Lessons - 2

[Frank Maiello]

Swami Vishvarupananda wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> ............................If we say, we do not have free will, we
> won't make an effort, and we will try to deny responsibility for our
> actions. But the responsibility is very much there, and if we don't
> make an effort there is no progress.
>

Just as within a dream, it's vital to avoid being run over by an
automobile, if one expects the dream to continue.  There are laws
pertinant to the dream state, and one must follow them.  So within
the vyavarahika, the jiva must adhere to certain laws.  Engaging
the free will is one of them.

Yet, the idea of applying free will could be thought of as a
reality within the illusion.  For, as we well know, the paramarthika
collapses the notion of not only free will, but its causal illusion
(having been founded on the primary illusion), the jiva itself.
Thus transpires the certitude that, in the real sense, there never
was free will because there never existed a jiva to begin with!

Nevertheless, prior to this mukthi, the dharma, sadhana, sannyas,
abhyasa, tapas, viveka, vairagya, etc are unavoidable necessities,
unconditionally vital to the maya of the soul's journey.

The inevitable reaching the 'other shore' collapses everything,
upadhis, sankalpas, vrittis, samskaras, vasanas, including the
ideas of dharma, vidya and even jnana.  There is nothing knowable,
conceivable, imaginable or witnessable.  This is paranirvana,
videhamuktha, and mahasamadhi.  (And in the jnanamarga it is vital
to know this, for the seed gets planted deep in the intellect,
where it has no choice but to eventually sprout and blossom.)


Namaste.