​Are materialists completely controlled by the modes or can they make choices?

Answer Podcast

so is it that when it says we are all controlled by the three modes the thing that I am a doer is an illusion so the doers for non devotees it is the modes that are making them do things and they are simply in illusion thinking that they are doing it or are they actually making choices see the modes push us to act in certain ways but we have the capacity to counter push to counter push, to resist and the intelligence to counter push the inner strength to counter push that is enhanced by bhakti practice but the inherent capacity is there and that’s why we can see sometimes say somebody is alcoholic and then they make a resolution because of whatever reason I am going to give up alcohol most of the times people fail but there are some occasions when people do succeed so philosophically speaking Vishwanath Chakrathakur explains in the 14th chapter of the Gita on the three modes in his commentary that actually the the three modes pull us in different directions so there is like an internal competition also between the modes rajas tamas cha bhi hue, sattvam bhavati bharata rajas sattvam tamas cha hi, tamas sattvam hi jasta sometimes goodness becomes prominent sometimes passion becomes prominent, sometimes ignorance becomes prominent so for materialistic people their scope of choice does not extend beyond the modes they don’t know anything transcendental so they cannot choose anything beyond the three modes but they can at times choose among the modes so somebody can choose ignorance somebody can choose passion, somebody can choose goodness, so for example a student is studying for an exam if that student goes and decides I’ll study on my bed lies down on the bed then the student is most likely to go to sleep if the same student goes to a library and sits over there everybody else is studying over there that may inspire the student to study also so in the 11th canto in the Uddhava Gita there is a list of factors that are given which shape the modes that influence us so our sangh our association our diet our normal objects of thought our profession like that around 10 to 12 factors are given none of these are spiritual factors they are material factors they can also be spiritualized but just as a person is alcoholic that person decides not to hang out with sober people the likelihood of giving alcohol becomes more so now we could go deeper and say that ultimately that person is choosing that also based on the modes only it’s possible but actually we do have free will and for example now we have this is from the analytical perspective from the vedic perspective there are even karmakanda rituals and karmakanda rituals means ok you have done this sin now you should do this atonement to give up the sin and Baldevidya Bhushan in his Kvedanta Sutra commentary in the Govinda Bhashya he explains that actually there is there is a traditional school of thought which is called as Sobhavavad Sobhavavad means we are simply products of our Sobhav we cannot do anything which is opposed to what our body mind has programmed to do but he says this is not true because the scriptures tell us do this and don’t do this if we were absolutely controlled creatures then scripture would have no point in telling you do this or don’t do this because we would not have the capacity to choose so this is not just for bhakti scriptures even for karmakanda scriptures they tell don’t do this or if you have done this atone by doing this that means we have choices and the extent we choose that is the extent to which sorry and the way we choose that is up to us so the normally the way we use our free will that either expands the scope of our free will or that decreases the scope of our free will so for example if I person is drinking, drinking, drinking and the person becomes alcohol addict and that person can’t choose whether I should drink or not that person may be able to choose should I drink a whisky or a brandy so the scope of the free will has become very reduced so when people are addicted their free will becomes very reduced but the free will itself is never taken away, free will is there the scope can become more and more and more reduced or by proper use the scope can become more and more expanded and that’s how there is some free will but not entirely free will, can we continue personally after the class so thank you very much Gaur Bhakta Pindaki Gaur Premanand