​Have addicted people lost their free will?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so people who are addicts or people who are driven too much by hatred or anger they are just they seem to have no free will so is it that if free will comes from the soul is it that they have they have lost the connection of the soul or what has happened in the case actually we never lose our free will the free will is always there but the scope of the free will can become increasingly reduced so for example an alcoholic alcohol addict that person has also free will but their free will is whether I should say drink whiskey or brandy it’s not whether I should drink or not there is free will still but the scope of the free will has become restricted so we never lose our free will but depending on how we use it or how we abuse it the scope of the free will can get more and more reduced now when the scope of the free will gets very reduced at that time it may appear as if the particular people have no free will at all but if whatever little free will they have if they use that positively then the scope can increase just like if somebody has had a fracture and their hand has been put in a cast and then after the fracture the cast has been removed now you have to exercise your hand suppose that person had been a weightbuilder weightlifter earlier a bodybuilder could lift huge weights earlier but now they can practically not move their hand you told me to do exercise what exercise can I do I can’t even move my hand it’s ok can you move your finger yeah that is your exercise what is this exercise I used to lift huge weights and you are telling me moving fingers is exercise no that is your exercise at this point and actually to the extent they do that exercise their hand starts healing and initially they may move fingers then they start moving the palm and they start moving the elbow then they start moving the hand so in recovery whatever little capacity we have to exercise we start from that and the capacity increases same way with people who are driven by addiction or driven by very strong emotion even within that they do have some free will and what they do in that free will is very important in general for all of us our desires they have spikes even a person who is alcoholic an addict it’s not that they are craving for alcohol 24 hours a day yes they may have some craving but even that craving is of multiple levels sometimes it is there at a tolerable level and intermittently it becomes intolerable so when it becomes when it comes like a if we consider electricity sometimes there is a spike in electricity shoots up so like that the desire spikes up sometimes the emotion spikes up so now when the spike happens we may not be able to resist but what we do in between those spikes is up to us unfortunately I told you this corrupt software of the mind what it does is first it makes us do something wrong something undesirable come on do it do it do it and that same that same mind which initially made us do it just doesn’t allow us any peace you have to do it do it do it do it and then that same mind which actually made us do wrong that after that after we have done the wrong that same mind becomes a moralizer and says you are such a fool why did you do that you are dumb you are never going to learn you are always going to be like this so the mind first makes us do wrong and then beats us for doing wrong and in this way what happens is in both cases stay at the same mental level so now when the desire spikes up we may not be able to resist it but after the desire has gone what do we do at that time if at that time we try to become spiritual if we try to chant mantras if we try to rise to spiritual level of consciousness then that will purify us that will empower us and if we keep doing that between the spikes we keep doing activities that spiritually strengthen ourselves then eventually we will come to a level when we will be able to resist the spikes also so unfortunately when the spikes come we succumb and after succumbing we beat ourselves up for why did I succumb so what happens instead of that even if I did something wrong ok that’s done over now what can I do right now and if I focus on that and do the right so whatever scope of free will we have if we use it properly that will increase and that’s why we rather than lamenting that I don’t have freedom or I am bound by these desires or I am bound like this freedom comes by using the freedom that we right now have freedom is not just going to come automatically so whatever capacity I have right now I use it it will increase and eventually it will become more and more free does it answer your question