Always was an Eternal Debate whether we have Free Will or not! You could be one of the curious ones to know more about this topic or the other kind, who already have a conclusion on Free Will and are here to validate what you know and agree or disagree to be RIGHT.
The Former is going to exercise their Free will in the moment and In the now, without being at the effect of the past they lived or that was imposed on them.
Imagine you driving a car in a vast expansion of plain land around you which has hundreds of miles of open spaces in each direction (like Rann of Kutch), You can Turn Anywhere, If you wish to avoid Sun (like in Summers) you would drive to the East unless you wished your destination in the West. You can drive in any direction, cross the ground or go midway only to turn back or go round and round in Circles.
That is how it is in our life we have Free Will, We can choose to do anything be anything,
It is like not acknowledging the power we have; and it is as good as Dishonoring it.
When you were in a boring official meeting, You have free will to doze off, to let your mind wander in greener pastures, have fun in the meeting, walk out of it or force yourself to go through the Motion.
Now some of you would say they have no option of walking out or dozing off. Actually what is not an option is Not exercising the Free will
You could be fighting, resisting, reaction, agreeing or accepting; Whatever you do you are exercising your Free will, all of them were your options; one does not take it because they do not wish to take the responsibility of action/option/choice you make and the repercussions of it.
Most people would disagree that there is Free will, because if there is…. Then they have to take ownership of their entire Life. and then you can’t externalize or blame anything or anyone for anything at all. (it is so good to Blame and keep your hands in Pocket, Isn’t it :-P) And by the way, More people choose not to exercise free will because they will stop “Being Nice”, they fear disapproval, rejection, judgement being an outcast, But none of these fears is true.
You really wanna know the Magic? Here it is……. If you honour your Free will in a real sense, you will also honour the free will of others; and so you will not be in resistance reaction or acceptance of anything at all; NO Fear will exist for you, NO Anger will be required by you, there would be NO Hate, NO Jealousy and NO reality either Because you have the power of choice, your Free will and you can direct it anywhere you wish.
You will not give your power of Freewill to anyone, Not even to the snake that shows its fangs on the TV nor the Ghost that was under the bed in the Movie, or the new bill passed in the parliament that hampers your business or the Neighbour who buy new things and invite you home to show off. Because the power is with you and from your free will you can choose anything and change the course of your life any moment every moment and change it again the very next moment too.
One of the ways someone dishonours the free will is – By not allowing the other person their Free will and making them wrong for it with an intent to control the outcome and drive there agenda.
Someone recommended me to read a book yesterday morning and i said Okay to it, Afternoon I was checked again if I did or not, then at Night again a reminder and then another one this morning. Sounds familiar?
A lot of people exercise this or similar level of control on others; Instead of choosing their own Free will to focus it on their Life and change anything that they do not like; They have projections and expectation of what the other person should or Must do and then cage them into these projections and expectations and thereby have a yardstick of measures of judgement to evaluate and keep their focus on whether their intention or agenda is getting fulfilled or not.
To cage someone in a Jail, they require to be the jailor to cage them; None of them is Free, None of them is exercising their Freewill. Free will is like a River, It is exercised with what you have in the moment and replacing it with what you choose to have instead and then going for it in spite/despite all that you come across.
A River has its Freewill it flows constantly, Its job is to flow despite all obstacles and it does. Every Moment you make a choice out of your Free will, there may be surprises, limitations, barriers, blocks and at that moment you choose again to exercise your free will again.
Think of someone who likes to follow order, structure and discipline; Nothing wrong with that, But it requires a herculean amount of intention, attention and control for having others follow the protocol. Your Free will is for you; do it as you please have as much discipline order or structure as you require, But the moment you impose it on other you are in the catch 22 game of being the jailor or caged; You may get what you want but to keep having that you require to be in jail.
Look at your life and the values that you live by, Are you having one of these values like Sincerity, Honesty, Commitment, Transparency, Idealism, perfectionism, Justice, religious, Moralistic, Ethical etc etc.
None of the above is Wrong at all, But it takes your happiness away when you choose these values, But pushing others to exercise them as you do will Cage you forever; You have to do it, should do it or you will go into the wrongness of you.
Be the River that flows and when there is a huge rock formation in its way, it changes it course and changes it again circumventing it back to its own path.
What if you could be that river, It knows no resistance, its objective is to go and meet the Ocean and it always will. What’s yours?
Hope you enjoyed the write-up.
Geet Batra