Freedom from compulsive slavery || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
Speaker: The topic of ‘Compulsion’ and ‘Free-will’ is what we are concerned with. When do you call something a compulsion?
Listener 1: When I am not interested in doing something and I am forced to do something.
Speaker: At a superficial level compulsion is when the mind does not feel interested. And according to you, when you feel interested, then it is not a compulsion. Correct?Listeners(everyone): Yes.
Speaker: So at the basis of concept of compulsion lies the basis of concept of interest. Interest determines whether an activity is a compulsion or not. Now where do these interests come from?
Listener 1: What we gather when others do something.
Speaker: Now you said that compulsion is when ‘I’ am not interested in doing something. So compulsion is when an external influence is acting on you. I asked you about the interests and you said, ‘Interest is that which we gather from others doing.’ What else is compulsion then? If your interests also come from the outside, how are they different from compulsion?
