What is the use of saying there is no free will?

Q: Do we have free will?
A: No we do not. Most people resist this idea. It goes against how we experience ourselves. It feels like “I decide, then I act.”

Śāstra does not accept that. What we call “my decision” arises from prior saṁskāras, guṇas, and circumstances. It is a function of the mind. So experience is not denied but the interpretation of that experience is denied. There is no free will.

Q: Why teach this at all?

A: Because it helps weaken rāga and dveṣa, the main obstacles on any spiritual path. If we think people independently choose their actions, their actions acquire a certain moral significance in our minds. From that comes attraction and hatred.

If instead we understand that people act according to their conditioning, that fixation loosens. We may still judge something as wrong or right, but the emotion of hatred drops.

The same applies to ourselves. Pride, guilt, and self-condemnation all rest on a certain idea of free will. Once that is corrected, those emotions lose force.

Q: But what about evil? Are we just supposed to ignore it?

A: No. Actions have consequences. You still act. The change is internal. You address the action without constructing hatred toward the person.

Q: How does this connect to bhakti?

A: When rāga and dveṣa are reduced, our perception becomes clearer as we recognize the conditioning underlying peoples’ actions. As this happens, we can start trying to perceive Bhagavān’s presence in others, since He is the ultimate reality underlying everything. Babaji writes:

“For a beginner, this respect should be applied with the theoretical acknowledgment of Bhagavān’s presence in everything. This attitude will free the practitioner from attachment and aversion (rāga and dveṣa). As one advances on the path, one will naturally come to realize the manifestations of Bhagavān’s majesty within everything and will offer the appropriate respect. In contrast, however, respect or sympathy that is extended independent of Bhagavān will become a cause of bondage.”

Q: Where does the śāstra support this?

A: The Gītā repeatedly describes the state that follows from this understanding.

samaṁ paśyan hi sarvatra samavasthitam īśvaram na hinasty ātman ātmānaṁ tato yāti parāṁ gatim

“Verily, seeing the Lord equally situated everywhere, one does not degrade the self by the mind, and consequently, one attains the supreme goal.” (Gītā 13.28)

samaḥ śatrau ca mitre ca tathā mānāpamānayoḥ śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkheṣu samaḥ saṅga-vivarjitaḥ
tulya-nindā-stutir maunī santuṣṭo yena kenacit aniketaḥ sthira-matir bhaktimān me priyo naraḥ

“One who regards alike both an enemy and a friend, as well as honor and dishonor, who is equal in heat and cold, and in happiness and misery, who is free from attachment, equal toward praise and reproach, contemplative, content with whatever comes of its own accord, devoid of the sense of ownership over any dwelling place, and of steady mind, such a person, who is endowed with devotion, is dear to Me.” (Gītā 12.18–19)

suhṛn-mitrāry-udāsīna madhyastha-dveṣya-bandhuṣu sādhuṣv api ca pāpeṣu sama-buddhir viśiṣyate

“One who looks equally on a well-wisher, a friend, an enemy, an indifferent person, a mediator, a detestable person, a relative, the virtuous, and even the sinners is highly accomplished in yoga.” (Gītā 6.9)

buddhir jñānam asammohaḥ kṣamā satyaṁ damaḥ śamaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ bhavo’bhāvo bhayaṁ cābhayam eva ca
ahiṁsā samatā tuṣṭis tapo dānaṁ yaśo’yaśaḥ bhavanti bhāvā bhūtānāṁ matta eva pṛthag-vidhāḥ

“The faculty of subtle discrimination, knowledge, sobriety, forgiveness, truthfulness, control of the external senses, control of the mind, happiness, misery, birth, death, fear, and fearlessness, as well as non-violence, equanimity, contentment, austerity, charity, fame, and infamy — all these different types of dispositions of living beings are born of Me alone.” (Gītā 10.4–5)

So to conclude:

1. We stop hating people, not as an ideal, but because the basis for hatred is gone.
2. We stop overvaluing our own actions. Both pride and self-condemnation weaken.
3. The mind becomes more balanced. That allows us to perceive Bhagavān without being emotionally fixated on the many things going on in this world.

When rāga and dveṣa are not driving the mind, we are not constantly sorting the world into objects of attraction and aversion. In that condition, seeing Bhagavān everywhere becomes more feasible.