Free-will vs Destiny

Had this discussion yesterday and the confusion that I have had for a long time now and thought was complicated and didn't care about, was cleared(at-least I think so).

I was listening to an Upanyasam when this topic came up yet again.

Watch from the 13th minute if you don't have the patience to watch the whole video.

It is said that everything is pre-determined. If something is destined to happen to you, it will happen no matter what. Then where comes free-will in the picture?

Read Ramanuja's commentary of a couple of verses of The Gita. Each action is attributed to 5 causes(all 5 of them)

1. Body 2. Senses 3. Individual soul 4. Force of vital air 5. Supreme soul

This means that the individual self is responsible for the action, but no action can happen without the support or permission of the Supreme Soul.

I wasn't clear until I read this example(from Ramanuja's commentary). Consider 5 people lifting a heavy stone. Only the combined effort of the 5 of them can make the action happen. Even if one of them is not willing, the action doesn't happen.

Apply the above example to every action. Without the agreement of all the 5 causes, an action cannot happen, which implies that we(individual soul) are one-fifth responsible for each action.

If the Individual Soul also has to agree for an action to occur, where comes the question of being pre-determined? What if the Individual Soul doesn't agree for an action, how will it happen even if it was pre-determined? It will, because of the Karma that the Individual Soul is subjected to, and Karma is cumulative. Whatever you do(good or bad), there will be an effect.

If the Individual Soul works on the basis of Karma, then where comes free-will? It does. What action you are subjected to now, is a result of what you did in the past and your future actions depend on your current actions.

This implies that both destiny and free-will exist.

In the above video, Swami says there is no free-will, except in choosing the path that will lead you to God, which means that you have to surrender your free-will to God.

It is wise to use the free-will in a good manner, to reduce the bag of sorrows. Wiser it is, to surrender the free-will also to the Supreme Soul, as we don't really know what is good.