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The individual soul has a little independence to choose? So we have no free will?

Expressions researched:
"But the individual soul has a little independence to choose" |"So we have no free will"

Lectures

Philosophy Discussions

No. The individual soul does not. In Bhagavad-gītā it says that anumantā, individual soul, wants to do something and Kṛṣṇa gives orders. Man proposes and God disposes. No. Without sanction of Kṛṣṇa we cannot do anything. Therefore He is the ultimate cause.
Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: If you take it that way, Kṛṣṇa is within every atom. So Kṛṣṇa wants to be it; therefore He is willing to let these two things become one, and there is some creation, and again another creation, and another creation. The ultimate brain is Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: Does the hydrogen molecule have an independent desire?

Prabhupāda: No, but within the hydrogen atom, there is Kṛṣṇa; therefore it is combining. Not this hydrogen atom as matter is combining, but because Kṛṣṇa is within that hydrogen atom existing. He knows that by combination this thing will come about, that will come out, that will come out...

Śyāmasundara: But the individual soul has a little independence to choose?

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Śyāmasundara: Has no independence?

Prabhupāda: No. The individual soul does not. In Bhagavad-gītā it says that anumantā, individual soul, wants to do something and Kṛṣṇa gives orders. Man proposes and God disposes.

Śyāmasundara: So we have no free will?

Prabhupāda: No. Without sanction of Kṛṣṇa we cannot do anything. Therefore He is the ultimate cause.

Śyāmasundara: But I thought you had been saying that we have a little independence.

Prabhupāda: That independence that Kṛṣṇa wants me to do something but I want to deny it. But unless Kṛṣṇa sanctions, you cannot do that also.

Śyāmasundara: What I'm trying to get at is that if we desire something and we take a body because of that desire, can a hydrogen molecule desire to become part of water and be given that body? Does it have the independence to desire something and take a body accordingly? The hydrogen molecule, does it have a life?

Prabhupāda: So far as we get information, our knowledge is from the Vedic information, aṇḍāntara-stha paramāṇu: Kṛṣṇa is within, the Paramātmā. It does not say the soul is within, the Paramātmā.

Page Title:The individual soul has a little independence to choose? So we have no free will?
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Rishab
Created:16 of Apr, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1