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    Does The Human Being Have Free Will?
    Does The Human Being Have Free Will?
    Does The Human Being Have Free Will?
    Ebook37 pages43 minutes

    Does The Human Being Have Free Will?

    By Ramesh S. Balsekar

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    About this ebook

    Of course, he does. Otherwise how would the mechanism of daily living operate? In fact, total free will is the very basis of daily living. Whether it was the caveman three thousand years ago or you today, the human being has been free to decide what to do in a given situation. However, it is everyone’s personal experience that what happens thereafter – the result or consequence of that action – has never been in anybody’s control. So where does that leave free will? Is free will a tool for self-evolvement? Is it a device for the human being to accept responsibility for his actions? Or is it merely a notional boon which is worthless in daily living?

    Ramesh S. Balsekar discusses the issue threadbare in his crisp and lucid style and comes up with amazing insights which could forever change the way you perceive your free will.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRamesh S. Balsekar
    Release dateJan 29, 2015
    ISBN9789384363482
    Does The Human Being Have Free Will?
    Author

    Ramesh S. Balsekar

    Ramesh Balsekar, a teacher of pure Advaita, or non-duality, is an unearthly blend of the utterly human and utterly divine manifesting as a brilliant spiritual Master. His crystal-clear and profound teachings are backed by his complete understanding that “Nobody does anything” coupled with his life experience as a top executive of a major Indian bank, as a huband, father and grandfather – all lived knowing that it is all happening as God’s Will.For much of his full life Ramesh, whose Guru was Nisargadatta Maharaj, has been devoted to Ramana Maharshi, in whose spirit Ramesh welcomes seekers and asks “Who is seeking? Leave the seeking to Him who started the seeking.”

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      Book preview

      Does The Human Being Have Free Will? - Ramesh S. Balsekar

      Does The Human Being Have Free Will?

      The answer is: Yes, indeed he does – without it the mechanism of daily living could not have happened; but, both in theory and practice it is worthless.

      THE VERY BASIS OF THE MECHANISM OF DAILY LIVING

      The mechanism of daily living begins with every human being, at any time, at any place, facing a situation. From this perspective, the very basis of daily living is the total free will for every human being. Facing a situation means the human being, as an individual entity, decides what he wants in that situation and does whatever he decides to do in order to get what he wants – total free will.

      This applies to the cave man three thousand years ago or to the human being today. I am free to decide, in a given situation, that for the first time there is a chance of my getting something I have wanted for a long time; and I am also free to decide that, much as I want this, I shall not do anything illegal or immoral – my decision. On the other hand, in an identical situation, a psychopath is free to decide that he is prepared to do anything – robbery, murder – in order to get what he wants. And each of us has just done whatever each of us wanted to do. Having done that, the fact of life is that neither of us has ever had the slightest control over the result of our action. Indeed, no human being has ever had any control over the result of his action, based on his free will.

      The experience of every human being has been that the result of his action has never been in his control. It can be one of three things:

      1. He gets what he wanted, or

      2. He does not get what he wanted, or

      3. The result is totally unexpected, many times for the worse, sometimes for the better.

      Thus the free will of the human being turns out to be worthless in actual living.

      It is interesting to find out if the free will of the human being has any worth at least in theory. Think all you want, and you will have to come to the conclusion that the free will is based on two factors: the genes in the body-mind organism, and the up-to-date conditioning of the body-mind organism – that is, geographic, social and financial circumstances. While the genes are a stable factor, the conditioning is liable to be amended by any fresh conditioning: whatever you read, whatever you think, whatever you hear, or you experience. The fact remains that whatever you decide to do

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