Question: When an individual makes a decision in the material world, is it the soul (jiva) making the choice or is it purely the 3 modes of material nature acting? Is the jiva merely an observer? How much free-will/independence do we have?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
“Tiny free will” is Srila Prabhupada’s phrase. “The jiva as an observer” is a wrong notion. We have tiny free will, and we exercise it.
The 3 modes influence the decision-making capacity which we have, but we also make conscious choices (distinct from animals and other lower forms, who have much less evolved consciousness) and thus hold the responsibility for those decisions. This is karma.
Animals can be trained, by conditioning, to not bark or to walk, etc. Humans can be conditioned/trained by similar systems. Evolved consciousness and with it choice-making capacity, however, is a unique feature of consciousness of the soul with a human form and manifests actions distinct from the modes of nature and it’s behaviors. Chanting the Holy Name, for example, is not modes-of-nature induced.
I think of the balance between free will and conditioning by the modes to be something like an animal on a leash or rope. The mode of goodness allows more freedom because one earned it and will likely use it wisely; ignorance has less freedom, more restriction, or “a shorter leash”. Still, while we are on a leash of some kind, we simultaneously have some modest mobility, lesser or greater, depending upon our association with the 3 modes.
