Does God know the future?
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Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
Hare Krishna. Thank you for coming today evening and today I will speak on the topic of Does God know our future? In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says in the seventh chapter He says that I know everything past, present and future but me no one knows. Now if God knows the future obvious problem that comes Is that can you say if what do you think does God know the future? Okay, it's very difficult to say that God does not know something Obviously, how can you say that but what is the problem if you say God knows the future? Yeah Yeah, we don't have free will so When Krishna says I know the future what does he actually mean? And if we see the Bhagavad Gita itself which says That I know the future.
It also says that Arjuna If you do this, this will happen Basically Krishna gives choices if you do this, this will happen if you become conscious of me You will pass all obstacles, but if you don't become conscious of me if you act out of ego, then you will be lost So Krishna is clearly telling that there are choices and there are consequences And the whole purpose of the Bhagavad Gita is to get Arjuna to make a right choice And even at the end of the Gita Krishna acknowledges that Arjuna now it is up to you to choose Now do as you desire So do as you desire means that Krishna is telling Arjuna that you have free will So otherwise what is the point of Krishna saying that you don't have that you do as you desire in fact If we say that we don't have free will Then the whole purpose of there being scripture itself becomes pointless Because scripture tells us this is Baldevidya Vashishtha's argument in Vedanta Sutra that He says that scripture tells us do this and don't do this But why would we tell that to anyone if they were completely bound if they were enslaved? If they had no free will then what is the point in saying do this and don't do this? So here there has to be a fundamental Understanding with which we have to begin that God is not a person like us God see most people Often when they come to a temple and they see the form of God They have a problem with that because they think the form is limited And many times people try to solve this problem that okay God is limited Then they try to solve the problem of the limitedness of God by depersonalizing That oh God cannot be limited we are all persons say right now I'm present here. I cannot be present in Toronto or I cannot be present in India So we as persons are limited So if God is a person then he also will be limited. That's the idea which most people have So now How can so when people say that if God is a person is limited therefore let therefore God has to be impersonal but impersonal Becomes less than personal Isn't it? Impersonal means that God does not have a personality.
God does not have a form He becomes less than person And God cannot be less than us God in every way has to be more than us So there are whenever we function in life there are certain conceptions with which we function So those conceptions themselves have to be questioned Let's give a couple of examples to illustrate this that firstly if we consider If we are drawing if we have a point And if we draw a line with that point And draw a line from that point now in one dimensional space all that we can have is a set of lines If we want to draw any shape in one dimension the only shape we can draw is a line But if you do into two dimensions Then we can draw angles We can draw a right angle we can draw a obtuse angle these we can draw only when we move into two dimensions So when we are in one dimension What we can do itself is limited If we draw a square In two dimensions, but we cannot draw objects in their reality We can draw a circle in two dimensions. We cannot draw a sphere in two dimensions To draw a sphere we need to come to three dimensions So basically What we can do we understand physically if you had only one dimension, we can't draw a circle or a sphere definitely Now we are limited in what we can do by the dimension we are functioning So when we try to understand god There are two ways of understanding him one is the bottom-up approach Where we try to understand him by extrapolating from ourselves Okay, I do like this. So god must be doing like this.
The other is so we could call this as the approach of extrapolation We move from ourselves, but there is the approach of revelation that this is what god is and he reveals himself Another example to illustrate this point further So this is a broad understanding that god exists at a dimension higher than us And because he exists at a higher dimension he is not limited by the way we are limited Now, what does it mean that god does not exist in time? He exists beyond time Now, what does exist beyond time mean? Specifically it basically means that he exists if we consider I talk about this line In one dimension, so we think of if we consider think of time this was a past this is the present this is the future In the past present and future there is moment So if god were existing at any particular point Then the result would be that he would have a past he would have a present and he would have a future But if god exists outside time Then Then for him past present and future Are just things which he observes and he is present in all of them He's present in all of them What do I mean? Let's get to his present to understand time. Let's understand space first Then understanding time becomes easier. Okay, basically let me give the conclusion Does god know the future? So the answer is god's knowledge of the future is like our knowledge of the past I repeat god's knowledge of the future Is like our knowledge of the past What is our knowledge of the past? We know it, but we can't intervene and change it Say today today in the morning.
