The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
~ Albert Camus
“There’s always been war, But people quickly get accustomed to peace. So they think it’s normal. No, war is what’s normal.”
~ Albert Camus
Questioner: Acharya Ji, which ‘war’ is Albert Camus referring to?
Acharya Prashant: The questioner has asked that Albert Camus has said that ‘war’ is what is…
A world champion asks why she cannot sleep when a teammate outperforms her, and why even big wins leave her restless. The restlessness is not a problem but unspent energy, a sign that we have more to give. When every bit of our time and attention goes to what we have chosen, there is no surplus left to worry with. The right fight is never only against an opponent; it is against the ego within. What would it mean to fight so fully that nothing is left to celebrate or mourn?
Physical weakness does not stay physical. It becomes mental weakness, and the ego, which turns everything into an identity, starts saying “I am weak” because that line brings support and spares it responsibility. Visible strength works even unused: it keeps the opponent outside wary and silences the one within, who can no longer claim to be helpless. Keeping the body strong is therefore a spiritual matter, not vanity. Are we holding on to weakness because it is convenient?
Freedom is often assumed to be the ability to choose, yet most decisions arise from conditioning, biology, social influences, and habit. Real freedom begins by seeing how mechanical and unconscious life usually is. As awareness deepens, confusion and endless options gradually diminish, making life simpler and more direct. Liberation lies not in imagining freedom, but in recognising and understanding the forces that keep one bound.
Neuroscience says there is no free will. Vedanta also comes to the absence of free will, but through the route of choiceless understanding. It says that the right action will never be a product of your choice because there's no such thing. The right action happens when you just don't see options — not because you're an idiot, but because you're in love with the right one. So, you don't require choice. You require observation. And then, you don’t have to choose. It’s an effortless flow.
Inquiry is the only route. Otherwise, there is no way you can ever detect whether your thoughts, internal processes, feelings and importantly conclusions and decisions are your own, really original or whether they are products of an implanted process. You will never come to know what has been implanted within that which you are calling as conditioning is an implanted thing and once it has entered your insides it will always appear innate.
