Are all our material choices pre-determined by our past karma?
Answer Podcast
He said that The only choice we really have is Whether to move towards Krishna or not And all our material choices Which are disconnected from Krishna Are they already determined? Well there are Verses which can be quoted to support This understanding Say for example Material nature is the doer of all things And the bewildered soul thinks that I am the doer Now At the same time Bhagavad Gita also talks about The competition between the modes That means Krishna says that 14.9 says that Sometimes goodness wins over passion and ignorance Sometimes passion wins over goodness and ignorance Like that So when this happens So How do we choose? So broadly speaking For materialistic people If they are not devotees of Krishna Then the scope of their choice is restricted They can only Choose within the modes But So How much is the choice there? It also depends on the way they have acted It’s like say Person has become a complete alcoholic Addicted alcoholic Then that person Doesn’t have a choice whether to drink alcohol or not Because addiction is too strong Like Krishna But the person can choose Their choice is maybe I’ll drink whiskey or I’ll drink brandy So Every time we act in a particular way You could say the scope of our Free will becomes lesser and lesser But we always have Some free will We always have some free will But depending on how attached we are, how addicted we are The scope of that free will will decrease Now if you see Even people who are non-devotees Sometimes they have some bad habits And maybe making some resolution Making some plan They are able to give up the bad habits So there are de-addiction programs Which will be completely secular Many of them don’t work But some of them do work So people can change themselves And See the modes are material forces And by appropriate material stimuli The Material influences on us can be changed A simple example is If I’m going to study Other day I think I gave the example I’m going to study and if I go in my bedroom And lie on my bed And then try to study I’m inviting the mode of ignorance over there I’ll not be able to study On the other hand if I go to a library where everybody is seriously studying And then I sit down over there I’ll be able to study over there So we do have free will So if we see the Bhagavad Gita tells The same verse We’ll explain the 18th chapter as The illusion is to think that The illusion is The illusion is to think that I am the sole doer So No what is the verse One who thinks that I alone am the doer That person is an illusion So I am the doer but I alone am not the doer Right now I want to speak I am speaking if I desire not to speak I will not speak But It is not I alone who is speaking If my throat is spoiled I’ll not be able to speak even when I want to speak So there are other factors also Which determine our action I alone am not the sole doer So We do see materialistic people Non devotees also Changing People can change from goodness Towards passion towards ignorance In the Uddhava Gita there is a whole set of material factors Described By changing our aahar, by changing our sangha By changing our grantha What we read By changing our mantra Mantra can also mean Basically the sound that we repeat By changing these factors we can change The mode that influences So Vishwanath Chakritakaran 14th chapter, 3 modes of material nature In that commentary he says that By consistently choosing a particular mode A person can increase The influence of that mode on them So My understanding is that The free will Is never taken away from anyone No, in principle It is never taken away But in practice the scope of the free will Can be very limited But they always have free will I am completely exhausted I can’t move I can’t move my hand also What is the exercise? Just lift your finger By lifting my finger Gradually I am exercising my finger And gradually I am going to lift my palm And lift my hand and my energy will grow So we always have free will You know Because the scriptures Another problem that I see with this logic That materialistic people have no choice Is that apart from devotional scriptures There are also karma kanda scriptures And karma kanda scriptures also say If you do this you will go to heaven If you do this you will go to hell They are not talking about bhakti at all You should do this, you should not do this So if we were all completely determined Outside the realm of devotion Then the whole karma kanda scriptures would become meaningless But karma kanda is a big part of Vedic literature 90% More than 90% That means we can’t say that it is all just pointless So if we do have free will But the scope of the free will is very limited For those who are not practicing bhakti And they consistently use the free will in a particular way Then that usage becomes reinforced And thus they may be able to change their Pattern of functioning But that becomes Our capacity to use our free will Becomes enormously enhanced When we start practicing bhakti