Do we have Free Will? by Swami Sarvapriyananda
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- Опубликовано: 17 мар 2018
- Swami Sarvapriyananda tackles the age old question of free-will by incorporating ideas from science, religion, and philosophy. A special emphasis is given on the answers from the Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads, and the teachings of great Indian mystics.
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" A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants." Schopenhauer
I beg to also quote from Gospel of Sri Ramkrishna Thakur
"All those who are bound are free to exercise their free will and
All those who are free are bound by God's will".
All is bound! Until soon. Time. Is. Up!
Free will is an urge, a desire, Not simply an ability. What an individual is perceiving as his own free will, is a self conditioned illusion which was and is constantly refined by oneself. This illusion is completely internalized, or assimilated inside of every individual mind, because this illusion is inseperable connected with individual intelligence (the implantation of indiviudal intelligence and the evolution of itself over generations). On that basis an understanding or better the understanding of everything is impossible. We humans call that illusion life.
But death is only biological.
Who said your unconscious mind is really your own unconscious mind all the time and that the unconscious mind is not available to introspection, or that it dies? No it was not Freud , it is you, dear reader.
Benjamin Libet’s experiment regarding the so called readiness potential, which results were confirmed by Haggard and Eimer and lately (2009) by Kühn and Brass proofs that every single voluntary action is preceded by a measure of activity in the motor cortex and supplementary motor area of the brain.
The illusion of free will is only maintained in the individual mind through believe. This believe is shattered by simultaenously aknowledgeing the available data humans acquired and understanding that the unconscious mind is not only your own unconscious mind. In true reality every individual being is a conscious part, who needs to sleep, of an enormous collective unconscious. SRS, NREM or deep sleep is our state of sleep cycle in which we power up through a connection to the enormous collective unconscious, which we can make visible on an EEG of a sleeping and living brain. It is called the Delta wave.
Now from the real perspective, as an individual conscious part of a bigger collective unconscious, the illusionary ability free will becomes something far more important than just simply an ability.
It becomes an urge, an instinct, a desire and every single individual human is suppressing this through a selfconditioned illusion based on the arrogance and ignorance of individual intelligence from her/his conception until death. It is therefore a basic requirement for every single individual being like air to breath and to consider what you know as free will as just simply an ability is suppressing the theoretical and practical gifts of every single human being.
The evolution of diseases are an inevitable consequence of this fact and must therefore retroactively be determined for our whole species.
You gonna learn the only possible way now. The fucking hard way. I'm done now with your work and ready and I don't feel like waiting anymore.
You wanna be healed? Then feel the sickness first!
J Lind good feedback bro
More from Ramakrishna:
“As long as a man has not realized God, he thinks he is free. It is God Himself who keeps this error in man. Otherwise, sin would have multiplied. Man would not have been afraid of sin, and there would have been no punishment for it.
But do you know the attitude of one who has realized God? He feels: ‘I am the machine, and Thou, O Lord, art the Operator.’ ‘I am the house and Thou art the Indweller.’ ‘I am the chariot and Thou art the Driver.’ ‘I move as Thou movest me; I speak as Thou makest me speak.’”
@@bradstephan7886 thanks mate
Hi, but I fail to understand the fact that if everything is happening according to God's will, then how can the law of karma gets applied to one person? Why are we bound then? Which swamiji also mentioned in the video but I don't get any proper answer.
You have the illusion of free will as long as you live in the illusion of being a person.
Very well said. From the perspective of Brahman, the concept does not even hold any relevance.
Who has the illusion ?
@@Ashish-nd3xj God has placed the illusion in the mind.
The illusory person needs to know if he has a free will or not....in order to sustain his illusory identity !!!
Indeed. He does not.
I’m at a stage where I can logically and on an intellectual level understand that nobody has free will… but there’s a part of by mind which kinda not accepts it fully and so I still have so many worldly desires. 🙃
Advaita never ceases to amaze me!
There is no free will. As I understand and as I experience. That makes me really free and it's very relaxing.
Is the decision of what to have for dinner a free will?
@@rosazheng8908 No
That means everything is happening right now in your favor.
Excellent. And from Nisargadatta: "In Reality, things are done to you, not by you."
Brad Stephan where r u from?
Jeff Royer So this was ment to happen... You, cracking a joke on me 😂😂😂
Jeff Royer, Of course, for you are Consciousness, which makes you unlimited in your nature.
And you like that?
