21 Mar 2008 —
Question
Q49: Free-Will?
Question 49:
“Do you think that God actively interferes in humans’ lives, or does He simply show us the right way and gives us the free-will to make our choices?”
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Indeed do we have the free will to make our choices? Unconsciously or conciously we are always making choices. But this doesn’t mean that God can not interfere at any time and move things to her will. Is not Amma a perfect example of God’s interference in human matters?
God IS. There is no free will. To think I have Free Will is total delusion.
The closest thing to Free Will is the choice, to React or not to React.
Life is Perfect just the way it is. Accept everything; Say Yes to everything; Do Nothing, Just Be Who You Truly Are!
We have a limited free will. We are but an instrument in Gods hands. We can move and ‘do’ things, but we must understand that it is not us who is doing, it is God, and God alone. We can make decisons, and act on them, but it is God’s will if our actions will be successful, or not.
God blessed humans with the faculty of thinking, deciding and making choices. Humans’ mind is often under the control of the ego (identification with the false) and makes wrong choices.
Spiritual messages (God) explain to us how to use the mind properly and rise to higher states of consciousness where oneness with God is experienced.
Yes, this is in our hands and it is our own choice. Free-Will is a precious gift that God has bestowed on us, for us to use properly. Surrendering to God and putting in practice spiritual principles are actions of Free-Will… Grace will follow…
i like the analogy Amma uses about the two wings of the bird… we must operate on both grace and free-will.. if we try to rely solely on one and not the other, we may crash/not be able to fly. accept everything eh? say yes to everything? do nothing? oh myyy i can see Amma rolling around laughing right now.
there’s another analogy.. about the guru, the disciple, the elephant and the mahut.. how the guru one day was teaching his disciples that everything is God, all things you see, all things in creation are aspects of God. so later on one disciple was walking down a path and a mad elephant was storming towards him followed by a mahut yelling “GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!”.. the disciple got ready to run but then thought about his guru’s teachings and came to the conclusion that this elephant was really just God and God would never harm his disciple like that. but sure enough the elephant trampled right over him and the disciple ended up in the hospital. when the guru came to visit he asked what happened and the disciple narrated the story. the Guru’s response was “oh my foolish boy/girl, why didn’t you listen to God as the mahut telling you to get out of the way??” 🙂
so sure, God may be responsible for all things, but my hunch (just a hunch :)) is that God doesn’t want us to just sit back and do nothing and accept what comes to us…
yes although sometimes no
for the moment the reality of this question is too big for my knowledge, it depends on too many other truths, but the question is very interesting, i’ll ask my vedanta teacher.
God is the eternal witness. Till the time we act out of our egoistic personality, according to our samskaras(acquired qualities), God is just a witness to all our actions. and so we have free will to perform good or bad actions. and so we should also be ready to face our karma, which is the fruits of our actions. but the moment we surrender to God, His divine qualities manifest in us, we behave unselfishly, thinking good of all. we are guided by Him till we finally realise we are one with God. the wave behaves like it wants, and the ocean is just a witness, but once the wave surrenders to the ocean, it will be guided back and become one with the ocean.
I think He/she Does. and He/She tricks us in believing that its all because of Us. Our actions of the past 🙂
If God was witness this world, this universe all these troubles wouldn’t have been created.. he would have been witnessing Himself…
God does interfere in a different level on each one of our lives… and the way he acts on us depends on How “good” we are…. it’s all complicated but yet simple.. when you are in deep trouble just call out with all the love you have .. God Help me… !! he will be there to help….. no matter what the situation we are in…
you’re right savitri.. sometimes no too 🙂
there are no absolutes but God
Once I asked AMMA: Isn’t the creation a blunder of God? So much suffering, so much horror, so much misery …
AMMA said: no My child, there are two creations: one is God’s and the other is ego’s …
In God’s creation, there is only love, beauty, bliss and joy …
In ego’s creation, there is only misery, disease and suffering …
As long as we are ego-centric nature interefers and after the blows come from all directions, and we become helpless and we think there is no free-will or God and grumble on saying “THIS IS DEVIL’S WORLD.” God in the form of Guru comes and says, be humble, surrender your will to the Divine and know that you are only puppet in the hands of Supreme …
Then, we become free and our freewill will be the source of joy for all …
if we enter a 5-star hotel which has a wide range of food items for a buffet we can use our free-will to choose the items to fill our stomach. this is the free-will of a rich man.
a poor man enters a tea shop, the range of items is limited so is his free-will to choose.
once both have their stomach filled there is no more free-will, they have to stop to the will of god.
i think the only thing we can do is changing our vision
G O D … Can we say ‘Generator Operator Destroyer’ representing Brahma Vishnu Maheswara … don’t know, Amma Sharanam.
I believe that there is no free-will. All our actions are based on the qualities we acquire [Godly or demonic], which we carry forward from previous lives. The fruits of our actions depend on our actions … good or bad. We have no choice but to accept it. Only realized souls like Amma can help us to reduce the prarabdha karma.
