Did the celestial voice stopping Duryodhana from committing suicide interfere with his free will?
When Duryodhana was frustrated after the after being defeated by the Kandharvas and after he had been released by Arjuna, by Bhima and Arjuna, he felt so humiliated that he wanted to commit suicide. But then there was a celestial intervention, he heard Akashvani and then he was told that he is the incarnation of Kali and that he is being brought to this world for fighting. Therefore, he again chose to fight.
So here again, does Duryodhana have free will? He wanted to commit suicide but he was forced to live. No, Duryodhana was not forced to live. Duryodhana chose to live.
He was out of frustration thinking that I will never be able to defeat the Pandavas and that I have been humiliated so much in front of those whom I wanted to humiliate. So what is the point of my life? Out of that immense frustration he wanted to commit suicide. But when he heard from the Dhanavas that he was actually, that they had performed austerity so that he would be born on the earth and that they would be empowering him and that they would be assisting him in the Kurukshetra war.
Then he felt that his frustration had been premature. That there was still hope for him to become the ruler of the whole world. And so he got, he overcame his frustration by that hope given by the Dhanavas and he chose to fight.
So it was not that he was forced. He had choice. He even had the choice not to commit suicide because he could have just neglected that humiliation and continued on.
But he chose to commit suicide and when he was committing suicide, if you understand the purpose, the purpose was not that he really wanted to commit suicide. He was just frustrated thinking that my life is pointless if I can't defeat the Pandavas. But then when he got the hope that yes I can defeat the Pandavas if I just do this.
Then he got that impetus once again and he decided to fight. He always had his free will and he repeatedly kept misusing his free will. And this intervention by the Dhanavas, although it is of a other worldly nature, it is not divine.
It is demoniac. So there are forces beyond us. Some of those forces are good and they inspire us to do good choices, to do good things and there are forces beyond us which are also inimical, hostile and they impel us to do bad things.
So in this case, Duryodhana's committing suicide was not necessarily a good thing but his thinking that oh I will continue on the path of Adharma and I will fight against the Pandavas and I will eventually win, I will kill them. That was Adharma. He could have decided I will not commit suicide but I will not further antagonize the Pandavas.
I will live in the kingdom and then when the Pandavas exile is over, I will live in their kingdom and we will try to live peacefully. He didn't do that. So it was, he could have done that also.
So obviously he had free will and what did he do with his free will? He continued on the path of antagonizing the Pandavas. So this incident does not at all illustrate the absence of free will. In fact it demonstrates the repeated misuse of free will that already had a pattern and that pattern continued as is demonstrated in this incident.
Thank you.