Tag: Free will

Miracle of the divine

Life of each life form is like complex string puppetry with numerous strings. While control through some strings seems to be apparent, there are other strings of which it is not clear who controls them, when, why or how.

The miracle of the divine is such that it would be perfectly valid to state that life of each life form is controlled by its own efforts but yet it would also be perfectly valid to state that life of each life form is controlled by circumstances beyond its control.

Life, as we experience it, seems to be a synergy of divine grace and the efforts of the life form. It is entirely possible that the lifeform stops its own efforts and lets the divine guiding force run its life. But it is impossible for a life form to sustain itself by its own efforts alone, given all the wonderous things needed to sustain life.

The divine plays a larger role in the experience each life form has of its own life. With the surrender of the life form to the divine, the need to have a life experience can cease. Without the individual ego and the need to experience life, there would be no need for life to manifest around the individual life form.

Life, then, is an illusory opportunity created by the divine to provide experiences to the individual life forms based on their own ego and desires.

Krishnan

There can be no love without free will

The fundamental need within every living being is to find pleasure. The ultimate pleasure is the pleasure of loving and of being loved. If we do not have that, then all the other sensory pleasures will never satisfy the heart. And the perfect love is the eternal love between the soul and God. But in order for love to be real and satisfying, the supreme absolute has created every living being with free will.

If we do not have free will, then we are like robots. A robot can do incredible things but cannot have relationships, it cannot love. So this is a necessity for love to be true and satisfying—that there be free will. The quality of God is that He is swarat, fully independent. So as His parts and parcels, we also have our minute independence. In order to freely love we must have the freedom not to love. If someone puts a gun on your head and says, “Do what I say, please me according to my desire,” you would probably do it; but will you be really happy doing it? And will that person be really happy forcing you to do it? Not really! But if you had your free will—to reject that person or to want to please that person—that satisfies the heart of both, because there is love.

So God has created everything and everyone in such a way that there can be perfect love. Thus he has given us the free will not to love Him, the free will to accept Him or to reject Him. That is His love.

Radhanath Swami