The Resolution of the Opposition of Free Will and Determinism

As long as we remain rooted in the external surface consciousness and ego-personality, we are firmly bound by the determinism of Nature. Nature, whether on the physical, vital or mental level, operates under its own ‘laws’ of action. The more dense the expression of consciousness is, the more ‘fixed’ those laws become. Thus, Matter has what appear to be fixed and unalterable laws that govern the way that Matter acts in the universal creation. It should be noted that we are not fully cognizant of all of these subtle interactions, so our understanding of these laws continues to increase as our base of knowledge expands. This does not imply that the laws are imprecise or constantly changing, but rather, that our appreciation of those laws is incomplete and moving towards greater knowledge as time goes by. The vital and mental levels also operate under their own principles. While they appear to have more flexibility and freedom, we are beginning to understand that there are indeed laws of action that apply to each of these levels of consciousness as well.

This implies that the external reality we embrace is very much a deterministic existence. We can trace back ’cause and effect’ to see that there is no escape at this level from determinism. That does not mean, however, that there is no place at all for free will.

It is when we can shift our standpoint away from the ego-standpoint to the divine standpoint that we can see that at this level, the entire creation is directed and developed by the divine consciousness. We are ourselves an expression of this consciousness, and once we shift our standpoint to that status, we are co-creators and co-participants unified with the ultimate source of the entire manifestation and its ‘laws’ and thus, share in the free will of the Divine.

Some people believe that even the divine consciousness is bound by the laws of Nature. It is true that when the Divine chooses to create a universe it sets forth the laws under which operations will occur, and obviously chooses to abide by those self-determined rules. Yet it is also true that other universes, other creations may, and do, operate under different principles than those we recognise here. Scientists today speak of the ‘multiverse”, with a recognition that there are virtually infinite configurations that manifest in different universes. They are not all bound by the very same ‘laws of Nature’.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “In reality, the freedom and the determination are only two sides of the same thing — for the fundamental truth is self-determination of the cosmos and in it a secret self-determination of the individual. The difficulty arises from the fact that we live in the surface mind of ignorance, do not know what is going on behind and see only the phenomenal process of Nature. There the apparent fact is an overwhelming determinism of Nature and as our surface consciousness is part of that process, we are unable to see the other term of the biune reality. For practical purposes, on the surface there is an entire determinism in Matter — though this is now disputed by the latest school of Science. As Life emerges a certain plasticity sets in, so that it is difficult to predict anything exactly as one predicts material things that obey a rigid law. The plasticity increases with the growth of Mind, so that man can have at least a sense of free-will, of a choice of his action, of a self-movement which at least helps to determine circumstances. But this freedom is dubious because it can be declared to be an illusion, a device of Nature, part of its machinery of determination, only a seeming freedom or at most a restricted, relative and subject independence. It is only when one goes behind away from Prakriti to Purusha and upward away from Mind to spiritual Self that the side of freedom comes to be first evident and then, by unison with the Will which is above Nature, complete.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 1 Life Through the Eyes of the Yogin, pp. 20-21