Free will is an urge, a desire, Not simply an ability. What an individual is perceiving as his own free will, is a self conditioned illusion which was and is constantly refined by oneself. This illusion is completely internalized, or assimilated inside of every individual mind, because this illusion is inseperable connected with individual intelligence (the implantation of indiviudal intelligence and the evolution of itself over generations). On that basis an understanding or better the understanding of everything is impossible. We humans call that illusion life.
But death is only biological.
Who said your unconscious mind is really your own unconscious mind all the time and that the unconscious mind is not available to introspection, or that it dies? No it was not Freud , it is you, dear reader.
Benjamin Libet’s experiment regarding the so called readiness potential, which results were confirmed by Haggard and Eimer and lately (2009) by Kühn and Brass proofs that every single voluntary action is preceded by a measure of activity in the motor cortex and supplementary motor area of the brain.
The illusion of free will is only maintained in the individual mind through believe. This believe is shattered by simultaenously aknowledgeing the available data humans acquired and understanding that the unconscious mind is not only your own unconscious mind. In true reality every individual being is a conscious part, who needs to sleep, of an enormous collective unconscious. SRS, NREM or deep sleep is our state of sleep cycle in which we power up through a connection to the enormous collective unconscious, which we can make visible on an EEG of a sleeping and living brain. It is called the Delta wave.
Now from the real perspective, as an individual conscious part of a bigger collective unconscious, the illusionary ability free will becomes something far more important than just simply an ability.
It becomes an urge, an instinct, a desire and every single individual human is suppressing this through a selfconditioned illusion based on the arrogance and ignorance of individual intelligence from her/his conception until death. It is therefore a basic requirement for every single individual being like air to breath and to consider what you know as free will as just simply an ability is suppressing the theoretical and practical gifts of every single human being.
The evolution of diseases are an inevitable consequence of this fact and must therefore retroactively be determined for our whole species.
You gonna learn the only possible way now. The fucking hard way. I'm done now with your work and ready and I don't feel like waiting anymore.
You wanna be healed? Then feel the sickness first!
If things are done to you & not by you, then Law of Karma has no meaning.
Swamiji sarvapriyananda is so impressive. I never tire of his talks. Looking forward to more.
In an English professor's online bio I read once, she said that she had originally intended to pursue a doctorate in philosophy; but that her dissertation was on the topic of "free will," and it was taking longer than expected.
I have no words to express my gratitude in just being so privileged to received swamiji''s lectures. Such depth of knowledge , such clarity of expression, - truly blessed, thank you from the bottom of my heart
Debabrata Acharya i feel the same. 🙏
Hey Sahaj- thanks :) feels good to have like minded people like you
Same here bro, i feel good too to know others feel the same way
Whenever i listen to him i want to bow down to him
Amazing. The last 10 min Swamiji delivers the real punch. Surrender everything to the Lord. ❤🙏🙏
I personally believe that all bad things I did and it's consequences I suffered was due to my free will. All good things and it's beneficial consequences was a gift of God.
Am in a similar mindset.
So, that's bollocks then
I am nobody to comment here, but I would like to share something. I am a beginner in learning artificial intelligence. I choose to watch this video as I like similar kinds and by coincidence I noticed that this is the basics of creating intelligent machines. The prepositional logic, chain rule etc.. Before watching this video, my understanding was that all our exercise of freewill are only based on our experiences and habits. Thanks for uploading the video.
Pranam Swami ji ❤
Mind boggling subject and splendidly presented by Swamiji. By the law of karma when each action is predetermined by the cause through multiple births, the experience or memories of the actions in previous births does not carry forward unlike the vasanas. So if that is so does the Whole (Supreme One), which is the reservoir of all infinite actions and causes, hands over a semblem of free will to the Unreal Part (Jeeva) to start afresh notwithstanding that both the Whole and the Real Part (Atma) are Witnesses. If that were not then the subject of free will will be irrelevant.
My view- firstly d defination - by will we mean desire ..desire/will/choices/ its all pointed towards 1 meaning ..
All the activities of a jeev is propelled by desire towards happiness & away from unhappiness ...What a jeev believes that I will get happiness here by doing/taking these choices/desires/will (infinite types,Levels of happiness)..That he does , & is doing , will do in future..& what a jeev believes he will get unhappiness , getting unhappiness , will get unhappiness that he avoids , would like to avoid , prevent...
"That's d whole field of desire "
Now the question is if a person/jeev believes he would like to have his will/choice/desire change, or change direction there d struggle comes because desire/choice/will is also effected by our past experiences of happiness/pleasure's & unhappiness/pains (of this & previous life). That's called sanskaar chakra..Cycle of tendencies , which we see in people who are addicted to drugs , alcohol etc...
