D: Does the jiva have free will?
Sundari: Yes and no. It depends who you are identified with. Jiva or Self? If the former, the answer is complicated – it’s a both/and/neither situation. If it’s the latter, the answer is super simple: who needs free will if you are free (of the jiva) as the Self? Isvara is running the show, anyway. Might as well get with the program!
D: Is any decision made by the jiva?
Sundari: Same answer. Yes and no. The real issue here is that if you think you are a person doing things with your free will and taking responsibility, the karma comes to you – you get the burden of it. Either in the form of failure to get what you want, or success. And seeing as doers are never satisfied even when they get what they want, you are then pressed to use your ‘free’ will to get the next thing. Whereas if you know you are the Self, you still act appropriately, which means in line with dharma, but karma yoga is automatic. There are no bad results, whether or not you get what you want.
D: Or has every thought, feeling, memory, and action come from Ishwara?
Sundari: Yes, it does. And no. It’s complicated because the hypnosis of duality fools us all with its clever deceptions! On the one hand it’s all Isvara because our personal vasanas or likes and dislikes are actually not personal but universal. On the other hand, seeing as we are either bound by our likes and dislikes or not, it is personal and we experience the limitation of desire whether we believe we have free will or not.
So as we only know of our personal experience in every moment of our lives, why settle for limitation? Just do what is right/appropriate and dharmic, meaning in keeping with personal and universal values, and you will be in the clear. Free will is useful when we use it wisely, meaning, with karma yoga. And also, remember that failing to do what is required of you under the guise of surrender or karma yoga is simply self-delusion. You are only fooling yourself.
D: When there is effort to do the right thing, is that God? When there is adharmic behaviour, is that also God?
Sundari: Yes to both. Isvara is both dharma and adharma because it creates, regulates and destroys the field of experience. And yet, because dharma is built into the jiva program, everyone has an expectation of non-injury. Therefore, though we have a choice whether we act in accordance with dharma or adharma, a natural law is that we will feel bad if we don’t. There are few exceptions to this – though some do exist, such as psychopaths, for instance.
D: Perhaps I can relax and let Ishwara do what it does with a perfectly objective perspective
Sundari: Now that’s a smart move, seeing as you are not the doer as the jiva nor the Self. And no matter what, Isvara takes care of your getting and your keeping. Why worry about anything? You are ok, life is good even when it’s not, because you are the Self. Do what you need to do in any situation as there is the law of attraction in the field – like attracts like. But better not be invested because this law, which is the law of grace, belongs to Isvara alone. Don’t get deluded that you can game the system {as in ‘The Secret’) to indulge your likes and dislikes.
The Four Main Issues Relating to Free Will
1. The Law of Karma
Isvara, the Field, is impersonal, and runs on natural impersonal laws or dharmas. It must to function at all. The universal laws are dharmas or laws that apply to everyone. From this perspective, free will and the needs of the individual are not relevant other than how they relate to the total. Best accept that as it’s just the way it is. One of these impersonal laws is the law of karma, which states that all actions have consequences, and we are not in control of those consequences, only how we relate to them. As you reap, so you sow. This implies that we do have agency to respond appropriately to what life brings our way.
2. The Law of Dharma or Right Action
On the personal level are the dharmas that govern our personal world. Another important law is the law of dharma, right action, on the universal and personal level. The law of dharma states that we must respond appropriately to what life asks of us on both universal and personal levels, or we suffer. All the natural laws or dharmas are predicated by how the gunas, the three forces that create the Field, sattva, rajas and tamas, play out. The only way to manage these three forces is through knowledge of them, knowledge of universal and personal dharma as well as the practice of karma yoga, and surrender of personal will to Isvara. Hand it over!
3. The Law of Attraction or Grace
The good news is that even though from the big picture point of view, meaning the Causal or Meta reality, everything is preordained, it is still true that grace is earned, that too is a natural law. It is the law of attraction. Isvara is Consciousness wielding Maya so has nondual vision, is unaffected by the gunas (duality) and sees everything as perfect. But thanks to the law of attraction operating in the Field, the jiva can maximize getting what it wants when it understands the law of karma and dharma. Here free will can be put to good use. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, that kind of thing. Isvara has no choice but to respond to us in like kind because Isvara is the Self and so are we. We can manage the gunas to maximize sattva and attract grace.
But if we have no way to understand reality from outside the box of duality, we suffer because we do not understand the identity between Isvara and us as an individual. The reason the jiva can exert its will and make a change in the Causal body, or Isvara, is that their common identity is the Self, Consciousness.
4. The Law of Morality – We Feel Bad if We Break Dharma. The laws of karma and dharma are built in, that should be clear. Unless you are a psychopath or otherwise mentally deranged, you will feel bad if you break dharma. Isvara has wired this into the meta-program, or we would have destroyed ourselves a long time ago. What everyone wants is peace of mind, to be happy, and nobody wants to be injured. And they seek that above all else, in whatever way possible. Because this is a lawful universe run by certain natural laws which are transgressed at our peril, it also makes it possible to succeed.
The Key take-away on the issue of free will:
The most important point regarding free will is that if you’re completely satisfied with your life, free will is irrelevant, for reasons stated. But if you’re not satisfied with your life, you can do more than complain about it. You can change your karma to the degree that it is changeable, and you can change your attitude toward it if your attitude causes problems. Karma yoga, of course, is always the key.
Ok, that’s it really. This is the short answer to the free will issue, but there is lots more to it, which you can read in the LONG version!
Much love
Sundari