We wanted to wake up early, but we woke up late And we know I could have woken up at this time, but I woke up at this time We can't change it now. It's the god. It's not that he can't change, but he doesn't change So it is It is knowledge without intervention It is knowledge it is information you could say information without intervention God's knowledge of the future is like our knowledge of the past.
It is information without intervention Now, what does it mean information without intervention? It simply means that He is not involved in the process of Past present and future he is outside it And that's why he can simply observe udasena udasena. He can observe as if detached He is detached in what sense that he is not involved in the complications of whatever happens Let's take another example to illustrate this If we consider Space Now if Somebody as I said that if we want to go from here to here In one dimension we'll have to go like this and then like this you go by the lengthwise and then you go back twice But if we had two dimension you could just go like this So if you wanted to go here if we had say a three-dimensional space over here So we would have to go like this like this like this and then like this Length breadth and then height, but if you draw a diagonal then the distance would decrease So now that means The distance between two points Depends not just on the physical how far they are but how many dimensions separate them so if There are if we are functioning one dimension The distance will be say if this is one and a half feet. This is one and a half feet This is whatever it is.
It will be three times the distance a b a plus b plus c But if we are going to draw a diagonal it will be much lesser So just as the distance between two points Decreases as the dimensions available to us increase Similarly for krishna he exists with access to infinite dimensions And that's why he can be present with everyone at the same time He can be present in your heart and he can be present in my heart at the same time Now god's omnipresence means that he is equally available to every one of us That he suppose some people ask say we often say we pray to god and then god helps us So if we pray to god Some people may ask okay Thousands of people are praying to god at the same time So does god have a parallel processing brain? By which he can attend to all the prayers Or is it that he attends to one prayer and neglects other prayers? No God doesn't exist in a level of reality like us Let's take another example that of a novel If somebody's writing a novel When the author is writing a novel Now the author decide That okay this character is at his home And now he can go to his office He can Go to a park He can go Turn on a tv at home or he can call a friend All these options are there and for the character That decision May happen is just one moment to next moment For the character Okay, you can open the door and take a car and move this way take a car and move this way Or not open the door at all that decision may happen within moments For the author Who is writing the script of the character writing the plot The author may spend hours Thinking about what plot twist to have When the author spends hours deciding the plot twist That means the author is Available for hours and hours for that character to decide what that character is going to do And now while that author say that that particular character is a hero and there's a heroine Now the heroine may Also be deciding i'm going to do this i'm going to do that And she also has to decide among various options and her decision will also be in a split second in a few moments not a split second But when the author is going to decide that the author is available For each character to make each decision For as much time as needed There are 10 characters and 10 characters are acting in the in the novel each character The author is available with that character Now we may say but actually In the case of the author the author is actually deciding what the characters do isn't it but In our case, it is not god who is deciding it is viewer deciding we have free will Yes That's an additional twist which can be understood when We try to write something and anybody who becomes an author and write something They soon realize That the characters have a mind of their own But as a famous author who said that actually how do you write novels he said The characters appear to me and I just follow them and note down what they're doing That means That there is a when the author is writing there is both spontaneity and And deliberation there's something which is deliberately conscientiously decided and something which is spontaneous Okay, this is like that this is like this so similarly for us With respect to krishna krishna exists beyond the level of reality Which we existed so the example of the novel if we consider that simply for this point That the author exists at a different level of reality from the characters in the novel And therefore the author can give as much thought and time as is required for each character without Interrupting or slowing down the flow of the plot Similarly krishna is equally available for each one of us without He being Overtaxed Overtaxed oh, so many people are calling to Krishna he has he says he has the capacity to expand in space Similarly, he has the capacity to expand in time So when he expands let's all if all these things are abstract let's look at a story to understand this In the mahabharata When the pandavas finish their 12 years of exile First in the forest and then one year incognito after that They are at the kingdom of virat and then the king the king of virat he offers uh He offer is a delighted because arjuna and the pandavas have protected him from the attack of the kauravas so he Offers arjuna his daughter in marriage And arjuna says no I was a dance teacher So I won't marry her let her marry my son So then she marries abhimanyu And then it's a celebration. So at that time both the pandavas have finished their exile and There's a marriage in the family the wedding so Various well-wishers and kings come over there. So drupada also who is the father of draupadi comes over there And then they begin the process of negotiating peacefully to get the kingdom back So drupada sends his brahmana priest to after the consulting with the pandavas and he gives a Firmly word strongly worded message.