So there is a flow of sanskaar in 1 side & the thoughts of our intellect or our power of will/Choice on other side ..& most people.often fail in this says my choices /will /desires r fixed & unchangeable & destined & not in my control..
& It's true as well ..In some cases d flow of precious tendencies/sanskaar are toooo strong & ones own will tooo weak (case of duryodhan)..
& In some cases we can change the flow of previous tendencies easily or with a medium level effort...
So it's both will/desire/choices are bound in some cases /topics/areas & its free in some
It's the length of the rope from which we r tied ..As in how big , small , medium , the diameter is ..Or d diameter/circumference is infinite ...Infinite is in d case of jeevan mukti ..That's what we call moksha.mukti from that rope & also from. The limitation of that rope..Slowly slowly as d purification happens d longer d rope of our control over desire/will/choices will come ...
Any flaw..Plz guide me & correct me...
I live life and life lives in me. I seek truth and the truth seeks to find me. Swami talks and talking has found Swami. I could go on. I am so wise.
Thanks Swami. What I learned from your lectures is we are not individual beings but indivisible continuous stream of unending super consciousness Brahman.
Yes, but 99.99% of humans cannot remain in that state. We act as individuals all the time.
Many years back I asked this question to Swami Amayanandaji at Joyrambati. I quote his answer
Q."How did you come to Joyrambati"
A."I came with my mother from Calcutta by taxi"
"So you had freedom to decide to visit Joyrambati and you chose a taxi.You exercised your free will until here. However you had no control on the result of the action that was God's will.You may have reached your destination or you could have lost your way or met with an accident resulting in never reaching Joyrambati"
He also added
"Every action has a component of free will and God's will and with practice you will realize where free will ends and god's will takes over"
Rajendra kumar Tippavajhala
Thank you so much for sharing this. I request other devotees also to share this kind of message if they have any. Immensely helpful.
Did you choose the taxi or that was just decided that you will choose the taxi but not a bus?
JDB JBD i had same question. we can not understand everything with reasoning . Reasoning takes us to one level after that it will just show us the way to go further and not come with us. So this ‘free will’ we will understand fully after reasoning’s job is over.hope it helps.
Very nice explanation... very good answer
Swami Sarvapriyananda - A wonderful teacher/speaker and great understanding on the Shastras... His speech reveals his profound understanding of the Shastras and the Sadhana that went behind his life in making what he IS Today.. Hearty wishes for his contributions to the society abroad and back home in India and wishing him that he continues to do what he likes, in taking the revelations and teachings and the profound wisdom of THE East.. May The Lord Shower the blessings upon him.. Good luck on his Journey of Life!!
A very helpful and practical talk. One of my favorites from the Swami.
Outstanding! One of the most fascinating talks by Swamiji.
Third argument: Law of Karma - Its indeed a very old argument on the science of Karma, but this objection raised here is already answered adequately in the tradition of Vishishtadvaita. In Short - Karma indeed is categorized (and recorded in this tradition of Vishishtadvaita, especially for those intellects/philosophers, who have the intelligence to come to this point of questioning), and the Karma in the present Life is made up of a combination of these types and the fruits are awarded accordingly - For the exact names of each of these types and how it works, one may seek the Shastras/Acharyas of Vishishtadvaita..
"I have to accept there is free will, I have no other choice"
Haha nice one. Reminds me of a similar little joke about belief in futurama, where the old robot villager declares "I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe!"
That I do not like the consequences of a certain argument, does not mean the argument is wrong.
Swamiji. This may have been your most fascinating talk yet. Can’t thank you enough.🙏🙏🙏
Punishment is part of that logic which says actions were predetermined.
Action was predetermined! Why ? To receive the punishment or reward so that soul may lean & evolve. Action is leading to consequence, reward or punishment, not people or judges.
I have never heard a better explanation of the problem of free will before. Thank you.
Thank you swami ji for such a great lecture.. made my day!!
i love you swami i had this doubt for a long time about krishna saying "tena vina trinamapi na chalati" now after knowing this i am very happy and relived.
thanks & i love you
Such a great and ultimate lecture on the free will. My pranam 🙏 to swami ji such a great and sensational lecture on free will🙏🙏
Om🙏
Ken McCloud (Buddhist teacher) used the term evolution to describe the quality of contiguous connections from past actions to present actions that is understood in the word karma. In this way, the idea of a growth of direction comes out in the term. The solution presents itself: we must become the shepherds of our actions to grow in a new direction.
