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Free Will and Choice

I often wonder whether we have free will or not. It is one of the most difficult questions to answer. I tried to read a lot of books on Neurology to find the answer, but unfortunately, neurology today does not know where the "I" lies, which is making the decisions. However, there have been quite a lot of developments in neurology, especially since the invention of fMRI and EEG techniques. Yet, by and large, they do not know the answer to this question.

Exhausted by Neurology, I tried to find an answer to this question through Astrology. Astrology has some very interesting inputs. In Astrology, the behavior of a person depends upon the placement of different planets in different houses. There are nine planets representing nine forces of nature and 12 houses representing 12 different aspects of life. The planetary force that rules a particular house decides the fundamental nature of the house. For example, if the 1st house (personality) is ruled by the Sun, the person becomes authoritative, if ruled by the Moon becomes creative, if ruled by Saturn becomes instinctive, if ruled by Jupiter becomes wise, if ruled by Mars becomes energetic, if ruled by Venus becomes a man of details, if ruled by Mercury becomes intelligent. Then it depends on where the ruler of the 1st house is placed and which planet is placed in the 1st house. It also depends on which planets afflict the ruler of the 1st house. All these placements decide the fundamental nature of the personality.

However, the most important thing in Astrology is the Dasha. Planets become effective in their dasha. We look at primarily Mahadasha, Antardasha, and Pratyantardashas. In their respective dashas, forces of nature become very effective. That gives us food for thought. I feel that the placement of different planets and rulership of different houses is like the genetic makeup of a person while the dashas influence our choices. In fact, I would say that all our choices depend upon the dashas. 

In this context, if we reexamine the fundamental question of choice and free will. I feel that probably the sum total of all our past actions (in different lives) is reflected in the horoscope. Our karmas are like habit patterns that force us in a particular direction. They are just like the black holes that attract us towards them with the centripetal force. On the other hand, there is also a force of the Divine that wants us to explore the world and exercises a centrifugal force on us. We want to expand and explore due to that centrifugal force and the interplay of these two forces puts us in an orbit and we keep revolving. 

Probably we have no choice because whatever we do in life, whatever choices we make are either influenced by the centripetal force of the black hole of our past habits or the centrifugal force of the divine. In the moments of ignorance, the centripetal force takes over and in the moments of awareness, centrifugal force takes over. The crucial question is whether a person can decide to be aware. I feel that awareness is always there. It is like the public WiFi available everywhere but we decide to stay connected to the Mobile data. It is difficult for us to let go the control. Awareness makes us a particle of dust and that is difficult for us to accept. That is probably the reason why we negotiate our control by giving away the awareness and probably that is a choice we make every day. 

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