[Advaita-l] REQUEST FOR GUIDANCE

[Mahesh Ursekar]

Pranams!

Ah, pity. I was awaiting with baited breath for a succinct answer to that
last question, just like Jaldhar gave to the previous ones!  The article
posted tacitly assumes that free will exists. No justification is given for
the same.

In any case here is my take on the issue: If Sri Ramakrishna is to be
believed, everything is done by the Mother. So, A's killing B is done by the
Mother & so is B's death by A. The standard objection to this is that we can
behave as we like & get away with it by saying, "Oh, God did it, not me!".
But that is like looking at the back of a book for the answer to a question
and saying that you know how to solve it! So, who is the Mother? It is A & B
- all is the Mother. So A is not only the killer but also the killed! It is
ONLY when you *realize* this that you can abandon the idea of free will but
till that time you have no choice but to take responsibility for your
actions!

Assuming free will ends up with lots of problems, the main being that you
need to posit a causeless cause. And if you are a materialist (i.e.
physicist), that's a huge challenge!

If not Sri Ramakrishna, all Master have hinted at the same: Jesus - "Thy
will be done", Mohammand - "Insha Allah", Guru Nanak - I forget the exact
words but it is on similar lines.

Thanks, Mahesh



On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 12:55 PM, Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>wrote:

> On Mon, 18 May 2009, Jayaram Subramanian wrote:
>
>    1)Destiny and free-will are two sides of the same coin. For example,
>> if 'A' kills 'B' , is it in B's destiny to be killed by A or is it because A
>> exercised his free will? And if it is B's destiny to be killed by A, how can
>> A be punished for bad karma?
>>
>
>
> You may be interested in the following article on our website which is from
> a discourse by HH Swami Chandrashekhar Bharati of Shrngeri.
>
> http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/articles/The_Riddle_of_Fate_and_Free.htm
>
> --
> Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
>
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