[Advaita-l] Confusion about free will.

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Namaste Vishesh ji,
First off, a general answer to your earlier Q. Although how exactly the law
of karma works is impossible to understand, the general fact is that
prArabdha earned by a person using freewill in earlier life/ lives decides
the circumstances and the freewill used in current life can be used to work
with or against those circumstances.
Rest inline...

On Thu, May 19, 2022 at 10:17 AM Vishesh Bhat via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> But one question still remains, why then do we pray to the Almighty for
> deliverance from pain and misery?

Each such activity is also karma that earns puNya which, when ripe for
fructification, results in circumstances that reduce sorrow and bring
happiness.


> Is such an act merely for mental strength
> and our own superficial comfort? There also seem to be quite a few
> instances of great devotees overcoming bad fates. If God is merely the
> dispenser of fruits, then what is the truth value of these stories of
> Bhakti?
>

Since bhakti can be expressed with mental, verbal and/ or physical
activities, it also accumulates puNya and Ishvara dispenses results for
those. We need that "mere dispenser of fruits" who is *unbiased*.

> I can sort of see the value in rituals as being means to eradicate our
> 'rina or debt' to nature which we incur on a daily basis.

That is for nityakarma which like RiNa when unpaid brings adverse
situations leading to sorrow. To avoid those, we have to pay such debt.


> But what about
> Bhakti?


As explained earlier.



> I apologise if this seems to be an illposed question.
>
There are no ill-posed questions when the intention is right. Best wishes.

gurupAdukAbhyAm,
--Praveen R. Bhat
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