Free Will
August 2014
Free will is one of the fundamental laws of the Universe. It is the primary gift given by the Creator to each and every individual part of creation.
Free will means that each and every individual has a choice in whether to do something or not. It is a fundamental right of each and every individual. Nobody should infringe on a person’s free will. Even the Creator respects a person’s free will and will not infringe on it.
According to the law of free will, there is nothing a person must or must not do. Each individual, being a co-Creator, has a choice whether to do something or not. However, the person is responsible for the consequences of their action which they perform while exercising their free will. If they do something which benefits another individual, then they will receive something good in return. If they do something which causes harm to another individual, then they will receive something which causes harm to them. This is the law of cause and effect which is better known as the law of Karma.
The law of free will has resulted in the creation of two life paths for a person to follow
- Service to Others- The individual dedicates most of their time in providing service to other individuals in whatever way they can. This is the path of the people who do good things to others. The person who is on this path will respect the free will of other people.
- Service to Self – The individual spends most of their time in taking care of themselves and in increasing their personal power. The individual is in a constant endeavour to control and dominate others. The person who follows this path cause bad things to happen to others. The person who is on this path will usually not respect the other person’s free will and will try to impose their choices on others.
Prior to a person’s incarnation, the person decides on a particular life path to follow in that incarnation. The individual then selects the body to incarnate in, parents and other such circumstances which are suited for their life path. This selection is also based on the individual’s free will based on what lessons they want to learn or what they want to experience in that particular life. Once they take birth, a veil of forgetfulness is placed on this prior knowledge which makes it difficult for the person to remember these details. The person then has to discover what their life path was and try to follow it.
Even if the individual discovers their life path, it is their free will whether to follow their life path or not. Each individual has spiritual guides and angels who know the exact details of the person’s life path. The guides will give certain clues to the individual about the life path that they are supposed to follow. The guides respect the individual’s free will and will not usually interfere with a person’s decisions unless it is a life-threatening emergency. The guides remain in the background and will not directly present themselves in front of the person unless the person directly asks them for help. In a situation where a person’s life is at stake, the guides can abrogate the individual’s free will in order to protect them.
A guru or a teacher should not interfere with a person’s free will. The guru or teacher can only show a person a path to follow. It is the decision of the individual using their free will whether to follow a path or not. This is reflected in the saying “You can take a horse to water to drink, but you cannot make it drink.”
A healer also has to respect a person’s free will. If a healer sees someone suffering, then the healer can offer their help to that person but should not provide the healing unless the person accepts their help. If the person does not accept the help being offered by the healer, then the healer should respect the person’s free will and move on. In cases where it is an emergency or where the person cannot give their consent, e.g. if they are unconscious, the healer can provide the help to the person without waiting for their consent.
A person has free will to make whatever decisions they want to. This extends to all areas like their religion, their career, who they want to marry, etc. A person should also recognise that other people have their free will whether to do a certain thing or not. A person should respect the other person’s free will and should not impose their choices on the other person. Parents also should respect the free will of their adult children and should not impose their decisions on them.