand scrutiny

– The mystic of Brahman is that it is both the quark

and the element it constitutes – ‘yAnum nee, athandri

en pirAnum nee erAmane’ (TCV))

 

While explaining the pradhana (V.S, adikara v-5)

(prakruti)factor,(see BG 14-3 also) Ramanuja makes

this observation

“..a thing which exists in the condition of a cause

acquires the character of an effect merely by getting

into another condition. Whatever thing and whatever

(general) nature (thereof) exist in the condition of a

cause, that same thing and that same nature (thereof)

exist also in the condition of an effect.”

 

Once again

To qoute sri Ramanuja in the Bheda-bheda vada in Sri

Bhashya to Vedanta sutras,

“By means of the individual self which is held in

bondage by its past karma, there is produced that

limiting condition which is found in association with

that(self) itself;”

preceded by another explanation,

“although the Brahman is not made up of constituent

parts and is found everywhere, yet there certainly

results distinction even in relation to the Brahman by

means of the limiting conditions, such as their

intellect etc…just as (distinction results) in the

case of the spatial ether by means of (limiting

conditions like)pots etc.”

 

(The pot and spatial ether referred to here describe

the condition as this. The ether which exists within

the pot is said to be conditioned by the

pot.(ghataakaasha) On the destruction of the pot , the

ether which is within it becomes one with the ether

outside (mahaakaaha)which in itself is unconditioned.)

 

The acquirement of ability to know, act etc is to be

seen in the light of ether conditioned by the pot as

against mahaakaasha. What is in mahaakaashaa is in

ghataakaasha too. The conditioning pot is like the

karmic limitation etc. But what is found at this level

( read effect, as per the pradhana logic) is what is

defined at the cause level. That is, it is the

grand-will (if we may call it so)that comes into parts

as freewill, while freewill at the parts level can not

sustain its existence on its own.

 

Jayasree sarnathan

 

Quote of the mail:-

The disciple asks “ By whom willed and directed does

the mind light upon its objects? Commanded by whom

does the main vital air(prana) proceed to function? By

whose will do men utter speech? What intelligence

directs the eyes and the ears (towards the respective

objects)?"

-KENOPANISHAD.

 

The answer is obvious!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Health - Feel better, live better

http://health.