The non-reality of free will

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

Jaldhar Vyas wrote:

>be Brahman.  That Brahman is limitless and is capable of doing >anything.
>In fact it does do everything.  It is everything.  So you cannot say
>Brahman lacks free will.  The individual soul or atma is not different
>from Brahman.  (You wanted a quote.  Ahambrahmasmi.)  It only considers
>itself different because of Maya or delusion.  Therefore only the

According to advaita vedAnta free will is also due to mAyA only (but not
in the sense Cameron was claiming sometime back). I thought that Charles
had stated the position of advaita vedAnta on this in a crystal clear
fashion. Brahman having a will (which is not a manifestation of mAyA) is
a concept of Kashmir Shaivism not advaita vedAnta. They call this the
ichchA shakti. Refer gauDapAda kArikA-s or the mAnasollAsa where this
tenet is refuted. I had given the relevant quote from the mAnasollAsa,
where sureshvarAchArya refutes absolute reality to free will, sometime
back.

Ramakrishnan.
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                   http://yake.ecn.purdue.edu/~rbalasub/