What is the difference between free will and Karma? Good. Firstly, Karma has been produced because of free will. Divine Will does not produce any Karma, for Divine Will is non-binding. But free will can be binding. Now when you talk of free will, what do we mean by free will? Free will means that you have thought power and because of that thought power, you have the freedom to do what you like. That is free will. You decide on something, good or bad, and you do it; you do it because of free will. Karma does condition free will. For it is because of your past experiences in life, and in previous lives, that you can think in a certain manner. Now, if your experiences in life and conditionings were such that it would make you think to-day of doing good work, of helping people, constructive work, then you’d be doing constructive work spontaneously. But if your condition is such that you do destructive things then that too, is done spontaneously. How is the person to curb that? If he curbs it consciously then he will suffer repressions within himself which will drive him insane. So this is where the conscious mind, although forced by this inner compulsion, can do something. When the conscious mind argues the pros and cons of some wilful act, which we call free will, that person needs help; to help, not to alter his sub-conscious mind, but to strengthen the good thought in his conscious mind, so that that person himself can get that good thought deeper down and alter the sub-conscious pattern.
~Gururaj UK 81-03