If Krishna already knew that Duryodhana wasn’t going to agree to peace, then did Duryodhana have free will to choose?

Transcript

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Thank you. Question. How can Krishna have already known that Duryodhana was not going to listen to his peace proposal? If Krishna had known, then does that mean that Duryodhana has no free will? And does Krishna know everything that everyone is going to do? Answer.
Let’s focus on one central issue here. There are conversational statements and there are philosophical statements. So, in normal conversations, it is not always that Krishna is necessarily presenting universal philosophical truths.
So, for example, when he is with Draupadi after the horrendous gambling match, then Draupadi breaks down and asks Krishna, I called you. Why did you come to help me? So, Krishna does not in his answer bring in either his omniscience or omnipotence. So, there when Krishna doesn’t say that I am God or Krishna speaks in normal way, he says, actually, I was busy.
I didn’t know that this happened and I was caught in other things. The demon Shalva had attacked my kingdom and thus Dwarka and I had to be there to defend. So, during normal conversational situations, Krishna doesn’t usually speak too much about ordinary things.
Krishna doesn’t necessarily speak as if he is God. So, here also, when Krishna is telling, this occurs in his conversation with Vidura and Vidura says that, Krishna, why have you come here? Krishna, you know that he is inimical, he is envious and he is not going to listen to you. Then why have you come here? So, at that time, Krishna says that, yes, I know that he is not going to listen to me, but I want to make sure that my devotees, the Pandavas are never blamed.
They incited the war and that’s why I have come here. So, here if we see the mood of the conversation, it is, if Vidura is really, fully in the mood of reverential that Krishna is God, Vidura would not dare to question Krishna’s actions. So, when Vidura also says that, you know that Vidura is not going to listen to you.
So, therein also, the point is, is Vidura omniscient? No, Vidura is not omniscient. Of course not, he is not God. So, the point is that, it’s in a conversational sense that that point is being spoken and not in a philosophical sense.
Like, just like when we have interacted with a person for a long time and we know that they have a particular kind of behavior, so they’re unlikely to change that behavior no matter what happens. Then in that case, it is important for us to recognize that they will not give up, that more or less we can predict based on their past actions and their past behavior that they may not agree to a particular proposal. So, here when Krishna says that, I know that Vidura is not going to listen to us, listen to me, it’s in a conversational sense, it’s not in the philosophical, he’s not speaking philosophically as if he is God.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna does speak in that mood. He reveals the Vishwaroopa and he speaks in his position as the supreme divinity. So, we do see that Krishna does wholeheartedly try his best to dissuade Dhritarashtra for the disastrous war thereafter.
But Dhritarashtra is in no condition to listen because he is obsessed with the kingdom. Thank you.