He says the pandavas have honored their part of the commitment now Now, please give the kingdom back to them And dhritarashtra hears silent and he says i'll send back my reply soon and i'll send it with sanjay my messenger So when sanjay goes dhritarashtra gives him a very clever message dhritarashtra thinks is there any way I can keep the kingdom and I can keep the peace So he says oh pandavas all of you are virtuous and you know the way of virtuous people He says all of us we are engaged in this world and we have to renounce the world So eventually everybody has to take vanaprastha You are so fortunate that you are already vanaprastha So why do you want to get back to the household way of life now Why do you want to fight against your relatives to get a kingdom which you will renounce eventually So you already continue to be vanaprastha And continue to be in the retired order of life and progress spiritually I wish you all good wishes. I offer you all my good wishes So now this is a sneaky argument There is something there is one way If there is somebody shooting Somebody shooting and they have to hit a target Now, it's not easy to take aim and be able to hit the target. So some people what they do is They shoot first And wherever they hit they say that was my target So dhritarashtra was like that in this case What was dhritarashtra doing? He somehow tried to sneak some way by which he could keep the kingdom So now yudhisthira replies That when Sanjay did we say that we want to fight a war Since we only want to do our dharma And there are different dharmas at different times Since we still have our dharma to our ancestors We have to beget progeny and continue our lineage Continue our line.
We have dharma to our citizens We have to protect them and serve them as their protectors and kings So for doing our dharma we need a kingdom That is the dharma of Kshatriyas So therefore He says that we are fully ready to live in peace with you We have no desire for war we are not bent on war it is only those who stop us from doing our dharma That they are bent on war So then when Sanjay goes back with this reply then after that the next thing that happens is Dhritarashtra realizes that there is not going to be He's not going to be able to keep the kingdom, but he refuses to reply He doesn't He doesn't answer at all when Krishna says that I will go as a peace messenger When Krishna goes as a peace messenger It's extraordinary Why is it extraordinary? Because Krishna is Known by everyone that he's the most powerful person He has is brought down demons Who had terrorized the whole world demons like Kamsa So Krishna going as a peace messenger is like say there's a conflict between India and Pakistan then maybe the Indian secretary of state or somebody goes to meet the Pakistan secretary of state and they try to Have some discussion to resolve the tensions and have peace But suppose the Indian prime minister goes for petitioning for peace Then the position of the person who is going with a proposal also matters Say somebody has a party at their house somebody has some program at their house And then they send us an invitation. They call us and tell us to come Or they send an invitation to someone else or they themselves come to invite us Uh, then it who is inviting or who is proposing also matters position So when Krishna comes he stays initially, it's a long story. I won't go into the full story But he he stays at the house of Vidura And Vidura is agonized He's thinking that now already Duryodhana has planned and he said that when Krishna comes if he We will win him over by giving him A lot of comforts a lot of luxuries will offer him such honor That he'll be overwhelmed And we will win him over to our side.
