Got into one more loop - I am a strong believer in God though not in rituals and rites associated with worship. What does freewill mean to me?
I am torn in two directions - when I think that everything is predetermined and I am only a tool in the hands of God why am I investing so much effort and trying to change aspects of me and my life - does free will exist for believers in God????????????????????????????
9 comments:
I have had this question as well :)
One way of thinking could be God wants you to think and invest effort trying to change aspects of you !
i.e. (artificial) intelligence is part of you as per design :)
Ram mentioned abt vaishnava concepts.
Aadhi shankara Adhvaitham also provides ans for this qstn. "Agam brahmasmi" mean God in myself. no partial diff btwn me and god. so whatever i do, it's God's will.
but to attain this salvation/mind, we need to travel a looooong looong way in life.
heres my 2 bits on free will...assuming that god created the universe and the laws that govern it; does it follow from that we humans or other inhabitants of this universe do not have free will? my personal view is that it does not. ok we will think or work or behave etc. within these laws (like the rules of a game) but how we use or connect these rules is totally up to us. ie the way we play the game is our personal choice.
turn the question on its head and ask...if there are rules by which the universe functions does it mean that god is limited in his/her power and i think you will start seeing the answers.
want to..
hope i can..
but will be travelling next few days..
wish to email you about this!
In freewill you will be free (Hehe). No commitments. Dharumar's answers to Yatshan(?) questions and Geethai has all possible questions(we do have normally in mind) and answers.
Hinduism is not a religion. Its a way of living. No defined rules. There will be a lot of possible ways to achieve a goal as long as it wont trouble anyone else.
ppl have provided references but, these are again theories put forward by great men(still, mortals). standing on earth u could never say its round as they say in "The matrix", "we are part of the system" and miss the bigger picture.
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hurry.
This is an extract from Unto Leviathan by Richard Paul Russo.
"God doesnt have control over humans. God lost control over us when he granted humans the power of self-thinking."
"God granted freewill to humans.
He has no control over you now."
But wait... why do we worship God when he has no control over us???.
Simple. Prayer is not meant to ask anything from God. Its a bridge that connects us with Him. Its the way you can be in peace so that you can think well and solve your problems.
Read the book. Its a wonderful one.
Hi Paavai,
Hope u are doing good. Its long since I had been to the world of blogging. Felt irrestistable to comment on the "free-will and determinism" question you had posed. This is not such a easy question in phylosophy...however I kinda go by Dr.Radhakrishnan's views. His views are as follows: Life is like playing a round of cards. The cards which are assigned to us are our previous karma, which we don't have any control (its predetermined). But, we *do* have the complete free will to choose any card and play - but the choices are restricted to the cards that we have at hand. So, its kind of determinism and free will combined which makes our life. To tell you a typical example, I choose to write these things here which are inheretly based on the fact that I have the ability to write and I have the comp. etc. These cards are given to me and I am choosing to write. For a person who doesn't know how to write, he has not got the required card (skills) to play (in this case to write comments). So, our karma affects only our existing position but not our future destiny which depends only on the proper exercise of our free will. This logic is completely consistent with the philosophy of Gita which asserts "Man is master of his destiny".
dubukku - makes sense - that God wants us to think
Ram - Need to read up, thanks for directing me to the sources that can help though:)-
Ambi - Aham brahmasmi is what I have grown up with and probably one of the reasons question on freewill came up
ammu - let me know when you find an answer and I will share my findings with you :)-
vks - may be what you say makes sense
anon - sorry I am unable to understand what you have written - am quite dense lol
ramachandran - i agree, the concept of nishkamyakarma in Geetha too is somewhat a pointer in this direction
injey - yes I will get hold of the book and read and then come back to you with more naive questions - thanks
kasthuri - its been a while since i saw you in the blogworld was a little concerned - hope all is well
i feel bad that I am still to read Radhakrishnan's works, every time you make a reference I tell myself I should get hold of his works - thanks for your comments - looking forward to more of your writings now
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