When Krishna is the cause of all causes how do we have free will?

Transcript

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when Krishna says that he is the everything comes from him or he is the cause of all causes how does that reconcile with the idea that we have free will so firstly the Bhagavad Gita itself at the end says in 18.63 when Krishna comes what to conclude is this deliberate on what I am saying you can do as you desire so this implies that Arjuna can choose what he wants to do now along with this our Acharya for example explains in the Vedanta Sutra commentary also that we are all controlled by our natures but we are not completely controlled if we are completely controlled if we had no free will then that scripture itself would become meaningless in that situation earlier he said that you are not beyond your Arjuna yeah that is immediately after that what does it say 18.61 he says you are riding on a machine made of material nature but the next verse says that is 18.58 that is three verses earlier this is 18.62 after he says that there is Ishwara who is directing the Vandika Pallavi therefore surrender to the Ishwara and by that you will attain peace so we do have the so I would explain it this way where is it that is not said like that see the moha of Arjuna is that he is making a wrong choice and the whole purpose of the Bhagavad Gita is to help him make a right choice if we have no free will then Arjuna has no free will at all if Arjuna has no free will then there is no point in Krishna speaking the Bhagavad Gita no no no no no no there is a difference I agree with you I understand what you are saying there are two distinct ok there is 18.62 in the Bhagavad Gita which Krishna says that that he says that therefore those who think that they are the soul doers they are illusion so doership is not illusion the idea of soul doership is the illusion soul doership means that I alone can do what I want to do right now I am speaking to you I can choose to speak to you or I can choose to walk away I don’t want to have a discussion but if I think I can speak to you if I think I alone am doing this that is the illusion because even if I want to speak I need my body to speak if my throat gets choked I can’t speak if I forget I can’t speak so Krishna says there are five factors of action adhishthanam tatha karta karanam chakta gupta daivam chaiyat pancha so among these five factors the soul is one and there is the field of action you know the four factors so the point is that the illusion is to think that we are the soul doers but to think that we are not the doers at all is to deny the fact that we are also one of the factors of action ok ok ok I will explain this see we will be we get not just because we think it is also the action that we do see if we the illusion is that we think no verse in the Bhagavad Gita can be taken in isolation 3.27 is telling us one who thinks that he is a doer is an illusion but as I quoted at the end of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells Arjuna now do as you desire at the end of the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna says I will do your will so kuru that is karta that is doership so there is clearly but that means I will do that means we do ok see you are differentiating let me differentiate between two things there is absolute independence and there is marginal independence we never have absolute independence so Krishna is the cause of all causes but he is not the cause of all effects what is the difference between the two if any vegetation grows on the earth the rain is the cause of that but which specific vegetation grows where the rain doesn’t cause that some places grains may grow some places weeds may grow that depends on what seeds are over there so the rain is the cause of all vegetation but the rain is not the cause of which specific vegetation grows where so similar Krishna is the doer of everything that is true but we by Krishna’s will by Krishna’s arrangement by Krishna’s arrangement he has given us free will now we can use that free will to serve him directly and favorably or our free will be controlled and we will serve him indirectly and unfavorably through maya so he is the ultimate doer in the sense that he is the ultimate controller without his sanction we can’t do anything there is not a blade of grass which moves without his sanction not his will not his will there is a difference it is not Krishna’s will that Duryodhana disrobed Draupadi it was Duryodhana’s will and Krishna sanctioned it Krishna went as shantidoot he petitioned for peace he sought peace it was not Krishna’s will that Duryodhana refused it was Duryodhana’s misuse of his free will because of which he refused to say that not a blade of grass moves without Krishna’s will means that God is responsible for all the bad things that everyone does God is not responsible you have to read that is fine, that is a leela but not every demon doing anything Hitler killing innocent people is not Krishna’s leela a man raping an innocent woman is not a leela a child getting abused a 10 month old baby getting raped by some pervert man that is not Krishna’s leela it is a horrendous misunderstanding to say that the ghastly suffering in this world is God’s leela it is not God’s leela it is a consequence of the misuse of the free will by people now there is a point that God can bring good even out of the bad and in that sense even the bad can be a part of God’s leela but the bad happening is not God’s leela see Duryodhana Dushyasana’s disrobing Draupadi is not Krishna’s leela Krishna’s intervening to protect Draupadi’s honour that is Krishna’s leela and Krishna is so expert that he can incorporate Dushyasana’s evil action even in his plan so everything that happens let me complete this everything that happens is not Krishna’s plan but everything that happens can be a part of Krishna’s plan Krishna is so expert that we may misuse our free will and Krishna can incorporate that also in his plan but our misuse the whole God concept that means we are not the God is everything in 9.6 Krishna says he gives the example of a sky just as the wind moves within the sky similarly all living beings are situated within me what that means is that the sky doesn’t control the movement of the air the sky controls the scope of the movement of the air if you consider the sky to be like an upside down bowl then within the scope of the bowl the air can move similarly let me complete now all of us by Krishna’s will by Krishna’s plan have been given free will with a certain area over which we can execute that free will so for example we human beings have the free will to walk but we don’t have the free will to fly so for us the bowl which covers us is that the scope of our free will is limited the free will itself is not limited the scope of the free will is limited and based on how we act so the scope of the free will can be expanded or the scope of the free will can be decreased a person who has never drunk alcohol they feel not tempted at all a person who drinks repeatedly becomes addicted so their free will decreases, decreases, decreases further so for us I’ll conclude with this because this can be an endless discussion see there is Krishna is ultimately independent Krishna is ultimately absolute he is Swaraat but by his independence he has chosen to give us independence but our independence his independence is unconditional independence our independence is conditional independence our independence is dependent on him so I would say the word independence I think we have to clarify terms I would not use the word independence I would use the word freedom we have there is a difference we have unlimited free will within a limited framework let me we are bound just like a horse which is tied to a pole so within the radius of the rope the horse is free it can go up, it can go left it can go right, it can go front, it can go back but it cannot go beyond the radius similarly all of us by our past karma have given a particular karmic radius and we can function within that so somebody like Hitler by their past karma had a long karmic radius that means Hitler by his past karma was meant to become famous was meant to become powerful but by his present karma he chose to become famous and powerful in a dastardly way and that led to the consequence which he will get in his future life of the sinful reaction so now you said earlier about we are all bound by our nature to act what this means is that Arjuna as a Kshatriya is bound to act like a Kshatriya he doesn’t have free will about that but what kind of Kshatriya he will be whether he will be a Dharmic Kshatriya or Adharmic Kshatriya that is up to him somebody who is meant to be an intellectual will become an intellectual but whether that person will become an intellectual who spreads knowledge about spirituality or whether that person becomes an intellectual who spreads Atheism that is up to them so there is basic our Swabhava we cannot change we don’t have the free will that is the limited framework we have but what we do with that limited framework that is up to us so when Krishna the same sequence of verses 18.69 Krishna says Arjuna you are bound that you will be forced to act according to your nature you cannot avoid that and then he says but you are here your nature is here beyond your nature is the Ishwara and when you surrender to the Ishwara that Ishwara will guide you to act according to your nature but for good so the Bhagavad Gita’s message is that don’t work for your nature or don’t work against your nature work with your nature for Krishna so