CHOICE

Choice

Someone in my whatssapp group asked this question, “Humanism and Human thought, which in your opinion prevails?”

My answer to this was, “Humanism is weaning owing to greed and Human thought is obsessed with greed. Even the concept of divinity is pawned towards the fulfillment of greed. Ironically statistics have shown that more people today belong to one religion or the other compared to about 50 years ago. Well this in accordance to what has been prophesized to happen the in Kali Yuga. Prophecy or not, humans have the mental faculty for reasoning, as such how they use it, is up to the beholder. Either way it is a CHOICE that one make.”

That made me to think…..do we really have CHOICE in life?

Choice can be defined as the ability to voluntarily select from an array of options available or created by the beholder.

That brings to mind Glasser’s theory of choice, which states that human choices are motivated by 5 basic needs, to love and belong, to be powerful, to be free, to have fun, and to survive. However Glasser expounds that these five needs are further influenced by Human Basic Needs (Nature), Quality of the World (Nurture), Reality and Perception (Sensory, Knowledge & Value), Comparing Place (matching what we perceive and what we want), and Total Behaviour (Acting, Thinking. Feeling & Physiology).

In a nutshell what it all means is, the choices we make are very much an externalized outcome. Although Glasser’s theory propounds that human behavior is an outcome based on in internal motivation yet it all connects to an external source nevertheless. So although we can claim that we can technically control our own behavior but in actual sense its merely a manifestation of externalities.

In the Vedanta philosophy the focus is given to the process of knowledge whereby it has categorized six means in the process known as Pramanas. It includes Pratyaksha (Perception), Anumana (Inference), Upamana (Comparison), Arthapatti (Postulation), Anupalabdhi (Non-apprehension), and Sabda (Verbal Testimony). According to the Vedanta philosophy these six valid means of knowledge consciously or unconsciously affects our thought process and influences our behavior in our day to day life which also includes our choice as we know. However one must understand that the emphasis of the Vedanta on the six Pramanas is focused on one’s spiritual journey of self-discovery.

So whether it’s material pursuit or spiritual pursuit the choice we make is the choice of the pathway to realize ones goals. Some may choose the most convenient or popular way and others maybe more adventurous. Which reminded me of a poem by Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken.”

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.” 
by Robert Frost

I would personally hold to a principle that “one should know what they don’t know”, only then the pathway of his/her journey becomes constructive and meaningful.

by

ravivarmman@26082015