[Advaita-l] Omniscient Lord and free will.

[Vishesh Bhat]

Namaste,

I apologise if it looks like I am hijacking this thread to clear my own
confusion. I will make a separate thread otherwise. But  had to ask. If
IshwarA is merely "the witness", then what is the purpose of Bhakti to
"Saguna Brahman"? There are also numerous stories in the Ramayana and
Mahabharata which talk of "karma" being dissolved due to the grace of
"IshvarA". How does one interpret these in the light of advaita?? Finally,
how does one understand Jyotishya which talks of karma phala being
distributed in a given life and also methods to get rid of undesired  karma
phala by means of japa and homa?

With humble pranams,
Vishesh Bhat.

On Thu, 15 Jul 2021 at 12:39, Venkatraghavan S via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste Subbuji,
>
> Your post reminded me of an old verse from the chitsukhI - there it is said
> omniscience is of two types - svarUpatah sarvajnatva and pramANatah.
>
> स्वरूपतः प्रमाणैव सर्वज्ञत्वं द्विधा स्थितम् ।
> तच्चोभयं विनाऽविद्यासंबन्धं नैव सिध्यति ॥
>
> The former refers to jnapti, which is the sarvAvabhAsaka kshamatvam that
> you refer to. The latter sarvajnatva is of the nature of knowing everything
> that I think Kaushik ji is referring to.
>
> Both, says chitsukhAchArya, are because of consciousness's association with
> ignorance.
>
> Reminds one of the bhAShyakAra's words from the ArambhaNAdhikaraNam -
>
> तदेवमविद्यात्मकोपाधिपरिच्छेदापेक्षमेवेश्वरस्येश्वरत्वं सर्वज्ञत्वं
> सर्वशक्तित्वं च, न परमार्थतो विद्यया अपास्तसर्वोपाधिस्वरूपे आत्मनि
> ईशित्रीशितव्यसर्वज्ञत्वादिव्यवहार उपपद्यते ;
>
> Regards,
> Venkatraghavan
>
>
> On Wed, 14 Jul 2021, 23:39 V Subrahmanian, <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > This is very nice Venkat ji. Advaitins have defined 'sarvajnatvam' as
> > 'sarva-avabhAsana-kshamatvam' which means 'capacity/ability to illuminate
> > everything'.
> >
> > regards
> > subbu
> >
> > On Thu, 15 Jul 2021, 1:26 am Venkatraghavan S via Advaita-l, <
> > advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> >
> >> Namaste,
> >> Ishvara knows everything in all periods of time not because it is
> >> predestined or people lack free will, rather He directly perceives the
> >> past, present and future continuously.
> >>
> >> Me seeing someone's actions in the present does not mean that I have
> >> influence over their actions or they lack free will in acting the way
> they
> >> do. I am merely a witness to their actions.
> >>
> >> The same principle applies for Ishvara's omniscience and individual free
> >> will in all time and space.
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> Venkatraghavan
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Wed, 14 Jul 2021, 20:29 Kaushik Chevendra via Advaita-l, <
> >> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> > Namaste.
> >> > If isvara is omniscient then he knows every action committed by
> >> everyone.
> >> > Then if he knows what will happen, then where is the free will as it's
> >> > already predestined.
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