Katha upanishad verse I.2.23

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

Gummuluru Murthy wrote:

>I would amend this to say  "... and where there is ego, there is a
>thinking that there is volition. ...."
^^^^^^^^

That's rather obvious isn't it? But wait, the concept of ego itself is only "a
thinking". Why single out free will alone in this scenario? You may think
otherwise, but as the many posts have shown, both the shruti and GYAni-s like
shrI ramaNa maharshhi, HH chandrashekhara bhAratI, et al all say that _as long
as some thing called ego is admitted_ there _is_ free-will.

No one denies that when there is no avidyA there is no kriyA or kriyAvAn. But
as Charles put it very well, claiming that everything happens automatically,
without destroying avidyA, is at best putting the cart before the horse.
Worse, it may also serve as a convenient excuse not following dharma and
claiming everything happens by itself.

Ramakrishnan.
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                   http://yake.ecn.purdue.edu/~rbalasub/