Excellent conclusion! ❤️ there is no I there is only thou and everything is yours
Please also listen to the RUclips lecture of Sri Balsekar on this subject. He explains how the answer to this is YES and NO. It is like asking a person “do you cast a shadow”? The answer is yes and no. When in light, I do cast a shadow and when in darkness I don’t. So the shadow depends mainly on light which is destiny or God’s will, but the free will for me is to be in light or darkness. (May be that too is God’s will).
No words to express gratitude...🙏🌷🙏
Too Good a Lecture ...Thank You Revered Swamiji
Thank thee very much for uploading. I'm overwhelmingly greatful.I'm a humble devotee of Sri Ramakrishna order,listening to these speeches from a corner in Tamil Nadu,India.Thank you so much Swami..
🙏🙏🙏👍👍👍
swamiji words cannot express my gratitude to u
Beautiful. Probably the best explanation I have ever come across! Thank you🙏
How well read you are swamiji. And how well you explain. This was just amazing. Surrender everything to God. Hari Om.
Pranam Swamiji ; you have reconfirmed my idea about free will ; atlast I am relieved !
I just love this video and Swami Sarvapriyananda
the experiment where they found dissensions where happening in the brain before the person realises it reminds me of the theory of quantum conciseness that couscous thought is created at the fundamental base of reality and is pick up by the microtubules in the brain cells at which point the thought manifests itself. also with this theory it also states consciousness is separate to the body and acts upon it, then you have the body mind that creates emotions and experiences. i don't claim to know the theory 100% but it popped into my mind when you where talking about that escapement as at the quantum level time works differently and things can happen before the action and the cause can happen after the action also.
That' s am amazing lecture,Thanks so much
Free will of action is illusion but free will to observe is free.
Observation is also an action
Love that " by the wish of Rama" story! Thanks for this profound lecture! 🙏🏻😊
Pronaams! 🙏🏼
Bhagavad Gita 5 : 8 - 9
Wonderful lecture. Thank you for this, Swami.
Probably the best explanation I've ever heard of.Pranam Swamiji
Thank you very much swami Sarvapriyananda 🙏🕉
Looked at from outside(objectively) the will is causally determined, and that looked at from inside(subjectively)it is free.
Thanks swamiji
Excellent debate in favour or against Free Will .
As always Swami ji have tremendous knowledge behind what he discuss so boldly ❤
There is so much in your talks,and humour,thank-you
Refute for the Fourth argument - Its part of the Law of Karma, one gets an Environment/parents/society based on his Karma etc.
As always he is awesome. I point I would like to make is, if we are to praise the noble deeds and condemn the wrong deeds, where is the free will in that?
Excellent comprehensive presentation..
IMO..
Our up-to-the-minute decision to act is the result of the sum of our past experiences and the understanding we derived from them. Therefore, seated in our subconscious mind, we have a clearly defined inclination or predilection to chose a specific course of action in any given moment in time.
Also, if we consider the fundamental axiom of quantum theory, "The field is the governing agency of the particle," we would realize how, for example, in order to properly function, each unit within any organized system (organism) must behave according to the will of the system. Whereas, if each unit acts independently, the system will inevitably lapse into chaos.
Based on the above, there can be no such thing as an individual having any randomized agency of free will.
And this is the perfect way to put it in small way
And this is the perfect way to put it in small way
Happy Guru Purnima Swamiji
only love I feel to this person. thank you.from Japan.
There is a complete episode on "do we have a free will" in a series called 'through the wormhole' at discovery science, and was anchored by Morgan Freeman. In this episode , too, they did this experiment.
The freedom obtained by enlightenment is what is enabling noble souls in their spiritual path to do so much good to the society without any trace of doubt. I know I'll be one among them. No free will is bigger than that.
Excellent lecture Swamiji - Thank-you and Hari Om!🙏
Beautiful lecture swami , lots of respect.🙏
Swami Sarvapritananda, thank you- thank you. For your words- the manner in which you deliever them, loosen chains of bondage. My understanding lead me to this : Does free will exhist? The answer to this question is not answered by the answer, although solved superficially. Does one choose the womb in which they are created? If no- free will is an illusion at it's core. If yes- then the mind is a separate consciousness from God. Why would we as soul/mind choose this creaton at all- even the best of lives have suffering? Why would God need to work out Karma or need to evolve at all? The root of the question- is what is the source of our purpose- free will is an illusion, the ultimate distraction.
