Free Will
What is here?
This is a section with some resources including a video by myself, links to some posts on Reddit, Chinmayananda Translations and Commentary’s and some words by Swami Paramarthananda in his Gita lectures. Below all of these resources is a dialogue between myself and some ācārya’s discussing free-will.
The idea was to compile resources from multiple authoritative figures to successfully capture the vedāntic vision of free will. With the video, the commentaries, the lectures I hope I can shed some light on key shloka’s and also this topic of vedānta.
First, I’ll write some key issues with determinism here and will go into more detail in the upcoming video (free-will #2):
- karma collapses karma phala needs a conscious doer, if there’s no agency then no one is responsible and the whole cycle of action and result breaks.. then rebirth and progression to moksha are pointless..
- ishvara looks cruel and partial if no free will then ishvara is the one directly writing every action and result.. that means ishvara is the author of sin and suffering.. rewarding some, punishing others.. totally against shastra saying ishvara is impartial..
- moksha loses meaning moksha needs choice.. the choice to do shravana, manana, nididhyasana.. if it’s all predetermined then who gets moksha is just random divine whim.. then liberation is accidental, not earned by effort or understanding..
- ethics become impossible dharma only exists if there’s choice.. right vs wrong has no sense if you can’t avoid wrong and you can’t intentionally do right.. then punya and papa don’t exist, and the gita’s moral guidance is useless..
- shastra is meaningless all injunctions, prohibitions, teachings assume the listener can choose to follow or not.. if there’s no choice then why teach anything.. even the mahavakyas lose point, because listening vs ignoring is already fixed..
- guru–shishya system collapses teaching only works if the student can choose to listen, reflect, apply effort.. without free will the whole guru–shishya parampara is pointless.. progress becomes a coin toss of fate..
- human dignity is destroyed if no doer-ship then humans are just robots.. that’s fatalism, niyati-vada, which vedanta rejects.. it denies the experience of striving and growing that shastra respects at the vyavaharika level..
- contradicts experience even if ultimately mithya, at vyavaharika we feel choice as real.. to deny free will outright clashes with direct experience.. vedanta never denies experience — it works with it then sublates it..
And here is my video “free-will #1”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLveP_6j-6k
Also, this post by a moderator of AV and Hinduism about free-will is very good, you can see that here:
Also see what Chinmayananda and Shankaracarya say about it here:
See a quick piece of text by Swami Paramarthananda here:
Swami Paramarthananda’s Gītā Lectures in Chennai – Eighteenth Chapter ‐ मोक्षसंÛयासयोगः 8 and completely cure also. Fate is not uniform; fate is graded, because fate consists of our own karmas. Since the karmas have different intensity, fate also have got different intensity, therefore by using willpower, we can change our course of life and therefore the basic assumption is a Gītā student believes in will power. If a Gītā student does not believe in will power, if a Gītā student does not believe in freewill, all these verses will be meaningless verses. You can choose your ultimate goal of life.
Dialogue
Guru 1:
Satcitananda ācārya
Questioner
Is free will accepted in Advaita Vedanta? Let’s review some dialogue between myself and some ācārya’s and also some resources, including excerpts from “Dialogue with a Guru” which is a dialogue with the 34th shankaracarya of sringeri matha:
pranāms guruji i understand you’re very busy so if you read this and don’t have time to answer i completely understand but i would see it as a great blessing if you do find time to answer the question 
:
Swamiji, the śāstra teaches that the world is jaḍa, and since the mind is made of the world, the mind also is jaḍa. The antaḥkaraṇa with its four aspects — ahaṅkāra, citta, buddhi, and manas — is therefore inert by nature. If this is so, how can we say there is genuine choice? Wouldn’t everything simply function according to vāsanā and saṁskāra? Even the seeming experience of choice — is it not just programming of the mind?
If not, what exactly is the mechanism of choice among all these jaḍa parts? Is it correct to understand that what we call free will arises because the antaḥkaraṇa is upahita-caitanyam, illumined by reflected consciousness (cidābhāsa), and therefore the sense of agency or the ability to choose within our limited frame work borrowed from ātmā itself?
Satchitananda ācārya
This is my answer to you and I will share it for other seekers as well: Beloved ones, You have asked a very subtle question, one that often confuses even the most sincere seekers. The śāstra tells us that this world is jaḍa, inert. The mind too, being a product of the world, is also jaḍa by nature. The antaḥkaraṇa with its fourfold functions — manas, buddhi, citta and ahaṅkāra — is nothing but an instrument of prakṛti. By itself it has no awareness, no life.
Then, how is it that we seem to choose, to decide, to will? Would that not be impossible if everything is only the play of vāsanās and saṁskāras, running their course like a program? Understand this carefully. Just as the moon shines only because it borrows the light of the sun, so too the mind shines because it borrows the light of Consciousness.