And if he can't win him over to our side then What we will do? we will Arrest him When Bhishma hears this he talks about his proposal. He says this is outrageous He said a peace envoy is never to be arrested and on top of that what harm has Keshav done to a few ever? He said to even consider arresting him is sinful beyond words You will never succeed because Keshav is all powerful But even trying it will condemn you And Bhishma gets so angry he walks out of the assembly But the news spreads and Vidura is tormented by the thought he said the same assembly where Draupadi had been so grievously dishonored In that same assembly Krishna is going and Krishna may also be dishonored over there He says I cannot tolerate this How much dishonor can I tolerate of those whom I respect? And thinking like this he approaches Krishna and he says Krishna Why have you come for this peace proposal? Krishna you know that the Pandavas That the Kauravas are not going to accept your peace proposal You know that they are not going to listen Then why have you come here? So Krishna says oh Vidura, I also know that Duryodhana is adamant Duryodhana is stubborn and he is not going to listen to the peace proposal but I want to make sure that nobody Blames my devotees for causing the war So I want to show the world that the Pandavas did everything possible to avoid war Sometimes we may say that I have done everything humanly possible The Pandavas did everything humanly possible and everything divinely possible also Krishna is God himself and he came on their behalf So now When Krishna proposes peace At that time he used Saam, Daam, Bhed and Dandar He initially Saam, Daam, Bhed and Dandar four ways of Negotiation first is Saam means reconciliation, you know, actually both of us have common interests So by that way try to avoid the conflict. He says actually Pandavas and Kauravas are all part of the same family As he says to Dhritarashtra That if you have the Pandavas as your protectors Nobody will ever dare to threaten you And the Kuru kingdom that has existed for so long flourishing will continue for a long long time to come And Dhritarashtra hears and says okay, so whatever you say I fully accept it It's I have no desire for war But my son doesn't listen to me So, please speak to him Dhritarashtra basically washes off his hands It's like sometimes In some countries there is There is a there is in India also it happened before five years before that there was one person on the chair There's another person in power So there's a remote control head of the state So like that Dhritarashtra was on the throne But Duryodhana was in power And then He Krishna after that addresses Duryodhana.
So Saam, Saam means reconciliation Hmm then Saam, Daam, Bhed and Danda So then Krishna turns to Duryodhana and he starts speaking and he says Oh Duryodhana You if you have the Pandavas as your brothers as your cousins your friends the kingdom that you have Nobody will dare to threaten that kingdom You can enjoy prosperity over your kingdom if you give the Pandavas their kingdom And Duryodhana doesn't listen to this then Krishna tells him that Danda he uses he says that If you don't give the Pandavas their kingdom Bhima will destroy you and he will destroy all your brothers Since he has been waiting for 13 years to vent his anger I do not think He will be able to stop him You have confidence in Karna, but Arjuna has single-handedly defeated all of you just recently at Virat This is your whole all of you will be destroyed At that time On Krishna speaks so I'm just very briefly the arguments Krishna speaks so persuasively that even Dushasan temporarily becomes overwhelmed and Dushasan says And yes Duryodhana should agree to peace and if he does not then we will all arrest him tie him up and hand him over to Krishna Wow Duryodhana gets furious But then somehow Duryodhana wins Dushasan back over again and then Krishna uses Bheja, Saam, Daam, Danda and Bheja so he uses Daam he says Actually, if you want the kingdom you keep the kingdom just give five villages to the Pandavas and then When he says no to that also, so Krishna actually creates Bheja, Bheja means Initially what happened Duryodhana and Dushasan were together, but Krishna Creates a dissension by presenting things so reasonably that Dushasan Starts coming on Krishna's side, but Duryodhana walks out over there and Duryodhana walks out Then at that time Dushasan is there and other Pandavas, Kauravas are there So other 98 Kauravas look at Duryodhana, look at Dushasan Duryodhana has always been their leader And one by one they all also walk out and Dushasan is left all alone Dushasan also walks out Dushasan is very embarrassed now And Duryodhana is so intelligent And Duryodhana says he's talking with his brothers says Krishna is very cunning He can, he can Manipulate the minds of anyone And Dushasan peeks in And Duryodhana is nonchalantly says isn't it? Duryodhana says Krishna is so cunning that he can manipulate anyone's mind. He has just manipulated your mind, isn't it? Oh, yes. Yes.
Yes. Krishna is very cunning So what Duryodhana does is he gets Duryodhana of Dushasan off the hook By telling him that it's Krishna is cunning. He does not say it does not hold him responsible.
How dare you go against me? So anyway Then Saam, Daam, Bhed and Danda now all of them fail And Krishna offers five villages. He says just give five villages. What is Duryodhana's reply? Duryodhana says I will not give enough land to put even the tip of a needle through To put of a tip of a needle through.
Now, what does this mean this reply? There are different ways of saying no Sometimes if you invite someone for a program and they say actually I'm busy so I can't come for your program. I got this disengagement That says no to the request It is not on the note not no to the requester But if somebody says if you invite them for a program and they say that even if I die My dead body will not come to your program That is not no to the request that is like a banging no to the person itself So Duryodhana's no is like this. He says I will not give you Enough water enough land to put even the tip of a needle through That means I am not interested in the reconciliation at all When he tries to arrest Krishna, Krishna shows his vishwaroopa And Duryodhana's plan is baffled and then Krishna laughing departs from there and he tells Dhritarashtra All of you have seen how obstinate this wretched prince is And he is doomed And all those who support him will also be doomed So in a sense what Krishna has said happens Duryodhana is not going to listen to him.