Yes.
Here's another (practical) angle of observation:
If we exchange the word "will" with "desire" (they *are* exchangeable) we'll have a shot at clarifying this whole mess... because if we ascribe to what Schopenhauer said "you cannot will what you will,"...well, it's that much more obvious that neither can you desire what you desire. IOW, *our desires aren't the result of our choosing* , or anything even close to it.
If anything, it could be said that our desires are the result of our past experiences, how we reacted to them, and what we came to understand and or believe as a result of them.
Therefore desire is not something we can possibly choose.
So we have to conclude that we cannot make a free will choice that is contrary to what we desire in any given moment of time.
Pranam Maharaj ... 🙏🏻
Thank you for the wonderful talk Swamiji!!. it did get me thinking. Just wanted to share a thought that was triggered in my mind by this lecture, with the community here
1. If Brahman is real, and if it is the destination of every individual, then it seems to be a matter of Nature’s ‘design’ for the individual self to initially be deluded by a sense of free will, then investigate and gravitate towards the notion of determinism, and then through realization of the truth achieve the freedom of the Brahman (This is presented by Swamiji as the conclusion drawn by Prof. Arindam Chakrabarti towards the end of the talk)
2. If all this talk about Brahman, and the Law of Karma which gives rise to tendencies, were not true, then free-will must be real and not a delusion, as there is nothing to cause it, and it truly must be free.
What this implies is that, the discussion on free-will is a moot point, a consequence of a larger subject matter i.e, the existence of brahman and law of karma. So the conclusion I am drawing here, is that figuring out and experiencing for oneself whether there is the so called Brahman and whether Law of Karma (and its corollary of rebirth) is indeed 100% true, is probably the main goal of the spiritual aspirant and the free-will argument is merely a by-product
Now, other than intermittent attempts at yoga and an admiration for Swami Vivekananda and Vedanta philosophy, I don’t have any other spiritual standing. So tabling this just as an opinion here so anyone who reads it may comment with their suggestions of thoughts. Thank you.
Very beautifully explained...you cleared my doubts...thank you
Great pravuji, I love your deliberation of discourse.
Very important topic explained very good... thank you very much
I believe the point is to understand what is the point of view or from where is the will being observed, and who is the one observing if they have free will or not ?
Hari 🕉 pronam sawmije
very good स्वामीजी नमस्कारं|प्रणाम|
Thank you Swamyji’
Pranam Swami Jee 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Excellent... covers all points of view. But what got me was the summation
Thoroughly enjoyed this.
Extremely beautiful 😍❤️❤️
Swamiji 🙏
I think we have free will in the same sense that I think an individual starling has in the dance of murmuration and that we don't have free will in the same way a dead branch is moved through a raging river rapids.
Thanks for Sharing 🙏
Thank you for your teaching
Super awesome teacher!!!
An excellent explanation about free will.
pronam maharaj
Very profound and beautiful
interesting/fascinating topic. Thank you Swami Sarvapriyananda 🙏
I really like how humble and open to everything Swamiji is
Wow!
Pranaam maharaj🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Just awesome conclusion
Conclusion : Appearance of free will --> understanding there is no free will --> freedom beyond will. This reminds me of the charama sloka of the BG " सर्व धर्मान परित्याज्य मामेकम शरणम् व्रजा, अहम त्वं सर्व पाबेप्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा सुच :"
Thanks, very clear explanation
That's a bomb of a lecture on free-will! Wonderful!
No free will!
copied best timestamps:
19:00 click for the next 10 mins is spiritual nice feeling
45:38 he goes off on god being your authority
59:25 final word on the matter
May Lord shiva bless u always 🙏🙏🙏 great work !!!
Pronam swamiji 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Vanakkam Sir, the whole concept of free will or determinism is argued only in respect of human beings but actually it has to take into account the existence of whole cosmos or universe, because apart from human beings there are other animate and inanimate things. Are these existence of universe undoubtedly created by GOD or by human beings ? So it should be, not our free will but decided by GOD. It seems it is the Leela of God's play in which we are made to act in Real time. If it is free will, can we decide our birth and death ? But if it is fully deterministic we cannot account for sufferings that lives go through, so it seems that some amount of free will is given by GOD and the whole control is with the God.
This guy is deep
Marvelous and divine
Great talk...
Best video I ever saw on free will. Covers the spiritual, religious and scientific aspects of free will. I can rest this conflict I had within myself now. Thank you so much!