Robert Sapolsky in his
thought-provoking book “Determined” starts with a humorous story: A Professor
was teaching a class the science of planetary movement around the sun. A girl
student objected, “Professor, it is not so. The earth is resting on a turtle.”
The Professor asked, “And, on what the turtle is resting?” The girl replied,
“on another turtle.” The Professor again asked, “And, on what the other turtle
resting?” The girl snapped, “No use Professor, it is turtle all the way down.”
Robert Sapolsky argues that free
will is an illusion – all human behavior stems from nuero-biological,
environment and cultural factors which we don’t control. The entire universe is
governed by the Law of Causation. Everything that happens is caused by
something before it. And, what we do today becomes the cause of future
happenings. What we think of doing as our free will is indeed caused by an
unending series of causes preceding that action (turtles all the way). We can
investigate this in our own day-to-day living.
We first get a thought and then
do the action. Can we know our next thought before it occurs? Scientific
experiments have proven that we become aware of a thought a few seconds after
it has occurred. So, we don’t know what thought will occur to us in the next
moment. In his book, Robert has proved through a number of experiments and case
studies that a thought results from our deep-rooted nuero-biological makeup and
cultural influences, which dates back to millions of years – perhaps the
beginning of mankind.
We may argue that we do have free
will because we may choose to do one thing or the other at any given moment. Here
again, Robert refers to an experiment where a machine hooked on brain/neurons
can very accurately predict which option we will choose a few seconds before we
exercise the choice.
If all of this is true, are we
living robots guided by the past? Is there any joy in living like this?
Robert suggests, “It is often
helpful to act as if you have free will: consider all of your options and think
deeply when you can, but do not be too hard on yourself because it really could
not have been any other way.”
Indian scriptures declare that
there is a great joy in living as a mere instrument in the unseen hands of God.
This universe is the playground of God. Everything in this playground is
temporary and ever changing. Swami Sarvapriyanand suggests, “Live your life
assuming free will, while carrying the belief that you are indeed executing
God’s will.” We receive God’s will through our thoughts and results of our
actions (whatever they may be) are God’s blessings for our own long-term
benefits. This will free us from all the worries and miseries that arise from
taking ownership of our actions. Buddha has famously said, “Things happen, deeds
are done, but there is no doer thereof.”