Wow. I think that we are constantly making choices, sometimes not for the good of our lives. God is there to change things to make things better. There is no free will. Amma is there to reduce our karma. It all depends on our actions, whether they are good or bad.
in my heart i think it is ALL GRACE. Somehow the intervention of the Divine in our lives and the play of karma based on free will are both in the encompassing container of Her supreme love. Sometimes i wonder if it might kinda be like washing clothes. The Guru and Divine intervention is like the soap that lifts the wordly egoic stains from us and karma based on free will is like the agitator that knocks and spins the world out of us. When the cycle comes to a close we find ourselves in Ma’s hands clean and fresh back to where we belong.
About 6 years ago Amma told this story in the U.S when someone asked about Free Will. Please, Amma, forgive me if I tell it wrong but this story is something I think about regularly.
We can be likened to a dog that is chained to a tree. The tree is the Universe, or God. The dog is us. The chain is our Free Will. Our Free Will will only get us as far out from the tree as the chain extends. We, as the dog, think we have all this room to move around, but when we run outward so far to do something, we are pulled back by the bounds of the chain. We can move around the tree with the use of our Free Will as much as we like. But we are still chained to the tree.
Thank you soooo much, and may Amma Bless you… to whoever FINALLY made it possible for us to post comments! I had been hoping to do this for months!!
This is sort of the million dollar question that bugs me every time I’m faced with a life decision. I spend enormous amounts of energy trying to think through the choices and where it might lead to and which is best…etc…
In the end, I think that all paths lead to the same goal – self realization, freedom from rebirth, and union with the divine. We eventually get there. But the choices we make – free will, and the discrimination we use in exercising it, just makes the path shorter or longer and determines the extent of our joy or suffering along the way.
I tend to tie myself up in knots whenever I try to work this one out and end up contradicting myself!
I think we are all bound by the results of past actions therefore our actions in the present will determine our future. But Amma says that through sadhana the effects of our past actions can either be removed completely or lessened. Amma also says that there are some types of karma that cannot be removed whatever we do.
There are incidents related where people’s horoscopes have shown a serious or fatal accident would occur and Amma has given specific instructions on spiritual practices which have been followed. Although the predicted accidents still occurred they were not serious. So in this way perhaps Amma does “interfere”. Then again those individuals surely had the choice as to whether or not to follow Amma’s instructions. Is it due to past karmas that an individual will or will not follow Amma’s advice? – this is where I get stuck! So for me the best I can do is not to worry about it too much, strive to follow Amma’s teachings and thank Amma for constantly showering Her blessings on me – everything is in Amma’s hands.
God resides in our heart, interferes in our lives, which we fail to listen to due to egocentric nature. He alone acts as if it was our freewill. once we surrendered fully then everything is God’s will. May AMMA lead us.
I remember Amma saying: “Some may argue, ‘If everything is God’s will, isn’t it also God who makes us commit mistakes?’ It is meaningless to say this. The responsibility for any action that we do with a sense of ego rests on ourselves, and not on God. If we really believe it is God who has made us commit a crime, we should also be able to accept the sentence given to us by the judge as coming from God. Will we be able to do this?”
Intelligence has been given to us by God so that we use our discrimination when we act. Free will is always a choice to act according to our dharma or according to our ego will.
And there is no point in finding faults with God because of the misery we create by following the last way. Amma has said : ”There is no point in blaming God for the problems and unrighteousness in the world. God has shown us the right way and is not responsible for the miseries we create by not following that way.”
This is from ammas satsang:
“God is always with us, gods gives us everything we need or required. But not what we expect to get.”
this is an upanishad story: there are two birds on a tree. one of them is eating the fruits. the other one is watching. the eating bird is the jivatma under the control of the mind and using his free will to enjoy material fruits. the watching bird is the paramatma/amma who is witnessing the actions. this witnessing bird is saddened why his friend is using his free will to eat the fruits instead of looking at the him, the paramatma.
G = Generator
O = Originator
D = Destructor
i.e. GOD/AMMA so where do we stand, He is the director and we are the character to play our roles, it is up to us how to perform.
Entirely No Free Will- We are travelling on the road of life, and the only “free” will we have is to either follow the Dharma of the road (to go ahead) or to follow one’s ego and swerve or change lanes, at the most.
Its so Confusing !!
Calling God a Director was a good thing ..
I think he directs as well as takes a role… in this “play”, and most of the time he goes unnoticed and sometimes he is the lead actor…….. he controls everything and he himself is under control…
my vedanta teacher told me that we have free will to do something or not to do it or to do it differently because without this punya (merit, or positive karma) couldn’t exist.
We are like ducklings in a lake paddling away and still being carried by the will of the stream. This is an old idea borrowed from the British author, George Elliot. Some scattered thoughts on the subject: When I am not there, there is no free will or any will. When I am there, I am willfull, clinging to the results.
We all are instruments in God’s hands…. How can an instrument have a Free Will…….. Everything is happening according to God’s decision…. It’s the EGO that makes somebody feel that he has a Free Will…
We all are the puppets in Gods hand.He/She is holding the string,and we dance according to their will .when you are in deep trouble just call out with all the devotion and love .God Helped me .Amma(God)he/she will be there to help no matter what the situation we are in.Its my own personal experience.Trust me.Amma sahranam