Previously on avalokanam, we saw what is not true freedom, which also provided some insight into what constitutes true freedom. To build further on this discussion, let’s start by defining freedom to be the ability to make choices and follow those choices. For an alcoholic, the decision to drink is not a choice, but a compulsion. So in this case we don’t consider his action to be free. But then, for a person who is good by nature, helping another man in need is also the natural thing to do, and it is not much of a choice. Most of our actions are guided by our nature, and there is very little freedom of choice involved.

I may say I have the freedom to drink orange juice or apple juice, but almost always the decision is based on which one I like more. If I like Orange juice more, I may have it each time. And then, when I get tired of it, I will have apple juice – not because I choose to have it, but because I’ve got tired of the other option. So is this really freedom?

Philosophers typically consider the next level of freedom as the ability to alter your predisposition. For example, if you have a natural preference for alcohol, but by sheer force of will have fruit juice instead, over time you would alter your natural tendency. This looks more like freedom. But here again, is the decision to change your liking for alcohol freely chosen, or can it be ascribed to a predisposition? It is really hard to say. The Lord says in the Gita,

So this discussion of freedom brings us down to the question of whether there is free will or not. This is an age-old question, and all who have engaged in this debate have ended up more confused than when they started. It is pointless to discuss this question from a purely logical standpoint, because it is logically impossible to decide it one way or the other without making an equivalent assumption as the premise to build your arguments on. So I will take my own view on what to think about this conundrum. Of course, my views have been profoundly influenced by Indian thought that goes back to a few millenniums ago. (If you are a determinist, you could think of this as my predisposition, and accept or forgive it based on your own!)I think our will was all free to start with, like a space craft in empty space. But once we fire the engine and get our craft moving in any direction, it gains a momentum in that direction and this is our predisposition. Of course, we could use more power to either increase the speed of the craft in the same direction, change its course, or reverse its direction. But the more the current momentum of the craft, the more difficult it is to bring about a change. So our freedom actually depends on two factors – the current momentum of the craft (which is the strength of our habits and natural tendencies) and the thrust of our engine (which is what we call will power). If our will is strong enough, we would be able to choose our course in spite of strong tendencies that try to hijack our ship. Also, even with very small power, we would be able to retain control of our ship, provided we don’t let the momentum rise beyond a certain level.

Fine, so let’s say we have this freedom. Then what? If we can fly our space craft in any direction we want, but do not know where we want to get (much less, how), of what use is a high-thrust engine? Similarly, without wisdom to guide, free will is not of much use. So, what is most important is to let our will be guided by wisdom. Then, though we may now be going in the wrong direction and don’t have sufficient thrust to reverse the velocity immediately, we can at least slow down, and in due time correct our course.