Is Free Will Really Free?

Today, while walking in a park in the evening, I saw a few kids of around 6-7 years of age. They were looking at a plant as if trying to explore the same. All of them except one got bored or had something more exciting in the offing and moved away. One of them was a little more interested in the plant and kept exploring the plant while his friends moved away. However, I could notice the fear on the face of the kid who stayed back, seeing his friends moving away. He was in a fix for a moment and then moved away with his friends.

While coming by Metro along with my daughter in the evening, we had discussions about free will. Whether that kid who was interested in exploration had a free will to explore the plant. Could he have chosen exploration over fear? I am not cent percent sure. However, it appears to me that fear and faith go hand in hand. The sum total of the fear we carry depends upon the life choices we have made during this lifetime and probably beyond that too.

Fear appears to me like the big nucleus and we are like the electron. Like electrons, as we start moving, the fear starts pulling us towards it just like the nucleus pulling the electron towards it using the electromagnetic force. The free will we have is like the velocity of the electron. If the velocity of the electron is low, it gets caught by the electromagnetic force of the nucleus and starts orbiting around the nucleus. We call that the destiny of the electron. If the velocity is a bit higher, the electron moves to the next orbit and the "destiny" of the electron undergoes a complete change. The electron settles in one or the other orbit until and unless it gathers an escape velocity.

The next question arises how does the electron get the velocity? I feel that is a crucial question. My take based on my life experience is that depends on the awareness of the consciousness. That awareness gives the electron confidence to escape the orbit. To escape the comfort and security that the following society provides. Generally, an electron gathers the courage to escape an orbit but gets settled in the next or next to the next orbit. However, gathering that escape velocity requires true awareness. Probably gathering that escape velocity and after that freely changing the orbits requires even greater awareness. That is the reason why Krishna said that Karma Yoga is superior to Sanyasa Yoga.

Another crucial question is how that awareness comes to a being to get that escape velocity? I feel that awareness is always there with every being. We all are the manifestation of the same consciousness and therefore that awareness is always there. It is probably just that we choose ignorance over awareness. We have made different choices in our lives towards that darkness and all those choices cumulatively have made us heavily attracted to the nucleus that it almost appears to be our "destiny". If we start making choices in each moment towards the awareness, sooner or later, we will get the escape velocity. Once we escape the attraction of the nucleus, we always have a choice to move across the orbits without getting stuck anywhere.