The non-reality of free will (2.5.97)

[sadananda]

Glad to be back to Advaita after couple months of away due to travel.

Free will and karma.

I think Cameron addressed  Dennis comments on -Free will and karma -
adequately.  I am presenting my understanding, if it helps to remove any
confusion left.

Confusion arises when one switches back and forth (intellectually, I mean)
from vyavaharika level to the Brahman level,  sometimes without being aware
of it.

Do I have a free will? Yes, to some degree at vyavaharika level - karthum
shakyam, akarthum shakyam and anyathaa karthum shakyam - to do it, not to
do it or to do it another way - are the three choices always open to a
conscious entity.  For animals and less evolved beings, the choice is made
instinctively.  For humans who are not only conscious but also
self-conscious to some extent(!), they have no choice but to exercise the
choice because of false notions that I am so and so (ego).

Free will is as real as the ego since it is the ego that has free will.

Yoga is the process of surrendering this notion of free will (kartutva
bhaava and bhoktrutva bhaava - notion of doership and enjoyership) at the
alter of love.  Since they are notions and not real, they can be
surrendered.  Even this surrendering is also a notion, but real at the
level of the ego, which itself is notional.

Choice of karma, not karma per sec, as Cameron has rightly pointed out, has
a meaning only to the one who has the notion that he is the doer.   Krishna
categorically says in the yoga sastra (B.G)

prakR^ityevaca karmaani kriyamaanaani sarvashaH|
yaH pasyati tadaatmaanam akartaram sa pasyati||

All actions are performed by the Prakriti itself.  One who sees that he
himself is the non-doer he alone sees(the truth).

Prakriti responds appropriately to the situation.   Nisargadatta Maharaj in
'I am that" answers this question when he was asked who responds so
intelligently to the questions that were put to him, when he claims he is
not the doer.

No such thing as Free will - the statement is valid only in the state of
realization.   Samsaara exists and continues only for a samsarin who is in
the fancy of ego.  Self does not need any realization.  Self is always
realized even in the ignorant state as I am ignorant.  In self realization
only thing that happens - for lack of better words is all the notions about
ones-self fall since they are all false!

This cannot be done by karma- It is somewhat similar to the statement "I
slept" - sleep is not an action by will  - by the by so is gaining
knowledge.  That is not by will either.

Sadhana as yoga is by will.  That involves purification of the mind.
Realization is will-less!

Hope I did not add to the confusion!  - But again - that I am confused is
also a  notion which can be dropped - but not at will!

Hari Om!
Sadananda