If we have free will how does Krishna know the future?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
If life is a play of destiny, how Krishna knows the future? Broadly speaking, Krishna’s knowledge of the future is like our knowledge of the past. It is knowledge without intervention or knowledge without control.
I know yesterday morning I did this, yesterday afternoon I did that. I cannot control it now. I cannot change it now.
Although I would like to sometimes. So it’s not that Krishna cannot do something but Krishna chooses to arrange material nature in particular ways that certain things are not possible. So philosophers sometimes differentiate between that which is practically impossible and that which is conceptually impossible.
So God can do that which is practically impossible but not that which is conceptually impossible. So can God make a square circle? Square and circle are two opposite things. So conceptually itself, they are contradictory.
So that way you can say, if you could turn the question around, can God know the future? You can turn the question around, can God change the past? So India got independence on August 15, 1947. Can God change it to India got independence on August 16? So we could say that that which is logically, Krishna only has created a system of logic for the orderly functioning of the world and with the system of logic, some things are not possible. So that is not a limitation of Krishna, that is a limitation of the system which he has created and he honors that system.
Similarly, when you talk about Krishna knowing the future, he knows the broad patterns of which cause will lead to which result, which effect and he knows based on our past tendencies what we are inclined to do. So in that sense of potentiality of knowing the correlation between causes and effects and knowing the inclinations within us which will make us likely to take certain causes of action, in those two senses we can say that he knows the future. But God’s omniscient also has to be balanced with his omnipotence.
If the future is already laid out like say this road is laid out, then does God have the capacity to change the future? If he doesn’t have that, then he is not omnipotent. The future is already not laid out, then he is not omniscient. The future is laid out, then he is not omnipotent.
So the reconciliation is that God is omnibenevolent. He is ultimately the well-wisher of everyone. And his omniscience and his omnipotence are used in the service of omnibenevolence.
So he is not, so his omniscience and his omnipotence are not attributes that he is stuck with. Like somebody is very tall and even if it’s a small door, they are stuck with their height. But Krishna is not like that, stuck with his omnipotence.
His omnipotence and his omniscience are for his service. So when Krishna comes to, as Shanti Doodh to the Pandavas, to the Kauravas, does he know in advance that Duryodhana is not going to listen? At one level he does know. Could he have changed Duryodhana’s decision if he is omnipotent? Krishna is omnipotent but he also respects the free will of the soul.
And therefore, he does not change things. Krishna is coming there and apparently being defeated or apparently failing. How can God fail in something? Rather his failure is meant to demonstrate his omnibenevolence.
That he was ready to go to any extent for the sake of his devotees. And he was ready to go to any extent even to accommodate Duryodhana. So in that sense, there is a failure of the negotiation but there is a triumph of devotion, a triumph of affection of the Lord.
His affection for Duryodhana and especially his affection for the Pandavas is demonstrated through what he did over there. So rather than seeing the future in absolutes, that does God know the future or he doesn’t know the future, we understand that his knowledge is subordinate to his omnibenevolence. His omniscience is subordinate to his omnibenevolence.
And there is room for us for our free will. And we have to see if we feel very worried about the future, what if this goes wrong, what if that goes wrong, what if that goes wrong, then we can reassure ourselves that Krishna will always be in control even in the future and Krishna will take care of things. But if we start feeling that everything is just trying so everything is going to happen as per what is ordained, then what is the use of my endeavoring, what is my free will, if you start thinking like that then you should know that no, we do have free will and Krishna will reciprocate with our intentions.
So, we need to try our best and even if something is trying to happen in a particular way, Krishna can change that and bring good out for us. So rather than focusing on knowledge itself in absolute categories, we can focus on the purpose of knowledge. That is ultimately we are meant for reciprocating love with Krishna and to the extent we do that and we see the philosophy as use the philosophy to interpret reality in a way that is favorable for our devotional disposition.
To that extent we are not just understanding the philosophy but we are also harmonizing with the purpose of the understanding of the philosophy.