Swami Vivekananda on Free Will

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Namaste

 

As promised, here are some extracts from his collected works on Free Will.

I hope others in the list could do the same by giving the views of other

great masters. Thanks.

 

As long as you are in the network of time, space and causation, to say you

are free is nonsense, because in that network all is under rigorous law,

sequence, and consequence. Every thought that you think is caused, every

feeling has been caused; to say that that the will is free is sheer

nonsense. It is only when the infinite existence comes, as it were, into

this network of Maya that it takes the form of will. Will is a portion of

that being, caught in the network of Maya, and therefore "free will" is a

misnomer. It means nothing-sheer nonsense. So is all this talk about

freedom. There is no freedom in Maya. - Complete works of Swami

Vivekananda Vol 3, 'The Free Soul'

 

The real self is free, yet when mixed with mind and body, It is not free.

The will is the first manifestation of the real self; the first limitation

therefore of this real self is the will. Will is a compound of Self and

mind. Now, no compound can be permanent, so that when we will to live, we

must die. - Complete works of Swami Vivekananda Vol 6, 'Introduction to

Jnana Yoga'

 

When we speak of free will, we mean the will is not caused by anything. But

that cannot be true, the will is caused; and since it is caused, it cannot

be free-it is bound by law. - Complete works of Swami Vivekananda Vol 8,

'I am that I am'

 

The question does not arise whether I have free will or not; I am beyond any

will at all. Wherever there is will, it is never free. There is no freedom

of will whatever. There is freedom of that which becomes will when name and

form get hold of it, making it their slave. That substance-the soul-as it

were moulds itself, as it were throws itself into the cast of name and form,

and immediately becomes bound, whereas it was free before. And yet its

original nature is still there. That is why it says, "I am free; in spite

of all this bondage, I am free." And it never forgets this. - Complete

works of Swami Vivekananda Vol 8, 'I am that I am'