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Responsibility brings in
a man thinks or performs can ever be disunited from its effect which in the moral world takes the form of responsibility punishment. involving the idea of liability of the thinker
reward or
or the doer to undergo the consequences of his thought or deed. And as what is in the root comes out in the sap; as the cause passes into effect and the like produces the like, the consequences of a good thought or deed bears but good or bad fruits. It is clear, therefore, that responsibility carries with it the idea of enjoyment of a reward for a good act done or of suffering a punishment for a bad act committed. But So frail is human nature that it only wishes for the fruits of righteous deeds and avoid practising the same, wishes not to reap the harvest of sinful acts whereas wishes only to perpe
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trate sinful things
"धस्य फलं ईच्छन्ति धम्म नेच्छन्ति मानवाः । फलं पापस्य नेच्छन्ति, पाप एव चरन्ति ते ॥"
But the whole aspect of things changes if we were to consider the question, 'Is man in fact so free as to think or do whatever he pleases?" If every man were free, that
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