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Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo
between his earthly human nature at whirl in the machinery of mind, life and body and the master soul the Godhead, the real Man behind whose consent supports or whose bidding governs its motions."'15
Freedom of Will and the Law of Karma
The nature of the Law of Karma is inextricably woven with the concept of freedom. Is man free? To quote Kant : "Thou oughtest, therefore, thou canst."16 If we ought to do what is right, we are free to do it. Oughtness implies freedom. Man is free to do right or wrong and that is why he is responsible for his actions. Opposed to this doctrine which runs parallel to free-will is Determinism. Determinism lays down that all our actions are determined by some antecedent events, natural or super-natural. Man is not free. His actions are determined cither by heredity or circumstances or by some agency natural or super-natural. Sometimes he is under compulsion to do certain actions, though he does not want to do them in the heart of his hearts. So, according to Libertanism, predictions are not possible whereas, according to Determinism, with a force of knowledge of the preceding events one would always be able to predict what an agent will do on a particular occasion.
But freedom of will does not mean the state of chaos. It means self-determinism. It holds that the self has such a mysterious power as can choose between the two or more alternatives. The self chooses in order to realise its own good. It is neither Determinism nor Indeterminism but self-determinism. We are most bound when we are most free.
Here we may quote Kant, "If man is not merely a phenomenon but also a noumenon, then he may be free as noumenon (in accordance with the thesis) without ceasing to be mechanically determined in his role as temporal phenomenon (as the anti-thesis asserts)."17
In the realm of appearance, there is in man a faculty which can be called empirical force--the faculty of choice. It is free to the extent as the highest faculty of the mind which is the part of the nature. But there reason controls it. It is different
