Will - Is it free?

[Guest guest]

There was some time back a lot of correspondence in Advaitin on the

question of Will and its status of freedom. I may not have seen all of

them. In the meantime I posted my chapter on Fate and Free will under the

heading ‘The Paradox’ on the web. Both in this chapter and in a later

posting I seem to have dabbled into unfamiliar fields and raised

debatable questions in the field of Genetics. Since these are very much

related to the probabilistic fundamentals of Quantum Mechanics (which the

Vivekananda Centre is raising) and their possible impact on the question

of Free will, I am extracting below two relevant paragraphs. I would

appreciate experts to guide me with their comments.

Paragraph 1:

The existence of genius and precocity is a definite indication of latent

impressions left in the mind from the unknown past. Science points out to

the genes as the cause of all this. But there are two questions of 'why'

here. Why does a particular gene appear in the conception of a particular

life to create a genius? There must have been no scientific reason, for if

there were one, then it would have been a case of natural evolution, and

not of a genius. Secondly why does the gene have the property that science

associates with it? Science may answer these questions in terms of how

these things happen. It is only the ‘how’ that science may explain. The

‘why’ of it is a receding horizon. This is the point about the

complementary character of Science and Spirituality.

(From http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/2952/paradox3.html )

 

Paragraph 2:

The words ‘tvad-dattayA’ in verse No.3 of Dhruva Stuti, Bhagavatam, (4 -

9 - 8) are significant. It is the Lord that sanctioned the Creator Brahma

the knowledge of the Vedas which are eternal. How does a new-born child

get the knowledge and strategy to suck the milk out of the mother’s

breast? It is a vAsanA from previous births, granted by the Lord. Maybe

Science will one day isolate the gene that is responsible for the

capability of the child to suck milk. (Probably, it has, already). But

even then, is that the end of all questions? Why does that gene have

that property? What or Who gave it that property? This kind of questioning

will continue for ever in the scientific world. It is only an infinite

regression. Ultimately after every finite stage of our knowledge we have

to end up with the concept of ‘tvad-dattayA’ (given by You, Oh Lord).

This is a sound illustration of the taTastha-lakshaNa that is being

elaborated in these verses. We cannot see Him through ordinary

perception but it is He that is the ultimate reservoir and source of

everything that we think we know or do. In mathematical terms we may

describe the relation between Science with its understanding of the

universe on the one hand and God the almighty on the other hand as follows

in terms of the two lakshaNas, taTastha-lakshaNa and svarUpa-lakshaNa.

The latter is given by the scriptures as satyam-jnAnam-anantam brahma The

former is only an approximation, given by scientific understanding of the

universe as of a particular time. It is like summing up an infinite series

in mathematics. In Mathematics we know that, for instance,

 

1 + 1/1 + 1/2 + 1/6 + 1/24 + 1/120 + 1/720 + ... + 1/n! + ... = e

 

This simply means that the infinite series on the left sums up to a number

called ‘e’. This latter number is a very important but complicated

number. Its value lies between 2 and 3. Its actual value has infinite

number of decimal places. Now if you take 10 terms of the above series

and actually add them up you will get a number approximately equal to e.

If you take 100 terms and sum up again, you will get a better

approximation to the same e. Thus the larger the number of terms of the

series you take and add up, the better you get an approximation to e.

But whatever number of terms you take, even if it be in millions you will

never get the actual value of the number e. This is what is happening in

the approximation of Science to Spiritual Reality. However forward

Science may move in terms of understanding Reality, there will be

questions at the end for which you will have to resort to the concept of

‘tvad-dattayA’!

(From http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/2952/gohitvip/92page7.html)

Pranams to all advaitins

Prof.V. Krishnamurthy

 

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Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

You are invited to visit my latest book entitled GEMS FROM THE OCEAN OF HINDU

THOUGHT VISION AND PRACTICE at

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/2952/gohitvip/contents.html