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Determinism in the Exercise of Free Will — Free Will in the Carrying Out of Determinism · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We generally jump to extremes in our way of looking at things
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  from our normal mental viewpoint.
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  Thus we either want to accept that everything is absolutely
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  determined and thus every move we make, every action, every
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  reaction is choreographed down to the slightest detail, or else
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  we want to believe that we are totally free and independent and
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  we are basically self-made in our decisions and actions.
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  The reality, however, is somewhat more complicated than
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  this view. The Bible claims that God
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  attends to the fate of each bird in the field, which implies some
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  kind of micromanagement of all activities.
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  This is an example of a belief in absolute determinism.
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  There are others who say that either there is no God or that
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  God is dead, implying that we are totally free and unhindered
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  in making whatever free decision we like.
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  Even those who do not acknowledge the existence of
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  some overarching attendant power, working out each detail
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  of our lives may still accept the idea of a chain of cause and
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  effect, karma or dependent origination.
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  That said, the science of mathematics, and in particular
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  statistical analysis and the development of the fields of
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  psychology, sociology, and social psychology, can lead us
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  to a more nuanced understanding of how things occur.
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  These disciplines show that individuals exercising what they
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  believe to be their free will actually wind up creating
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  patterns that are able to be both predicted and mapped when
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  there is a large enough sample to capture a suitably large
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  population of decision makers. This is the famous bell shaped
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  curve that plots the results in such a way that one can see that
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  the big picture direction is carried out while there are
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  still outliers both below and above the primary distribution
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  of results, all of which remains predictable as to the big
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  picture while each individual is essentially left free.
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  Of course, this freedom is also conditioned by the chain of
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  cause and effect, so the actual implementation of free will is a
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  minor aspect of the larger picture.
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  Yet the aspect of free will remains a possibility.
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  The higher one climbs in the ladder of consciousness, the
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  more flexibility and free will is evidenced eventually at the
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  realms of the cosmic spirit that controls and directs the
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  conscious development of the universal manifestation.
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  The exercise of free will comes to its true fruition,
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  Shriorobindo observes, quote. The universal forces move by
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  their own force and the consciousness within them.
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  But there is also the cosmic spirit who supports them, and
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  determines by his outlook and disposing will their play.
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  Although the direct action is left to the forces, it is the
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  play of universal procrity, with the universal Purusha watching
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  behind it in the individual. Also there is the individual
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  Purusha, who can, if he wills, not merely assent to the play of
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  procrity, but accept or reject or will for its change.
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  All that is in the play itself. As we see it here, there is
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  something above, but the action of that is an intervention
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  rather than a moment to moment control.
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  It can become a constant direct control only when one replaces
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  the play of the forces by the government of the Divine End.
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  Quote Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden
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  Forces of Life, Chapter One, Life Through the Eyes of the
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  Yogin, pages 24 to 25.