Sada's quote from Bhagawad Geetha is the answer for this discussion:

Jagadguru Sri Krishna intentionally puts such puzzles in our lives so that we
ultimately turn and surrender to the Creator,(Brahman or Narayana or
God),puzzled by such riddles,which can never be answered by human intellect or
logic.The ultimate goal of life is surrender to God!

Bhagawan Sri Krishna elaborates this in Uddhava Geetha;

Gunaas (Maya) create actions (karmas).Gunaas create more gunas.Jiva mixed up
with gunaas reaps the reactions or results of the karmas.

This human body is entirely in the hands of the Divine, and actions(karmas) are
caused by preoccupation with gunaas only(forgetting God).Due to ignorance, one
gets caught in the gunaas and karmaas and thinks that he(or she ) is the doer
and gets bound!.




"K. Sadananda" <sada@...> wrote:
Dennis wrote in response to Shree Swaminarayan:

> My belief is that those thoughts,
>ideas, opinions etc. that form part of our 'decision making process' are
>automatically generated in response to the situation and themselves
>constitute part of the set of vector forces, in addition to the those
>inherent in the situation itself, which trigger the subsequent action. This
>is all in the nature of a cause-effect relationship.

Dennis what you say is true in reality- but that is actually the
state affairs rather than just your belief alone. Read "I am that"
by Shree Nisargadatta Maharaj - in response to the question 'who is
answering my questions so logically when you say you are actually not
doing it" - But that is the knowledge of a j~naani who has no
identification with the equipments and notion of "I am the doer".
The fact of the matter is, things get done automatically in response
to the situation. That is exactly what Krishna teaches -
prakR^ityaivacha kriyamaanaani sarvashhaH (all actions are being
performed by prak^Riti alone).. True from that state. But my
understanding is when there is ego - 'I am the doer notion' - what
gets done is claimed as my doing and that is what, although agreed
that it is a fictitious fact, nevertheless is real in Ego's
understanding at his level. When the truth as you stated dawns, the
ego is also dissolved and, yes indeed the prakR^iti responds to the
situation in demand as long as the play of prakR^iti is there.

My final understanding based on your notes is that what you are
referring to as there no free-will but automatic decision process in
response to a situation - is indeed true in reality but not in the
understanding of jiiva who thinks he is the doer and there are
choices to make. In reality prak^iti makes that choice in His
presence based on samishiTi karma. But when there is Ego, jiiva feels
he is making the choice and hence he is accountable for the choice
that made. Free-will is as fictitious as the jiiva-hood. As long as
we separate the reference state from which we discuss these, there is
no miss-understanding.

Hari Om!
Sadananda
--
K. Sadananda
Code 6323
Naval Research Laboratory
Washington D.C. 20375
Voice (202)767-2117
Fax202)767-2623


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