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Message: <blockquote data-quote="P J Singh" data-source="post: 225759" data-attributes="member: 25524">FREE WILL - Absolute or QuasiIt is indeed a very intriguing topic.  Do we have free will to think, act, reflect etc.If we do not have the ability to act freely, then why would Gurbani nudge us over and over again to do  "all the good things' that it tells us to do to get and get to  the stage where " the drop of water merges and loses its identity in the Ocean" - the merger of Jot and Joti takes place and this circular journey of life and death ceases to exist..But then I got the following reflection.....Other day, I was sitting with my laptop writing a long article on something for which I did a lot of thinking. And I did succeed in writing quite a bit but before I could save it in the computer, there was a power surge - my computer shut down- and I lost the entire write-up; I tried to retrieve a few times but no luck.It was both frustrating and disappointing.  But the incident presented me a new perspective and that is: even though I was working with my freewill  to produce and achieve something .........I was unconsciously under the impression that  I have full control on the output I was seeking,  I soon realized my efforts to produce the output in the form of a  written and posted article were secondary to the continuous supply of electrical power - the primary source. My freewill in writing the article was subservient to the Will of the primary source.Let us take this insight into what we are trying to debate here  - the existence of Freewill.....Although Gurbani is nudging us reputedly do "Good things" in life, but our ability to think, act and the operationalization of these functionalities is dependent on the "lifeforce" - the jot -- that is embedded in us like "fire in a log".  We have  free will only when we are alive; if we are dead - without the life force we don't have any free will. In this sense as humans we only have "Quasi-Free Will" -- we do not have "Absolute Free Will"Free Will - quasi or absolute - have two key components: 1) Action, and 2) Output.  We may act with our freewill but there is no guarantee we will achieve the output. Output of any action can be predicted as "probable" but it is always unknown.  With the Freewill we can act but we are never sure if we will achieve what we are intending to achieve. But every action has a reaction whether we like it or not - some reactions ( i.e. outputs) are instantaneous and other may have undetermined time lag. Gurbani tells us "as you sow so shall you reap". we have to pay for all of our actions - for some of our actions we pay while in this life and for others their "harvest"  becomes our destiny for future life - Gurbani calls it "Poorbala Karam".Guru Fetah Ji</blockquote>

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