Duryodhana is not going to accept the peace proposal So then if Krishna knows the future Then why did Krishna go as a peace proposal with a peace proposal that is because of his love for the Pandavas So this brings us to the most important point I gave some examples of how Krishna pervades space and pervades time Pervades space because he exists in unlimited dimensions And thus every point is equally accessible to him and like a novel writer He is available for each character to make every decision But the most important thing when we are trying to understand Krishna Is that Krishna is omniscient, Krishna is omnipotent But he is not stuck with either of them Some atheists argue that actually there is a problem in the defining characteristics of God itself That if you say God is omniscient, that means he knows the future He knows everything and God is omnipotent. That means he can do everything So if God knows everything then he knows the future also, but if he knows the future then can he change the future If he can change the future then does he know the future So they argue that God's omniscience and God's omnipotence they are contradictory That if God can know the future then he can't change the future That means he can't do everything And if he can do everything then he can't know the future So actually to understand this, reconcile this, the important thing is to understand that God is not just Omnipotent or omniscient God is omnibenevolent Omnibenevolent means he is supremely loving Why is it relevant to say that he is supremely loving? That means that God is not stuck with any of his attributes Some people may be extremely tall Now being very tall that height has an advantage you can see much further than what other people can see But suppose there is a door which has a low ceiling Then they are stuck with their height They may bump their head and they have to go down and come So somebody has an attribute of being very tall Then they are stuck with their height But Krishna is not like that Krishna is omniscient, but he is not stuck with his omniscience Say in this month, we celebrate the damaudar leela So when Krishna steals butter and breaks the butter pot and runs away and then Krishna is Giving some butter to the monkeys While giving butter to the monkeys, he is looking behind. Mother Yashoda coming, Mother Yashoda coming, she is looking here, looking there She is giving a little more butter and looking here again giving butter Now Mother Yashoda comes right from behind She actually is from this side She comes and she says Krishna is there and she just hides behind.
She looks from there and she comes right from behind Krishna She comes from behind Krishna At that time Krishna looks from here looks here. He doesn't notice her And then he is feeding butter to the monkeys and the monkeys see The monkeys get scared and as soon as the monkeys get scared Krishna looks at them looks at his mother and jumps down and starts running Now as soon as Krishna starts running He is running frantically. Oh, my mother is angry with me.
She'll punish me. I have to run for my life At that time Does Krishna know? That oh my mother is going to catch me and then she's going to tie me up and then she's not able to tie me up And then she'll get more ropes and then finally after great effort. She will tie me up so Does Krishna know all this? The point of the leela Is not knowing the point of the leela is relishing It's a very important point to understand the whole purpose of the leela is not just to know what happens The purpose of the leela is to relish what happens So Krishna He Actually is god, but he delights not in his godhood.
I am god. I know everything He delights in the reciprocation of love And because he delights in the reciprocation of love by the arrangement of yoga maya his knowledge Becomes temporarily covered by his own will So that when he is reciprocating love with his devotees at that time No one he it's almost as if he forgets He doesn't forget but it's as if he forgets So that he can reciprocate love with his devotees So going back to the earlier example of script writer. I talked about it Say krishna leela Is like a drama in a drama.
There's a director And for the drama to be enjoyed by the Artists as well as the audience what is important is that each character? Each actor enter into the character And krishna is performing his leela which is like an eternal drama Then when krishna plays the role of a small child he enters into that role Unless somebody enters into a particular role. They cannot actually enact it that well So that to for them to enjoy those and enjoy the role of their character and for the audience to enjoy There has to be immersion if the actor is not immersed the audience will not be immersed So the actor's immersion is vital. So what happens is krishna is the actor And yogamaya is the director So the yogamaya says yogamaya arranges.
