WILL POWER : The tool of God in a man's hand.
our Intent has severe limitations to it; but our 'will' is limitless.
A change in life always starts within our mind in the form of thoughts. We call these thoughts as intent. But is the intent enough to bring a change? Or is there something more which pushes the life of an individual, on the path of self-development and self-discovery? Of course, there is one more factor which is even more significant than the intent itself, and we call it as a ‘Will’.
Without the presence of an efficient will, any intent is nothing more but merely a vivid imagination of our mind.
Any amount of intent is insufficient and demands more developed thoughts to bring any change.
Before we proceed further, we need to realize the definition of intent. Intent carries a limited amount of positive energy in itself. It has no form to procure the depths in our mind; until it converts into a thought and stays inside the mind as an impression.
As we know that we have several wishes and ideas, deeply rooted to our psyche, but many of these stays deep inside the mind. We call these deeply rooted ideas which are mostly unknown to us, as impressions.
Similarly, these impressions carry the complete blue print of a thought, a desire or a fear; and stay in the depth of our minds. These impressions resurface, once they get the suitable conditions. For example, assume that an individual wants to own a luxury car. He uses to see the picture of his dream car on a daily basis. But as soon, he grows old and gets engaged in the daily businesses of life, he simply forgets about that car. But, one day, he witnesses the same car running on the street. Guess what happens next… He again starts to dream about that car.
the Limitations of Intent.
Although intent can be considered similar to any other thought, but the direction and the energy it uses to carry are its most important aspects. As we can safely say that a small amount of desire needs to be attached to that intent, to convert it into something productive. It acts as a catalyst to introduce action to that intent, and that is we call as productive hope.
For example, assume someone feels that he must travel all around the world. Sounds exciting, isn’t it? Obviously it is. It sounds so positive and full of hope to have a thought of going through such an adventure. However, if this same idea arises when a person is asleep, then we would consider it as merely a dream.
We know the difference between a dream coming out of nowhere in the state of sleep and a person feeling wishful towards any idea while being awake. I am not going to dig deeper into states of sleep and awakening as this is not the purpose of this article. However, it is the presence of intent and a productive hope, through which we can easily distinguish between the dream of a person who is asleep and the thoughts of a person who is awake.
It is the ‘desire’ attached to intent, which changes the intent to something more productive.
In simpler terms, desire should be there. It is the presence of the desire which influences an individual to a great extent. However, many times desire overpowers the one sided intent; only to become an act of greed which demands for more productive results at all costs.
Although our intent is completely free from any kind of negative emotions such as doubts or fear. It is a beautiful representation of positivity in our mind. But what motivates a person to go ahead and work hard to attain success? What inspires him to do the needed action to reach the results? It is the will of an individual, or commonly called as ‘will power’.
A weak Will always leads an individual to a place of discontent.
The will of the God is the will of the man. However, under what criteria should we distinguish between the will of the God and the will of the man? Although it might sound like a stupid question to ask, but it has one very unique quality hidden to it.
You see, this question raises a very significant issue in regards to the beholder of the will. In simpler terms, ‘Who is the beholder of the Will?’ Is it the Man or is it the God? Or even more important, ‘What is WILL?’
It is only a wish which demands for a will, which eventually helps an individual to change any situation. With no wishes, there is no purpose for the will to be there.
A normal person lives his whole life feeling the pressure of duties, which one needs to perform for an ‘efficient’ survival. These duties can go on from earning food, to provide nourishment to his body, to look good while looking at the mirror. As we can also say that we have certain priorities in our mind, through which we might be able to design our own lives in a certain way.
For such a person, who always lives with a very limited approach towards his own life, at sometime it becomes essential to know about the limitations his identity possesses. To simply put, we surely want to dig deeper into our own limitations.
If we try to extend our vision in our lives, we soon shall feel devastated to find out the void; created by the absence of even a single moment which can be considered as ‘complete’. At all the times in our lives, that is what we are always looking for in our lives; a moment of complete control.
As our actions become impure with always craving for a better option, or our eyes fixated towards the result; we feel unable to show indulgence in the moment of doing any action. Or we can say, instead of experiencing the action, one gets involved in planning the action at all the times.
A moment where any of our defilements are absent at the time of our action, automatically connects us to our Absolute Will.
What is ‘will’?
However, the intensity of an individual’s will power can increase and decrease according to outer situations. In simpler terms, we can say that it totally depends upon the individual who wishes to utilize it for any purpose. As only he knows how much of an access he has, to his own will.
However, the usual symptoms which can be seen in a strong willed person commonly include several traits, such as enhanced confidence, calmness and fewer desires.
The power of Will sits much above in the hierarchy, in comparison with the lower order of powers, naming as Action and Manifestation.