Though the antaḥkaraṇa is inert, in the presence of Consciousness it behaves as though it is sentient. This reflected Consciousness is what we call cidābhāsa. It is because of cidābhāsa that the buddhi appears to deliberate and to choose. Yes, the vāsanās and saṁskāras play a powerful role
They condition the field of options that arise in your awareness. They push and pull the mind in certain directions. And yet, within this field, there is a small margin of freedom. That freedom belongs not to the jaḍa mind, but to the light of Consciousness that illumines it. Think of an iron ball. By itself it is cold and dark. Place it in fire, and it glows and burns as if it were fire itself. In the same way, the mind appears to choose and act, but the power comes from the borrowed light of the Self.
This so-called free will is not absolute. It is limited by the force of past karma and tendencies. But it is enough to make the most crucial turning — the turning of the mind inward. With this limited free will, one can choose dharma over adharma, śravaṇa over distraction, contemplation over indulgence. And by aligning this choice with the śāstra and Guru, the mind is slowly purified. The Kaṭhopaniṣad gives the image of the chariot. The senses are the horses, the mind is the reins, and buddhi is the charioteer.
The jīva must use discernment to guide the chariot along the proper path. The Bhagavad Gītā too addresses this. Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna, after teaching him the truth, “Reflect fully, and then act as you choose.” At the same time, Kṛṣṇa reminds us that in reality, all actions are carried out by the guṇas of prakṛti. Both perspectives are true — the guṇas act, but cidābhāsa makes the jīva experience the sense of doership and choice
Therefore, know that what we call free will is nothing but the light of Ātman reflected in the buddhi, expressing itself within the limits of prakṛti. Use this freedom wisely. It is not meant for indulging in saṁsāra. It is meant to turn you towards mokṣa. The real freedom is not in choosing between actions, but in discovering that you are ever the free Ātman, untouched by mind, untouched by vāsanā, untouched even by choice itself.
So, my dear ones, use this little window of choice to live in dharma, to keep the company of śāstra and Guru, and to inquire into your true nature. Then alone the apparent paradox of free will and destiny will dissolve, and you will know yourself as the ever-luminous, ever-free Brahman.
I am able to teach due to the Grace of my beloved Gurus H.H. Saniddhanam, the Sringeri Jagadguru, and Pujya Swami Paramarthananda. I have received their Light and hope to be a vehicle of their Grace and Light.
Questioner
Thank you Guruji, I appreciate your time and effort, hari om
———————————————————————–
Guru 2
Jaishankar Narayana
Questioner:
pranāms guruji i understand you’re very busy so if you read this and don’t have time to answer i completely understand btu i would see it as a great blessing if you do find time to answer the question 🙏:
Swamiji, the śāstra teaches that the world is jaḍa, and since the mind is made of the world, the mind also is jaḍa. The antaḥkaraṇa with its four aspects — ahaṅkāra, citta, buddhi, and manas — is therefore inert by nature.
If this is so, how can we say there is genuine choice? Wouldn’t everything simply function according to vāsanā and saṁskāra? Even the seeming experience of choice — is it not just programming of the mind? If not, what exactly is the mechanism of choice among all these jaḍa parts?
Is it correct to understand that what we call free will arises because the antaḥkaraṇa is upahita-caitanyam, illumined by reflected consciousness (cidābhāsa), and therefore the sense of agency or the ability to choose within our limited frame work borrowed from ātmā itself?
Jaishankar:
It is valid till one identifies as a karta (doer) and a bhokta (enjoyer)
Questioner:
thank you so kindkly for your time and effort swami
Is limited free will only a provisional truth for practice, to be given up when knowledge matures — or does it remain valid at the vyāvahārika level until ajāti-vāda is fully understood?
Jaishankar:
It is valid till one identifies as a karta (doer) and a bhokta (enjoyer)
Questioner:
So does a jnani experience choice?
Jaishankar:
Experiencing choice does not make him / her a chooser
It is like you experience choice in dream
Questioner:
Ok
So freewill holds the same level of real as the world?
To seek clarification — I see there is teachings by some gurus that a jnani sees freewill as more like a deterministic view upon jnanam and simply witnessing the gunas and prakriti moving but I’ve understood there is vyavahara freewill that’s why I see clarity
However, I have come to see it as the moon shines by the sun, the buddhi shines by cidābhāsa, the reflected presence of ātmā. That illumination gives the jīva sentience and the appearance of limited choice within the mind’s conditioning — rather than the deterministic view
Jaishankar:
Yes. Freewill is as real or unreal as the other things in the objective world. Everything other than the atma including your individuality is mithya. So just be as you are
Questioner:
Okay Guruji — some subtleties here I wanted to confirm I understood correctly — I apologise for consuming your precious time
Thank you so kindly for the support and guidance
Prakarana Advaita 