The Jewel of Free Will
Every one of us has free will. life is about how we choose to use our free will at every moment. A thief can take away our money, material nature can take away our health, and time will take away our years. Everything will be taken away from us inevitably, but there is one thing that no power in all creation can take away: Our free will. According to how we use our free will, we become conditioned to think in that way, to see the world in that way and to act in that way. We become conditioned by whatever we associate with.
One can use free will to smoke cigarettes. No one can force you to do it but the association you keep can severely influence you to do it. When you start, it tastes horrible but by your free will you keep doing it until your free will is so habituated to surrendering to that experience that you become addicted. Then it practically seems that you do not have free will anymore. By this addiction, you are almost being forced to think, “I have to do it and I have to do it. I must do it. I cannot live without it.” It appears that you lost your free will but in fact you have not.
It is not our nature eternally; it is our acquired nature. It is the nature of the characteristics that we have created, according to what and whom we choose to associate with in our lives.
When we associate with people who are positive and choose to engage in a positive perspective with positive activities, we recondition ourselves in that way. This is the special virtue of human life that we always have a freedom of choice. You may not be able to control the environment but you have full control of how you are going to react to it.
Seeing The Invisible
Human intelligence is properly utilised when in whatever situations that come upon us, instead of simply reacting, we make an intelligent choice of what is actually the highest virtue that we can achieve. The Bible says, “Knock and the door will open.” Every situation is an opportunity. When opportunity knocks, most people complain about the noise. Vision is to see the invisible, to see the positive possibilities in every situation.
One person says, “look at this rose bush. It is full of thorns.” He keeps on grumbling about the thorns. Another person rejoices, “look at this thorn bush. It has a rose.” They are seeing the same thing, but are they seeing the same thingIJ No. If you have rose-coloured glasses, everything will look rose-coloured. If you have clear glasses, you see everything as it is. So according to our state of consciousness we have certain attitudes and we will perceive reality according to our acquired attitudes. What attitude we choose to adapt to a situation is what will determine our consciousness and perception of the world.
Spiritual Dimension
Modern psychologists approach the attitudes of humans based on the idea that they are biological mental beings. Therefore they try to help people get a positive attitude accordingly; help them with physical and emotional conditions. This may be helpful. However, it is incomplete if they do not understand the spiritual dimension of life.
There are eight basic material elements. Five are gross elements — earth, water, fire, air, and ether. And three are subtle elements — mind, intelligence, and ego. Besides these inferior elements there is a superior nature, the spirit soul, the conscious life force within us. The atma is sac-cid-ananda, eternal, full of knowledge and bliss.
Dealing with Crises
If we look at the world today, there is a lot to be depressed about. There is a lot of evil in this world. And there is a lot of darkness and cruelty.
When Arjuna was faced with severe perplexity, he could not close his eyes or stick his head in the ground. He had to face the reality as it was and he became depressed. If a clinical psychologist will read the Gita and see the symptoms of Arjuna, he will say this man really needs some medications. He was shaking. His bow fell from his hand and his dark complexion turned white. His mouth dried up and tears were pouring from his eyes. Arjuna was in a hopeless state. Then he decided that he wanted nirvana. He told Krishna, “I am not going to stay in this battlefield. I am not going to face this crisis. I am going to the mountains. Better I just renounce everything and negate the problems all together. Then I will be in nirvana.” However, negation of the negative is not the best solution. In Gita, Krishna taught Arjuna bhakti.
By engaging in positive activities of devotion, one automatically develops spiritual knowledge and is able to easily forsake attachments. Krishna told Arjuna that do not be depressed, do not just artificially close your eyes and escape the problems of life. Do not run away and negate them. See the positive opportunity that you have in this situation and work accordingly. That is the teaching of Gita. Do your work for the welfare of others in a spirit of compassion to others, with consciousness of your relationship with God. That is what scriptures are all about —developing a positive attitude not based on just the physical and emotional but also the spiritual.
Right Association
Some people complain that when you take to spiritual life you are escaping the world, but that is a misconception. We do not want to escape; we want to face it for what it is. But we want to see it in such a way that we see the goodness. As long as we are attached to being the enjoyer of this material energy and have selfishness, greed, envy, and pride, there are going to be so many frustrations because we are trying to exploit. The actual liberated state is one with a service attitude. We do not want to possess, exploit or control, we want to serve. The most positive attitude is to serve in all situations with complete faith in God, faith in the goodness of God and seeing the potential in every situation. And that state of consciousness comes through association. If we associate with negative people, we will become negative.
Human life is meant for quality and to achieve that quality of good character we must have a positive attitude. To be truthful with others is honesty. To be truthful to ourselves is integrity. To be truthful to God is to be truthful to ourselves. That is real integrity.
Proper association and hearing enlightening spiritual matter cleanses the heart and awakens a positive outlook that comes from the depth of the soul. That is why we practise spiritual activities. This is a scientific process of cleaning the heart and accessing the beautiful spiritual qualities of our original nature and to live with a positive attitude.
The writer is an ISKCON spiritual guru