But what are the factors which determine the access to this Absolute Will? To find an answer to this question, we would shift our current course to the teachings of Advaita Vedanta or Non-Dualism of Hinduism.
A ‘brief outlook’ over the principle of "Advaita Vedanta" or the Hindu school of Non-Dualism.
The Non-dualism or AdvaitaVedanta, always considers that everything in existence is the Absolute appearing in one form or another. There are no two. There are no separations. In simpler terms, there is no second authority except the Absolute. Whatever is happening is only ‘ONE’ in nature. And that is the Absolute or Atman or Brahman or Purusha or God.
Only HE appears to be the ‘Will’, the ‘Knowledge’ and the ‘Power’, all at the same time.
Only HE is going through the process and IS happening to Himself .
The definition of EGO.
The ‘name and the form’ of the Absolute in any given moment, identifies with these experiences and consider these as its own. It clings hard to the idea of an individual or a separate self, which we commonly call as ‘EGO’.
The cause behind such identification is ‘Ignorance of our true nature’. Furthermore, the cravings to hold on to these identifications are what we call as ‘Maya’.
What is the Universe?
Moving even further, the Absolute is continuously being manifested through various appearances, through ‘space’ ‘time’ and ‘causation’. All these three factors cumulatively appear to the unaware human mind as the ‘Universe’.
What is the ‘law of Causation’?
This is also where we are introduced to the ‘law of causation’. According to the ‘law of causation’, whatever is happening is sending a wave of reactions around the whole universe. But it still affects the most who was the doer of the action. Hence, the results of any action always cling hard to that individual on a finer or microcosmic level. In brief the action’s resultant takes a long while to neutralize. That is where we are introduced to idea of Compassion and Detached Actions.
The wonder of higher powers.
As you can see, our lives and our Ego are happening on a lower plane. It is happening with the combination of ‘causation’, ‘time’ and ‘space’. As we know that will is something changeable and phenomenal, it also belongs to this lower plane.
There can be no will when there is only ONE. However, it is also safe to assume that the will is surely a power, which is much less diluted and more potent than every other manifestation of the Self.
However, if we switch our perspective to consider the Dualistic standpoint; it is the Absolute Will [or in some cases, Knowledge] and the Absolute Power, which first came in to the existence from the primordial being, we call as ‘ God’. After that, the process of differentiation began and the Universe came into existence.
But still the question remains, how one can gain access to this seemingly divine power known as ‘will’? It can surely happen. If an individual is able to go beyond the law of causation, then he would easily find the access to his Absolute Will, which is a constant and all powerful in nature. However, let me make it very clear that we are not talking about renunciation here.
In simpler terms, all he needs to do is to clear his mind to focus on lesser aspects in life. The lesser is the better. However, these various aspects need to be evaluated on a momentary basis. We simply can’t go on and start to say, that today I feel like I have a clear mind hence I am going to revolutionize my whole life. That’s not how it would work.
Try to see what’s going on in your mind. If someone is not having a mind in one single moment, then he surely will witness great confusion in the future. When lesser things are happening in our lives, we often find more control over it. At these times, we feel more composed and calm. We feel more driven towards our duties. To keep it short, it is only about the clarity of mind.
Who gives the blessings?
The will, is an aspect where a human being shares the qualities of God, which can be seen through his actions and manifestation. He is able to materialize the desired result with the help of a pure, wishful, mindful and a focused mind. In the school of Dualism, we call it as a blessing of GOD.
However, it is our own higher powers known as, ‘Will’, ‘Power’ and ‘Manifestation’ all come together and give us the desired result. These higher powers are devoid of any diluted or lower powers such as causation or emotions. However, in the context of Dualism, we can call these as ‘powers which belongs to God’ and the results often considered as a boon or a blessing.
Conflicts and problems of a common man.
But on the other side, a common person always tries to figure out the will power with the help of two aspects. These two aspects are, Absolute Will and Confusion.
We would often listen to people saying that, he is confused about his life. Or, he has struggled so much, yet he successfully achieved his goal. We can clearly see that in one example a person is occupied with many thoughts [questions] while in the other example, the person is quiet clear about the motive, he wants to spend his life with.
Even a small part of the absolute will power, can be seen clearly in the actions of a person; who feels continuous engagement towards his one motive or one goal of life. We usually call this as ‘determination’. No wonder, if a person is determined to persevere towards his realized goal; success acts as the final milestone.
At the end, it is safe to say that the clarity of thoughts and a will to act incessantly, always takes a person to his desired goal. It is a common idea among every prevalent spiritual school throughout the world; as it can be also seen through many historical conquests of a human being.
Let us declare and celebrate the fact that a, ‘Will power is essentially a boon of God, into the hands of a MAN’.
