Are our decisions taken by the soul or the mind?

Answer Podcast

Between yes and no who takes a decision is it the soul or is it the mind the decision maker is the soul but the decision proposer is the mind just like say A we are working on a computer and we are surfing one particular website at that time suddenly a pop up window comes up now when the pop up window comes up it doesn’t automatically take us to that website we have to choose we click on it then we go to that window we go to that site but the pop up comes up on it’s own on it’s own means how does it come up there is some programming over there and probably if it is customized advertisement then based on the kind of searches we have done earlier and on those sites on the same page if I visit I might get when I am logged in with my idea I might get to see something and on the same page you might see some other advertisements so that is customized so like that the mind has it’s own default settings just like there may be default settings in our computer in our browser in our machine similarly the mind has it’s default settings and based on it’s default settings certain pop ups come up so for example if I feel hungry I can eat any food but if there is a default setting for say gulab jamun the mind says come on take a gulab jamun you could eat anything else you could eat salad you could eat fruit but that is a pop up window that comes up so then it is for us to propose now sometimes if we are not alert then we are just reading something and we click on it and we just go 1 2 3 4 we might just surf 50 websites and not even realize where we are so there was a survey done that people were asked how many on a daily basis how many food choices do you make should I eat this or should I eat this should I eat this much or should I eat that much so survey was done in America and they said people reported that they had done around 12 food choices and actually when they revisited the whole day they found that in an average day they had made 227 food choices but most of these choices were practically speaking not choices because they were not conscious of choosing it so in some cases the proposal and the acceptance of the proposal may happen so quickly that we don’t realize that we are deciding but still it is we the mind cannot take decision from us, the mind cannot act for us, it is we who have to accept the mind’s proposal but the mind can propose in such a persuasive way that we may not even realize that we are being persuaded but that is what self awareness, when you practice meditation, you may feel oh my mind is going here, my mind is going there, I am not able to concentrate but even the awareness that we are not focusing is also one level of awareness so that is also progress so we need concentration, we need at least some basic concentration to be aware that we are not concentrating isn’t it, if I am totally distracted I am distracted and not even aware that I am distracted so even the attempt of meditation, even if not successful that also promotes self awareness and that way as we become more self aware, then we become aware of the dynamics within our actions the proposition comes and then we make the, we deliberate and then we make the right decisions so the mind is the proposer and the soul is the decider does it answer your question? thank you, any other questions?