Hobson's Choice or Self Will?
Hobson's choice is defined as no choice. It is an idiomatic expression based on a tale of a Mr. Hobson who was a "hostler" one who rented horses. The story was that often customers wanted choice in selection of a horse. So the instruction to the customer was you can take a horse closest to the stable door or no horse at all. But, this gave the illusion of a choice but was no choice at all. This came to be known as Hobson's choice. Thus Hobson's started being used to represent any situation where an unwilling choice is foisted on a person. This is no choice or a Hobson's choice.
The majority of us live and experience life with the body, mind and intellect apparatus. This has limitations in its power to perceive, act, feel or analyze all that occurs in life. However, the religions of the world propound a theory that we are subject to the law of Karma and we get a reaction to every thought, word and deed. This reaction is not immediate and the fact that it is delayed to the extent that it can go back and forth lifetimes of timelines, explains why bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. The cynical non believer think this is a ploy to rationalize something irrational. Still we see that many rational actions performed with good intent have unintended good or bad consequences. So can we reach the nearly inescapable conclusion that there is no Self will and we are mere straws in the wind who have no control over our lives. The Law of Karma when reflected . on gives us reasons to believe that we have choices in life, hard though they maybe
So by this law the Scriptures have so much to offer.
Law of Causation The most simplistic definition starts with you reap what you sow. If you want happiness you give happiness. Here even as it appears you have no choice in what you sow, the actual fact is that if you chose to sow seeds of unhappiness in life, like choose junk food over healthy food, sloth laziness over exercise, loud music violent games and pulp fiction over, classics, mind games and good reads you will get what you deserve. If you put positive energy in thought, word and deed and do not have any gap between the three you will be rewarded with a everlasting state of bliss as you free from the pressure of projecting yourself in an image which is not your true Self. Hard to follow in life but if you live with the consciousness of the divine within then you can exercise free will and free yourself from the bondage of Karma. Moment you face an adverse situation realize that this is not the doing of the external agent and counter the negativity with rebound positivity. I would refer to a past post of this blog to better understand the choices we can make in relationships.
https://vhjokhi.blogspot.com/2023/08/maitree-karuna-mudita-and-upeksha.html
Law of Creation, Growth and Humility actually means that to create something meaningful in life one has to have a selfless higher pursuit in life and put one's energy into the same. Anything new and creative requires an energy to it and needs to be pursued with determination. For that one has to believe in the cause and create the growth story by embodying the same in all one does. This has to done as an instrument in the hand of the Supreme consciousness without the smallest hint of arrogance or attachment. So once more this negates the theory of a Hobson's choice.
Law of Responsibility and Connection deals with the tendency of us as human beings to blame circumstances outside us for our misfortunes and good fortunes without realizing that nothing happens to us without a reason and even serendipity and black swan events (unexplained events which have major repercussions in life) are a resultant of our Karmas. Everything is inter-connected but we have a choice to convert every negative to a positive and not get over excited with positive experiences lest they take you down a negative path. So we must never choose to blame external circumstances for our misfortunes nor attribute our happiness to outside forces. So we have a clear choice once more.
Law of Focus and living in the moment comes from realizing that each of us has to like any organization have a clear purpose in life which we need to focus on. Even our sleep relaxation or other moments must be aids to fulfill this purpose. This too is difficult in the face of numerous distractions that the present times offer. The over stimulation on account of exposure to objects of sense gratification makes the exercise of Self Will difficult though not impossible. It is even harder to live in the moment but that is why Meditation is so very important and is the only way to attempt living in the moment. On a personal front for me Passage Meditation and 8 point program of Eknath Easwaran is what I try adhere to with limited success. https://www.bmcm.org/
Law of Giving relates to the universe and the observation of how we can take inspiration from sun, trees, seasons, atmosphere, oxygen and water and the resources of mother earth available to us like bounties free of cost. We can take inspiration from this and live a life of giving rather than taking. The present day lifestyle is all about acquisition and enjoyment with fulfillment of desires. This inevitably leads to a chain of desires and leads to an unending cycle of desire laden activities. Whereas you choose to give like nature and you find happiness increasing manifold. The joy of giving is a choice one has to make and your Self will gives you choice as always. So once more there is no Hobson's choice.
Finally the Laws of Change, Patience and Inspiration give one the inspiration to understand that even though we feel that things are bad and we are faced with repetitive instances of misfortune or failure we need to course correct to change our future. For this to happen we need to work hard without being concerned with the final result. This is the central teaching of the Bhagwad Gita. To learn from these time tested immemorial scriptures vs debunking them as mythical nonsense is a choice one has to make.
Conclusion: Hobson's choice reflects ones helplessness in the face of the difficulties of life led by us ignorant beings who think that we human beings are a combination of body, mind and intellect and have not understood the underlying consciousness which is the driving force of the individual and the universe. This is hard to understand but once understand this we are empowered to make choices and we can overcome the Hobson's choices in our life. Only in this way we can live a life Sat Chit Ananda that is Existence Consciousness Bliss.
After years of reflection and study, I am only now beginning to understand the power of the Universal Consciousness which underlies everything that happens without actually getting attached to the body, mind, intellect apparatus. But to claim that I am in control of every situation and am free from body mind intellect consciousness is still not true, although I remind myself of this truth becoming a student of Advaita Vedanta.
Dr. Vispi Jokhi
Dr. Vispi Jokhi
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