[Advaita-l] Omniscient Lord and free will.

[Venkatraghavan S]

Namaste,

To clarify, what is being said is that sarvajnatva merely refers to Ishvara
being a witness. He does not determine every outcome, which would mean that
there is no such thing as free will.

But saying that in itself, does not preclude Ishvara protecting / blessing
devotees who have performed their karma-s / worshipped him with sincerity.
That blessing / protection is not simply a matter of Ishvara's whim.

It is a result of the devotees' karma / upAsana/ bhakti, all of which have
been undertaken by the exercise of their free will -  and is a blessing
that Ishvara bestows, in his role as the karma phaladAtA.

I believe this was alluded to by Raghav ji in his earlier email in this
thread.

Re, jyotiSha, it is not simply a shastra that says this is what is foretold
- you have no choice but to accept it.

Rather, the purpose of jyotiSha is to reveal what is likely to happen as a
result of the fructification of past karma-s. Because these are the results
of past karma-s, the exercise of free will to perform karma-s in the
present, can mitigate the results of karma-s in the past.

Regards,
Venkatraghavan



On Thu, 15 Jul 2021, 08:59 Vishesh Bhat, <visheshlives at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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