Okay, this will happen. This will happen. This will happen and this is a director directs And all the actors act accordingly now if you consider in most movies the Hero or the heroine are far far more well known and will much much wealthier also then the directors But in the movie the hero and the heroine act according to the director But there's a further twist to this the director doesn't just direct arbitrarily The director directs according to a script The script writer provides the overall narrative the script and the director directs according to script So in krishna leela krishna is the actor yogamaya is the director And krishna is the script writer So krishna is controlled by yogamaya but yogamaya is controlled by krishna So in this way in krishna leela there is achintya bheda bhed Krishna is not in control and krishna is also in control Krishna is in control because he is the script writer and everything is happening according to his script But krishna is not in control because as a as a play as an actor in that drama He has entered into the character So when krishna is running away from his mother He is actually running for his life.
He says my mother is so angry. I have done so much mischief She will punish me. Oh, no.
No, I cannot be caught. I cannot afford to be caught. I have to run Krishna runs for his life So That lord from whom fear runs that lord runs in fear of his mother that is the wonder of Krishna as god So krishna now now this dynamic So krishna as god, he always remains god But his divinity is never challenged Nobody else can usurp his position as god but at the same time for the purpose of leela He chooses to subordinate himself To yogamaya and what is the purpose of leela? The purpose of leela is reciprocation of love If you should know that actually krishna is god and Whatever i am giving krishna.
It is krishna only who has given me Then there will be no reciprocation of love over there There can only one way relationship. Oh god. You are so great.
I bow down to you But if there is multi if there are multifarious relationship that are to be had then krishna takes on the role that is required for that So now going back to the point here does krishna know the future in his leela? Yes, he knows But the point is not knowing The point is relishing And for relishing yogamaya acts in such a way that krishna forgets Krishna forgets. So krishna when he is running away from yogamaya he is Entered into the character of a child who is after doing mischief running from his mother Now, let's bring this down to the past time which we just discussed When krishna goes as shanti doodh As the messenger of peace to the kauravas at that time krishna in a sense knows What is going to happen But krishna his purpose is not just to control what happens his purpose Is to reciprocate love His purpose is what to reciprocate love And thus out of his love for his pandavas he goes to the kauravas And he petitions for peace and when he is petitioning for peace At that time he is not thinking. Oh, Duryodhana is not going to listen.
Why should I do all this? Krishna focuses on how can I best express my love for my devotees? And thus he does his best And Normally nobody likes to fail If somebody's gone for a expedition somebody's gone for a mission Nobody likes to say that. Oh, I failed on this mission So krishna goes on the mission for peace and he fails Now we all fail sometimes in our lives Because factors beyond our control They just work in a particular way that we can't do anything Now can god fail? God is omnipotent, isn't it? Yes, god is omnipotent But this is a very important point God is the supreme controller But he is not the sole controller God is the supreme controller. He is the parameshwara But by his arrangement he has made others also ishwara There are various other devatas who have their powers So god is the supreme controller, but he is not the sole controller He has given every soul free will And based on that free will That soul can act in different ways And when that soul acts according to free will Each soul by their past karma has been given a kshetra.
Kshetra is the area of influence Or the area of control more precisely So durdhana by his past karma Had been given the area of control that he is a prince and he has princely power Now with that princely power what he will do that Is not what krishna decides That is what durdhana decides So this means that krishna does not control everything I'll give another example to illustrate this In the bhagavad-gita itself the example is given In the bhagavad-gita itself the example is given Krishna says that just as all living beings Exist just as the wind moves in the sky The sky controls the area of movement of the wind The sky doesn't control the specific movement of the wind Whether the wind moves left or right or up or down the wind the sky doesn't control that Similarly krishna says all living beings reside in me that means they act within the purview of my will But I don't control which way they act do like this do like this do like this do like this So that means krishna is Again going back to the example that for for us. This was the past. This is the present.
This is the future But for krishna he exists outside the time domain Because he exists outside the time domain so there is no conception of past present or future for him And because there is no conception of past present or future for him. So therefore Existing outside the time domain. He can observe And he can know the future Without our Being deprived of freedom Okay, let's another example right now we are free So each of us say I have spoken one sentence and I can speak some other sentence I choose to speak a particular sentence While sitting you can hear a particular sentence you can say, okay I'm interested but this is too difficult to understand.
I can't focus so much You might decide to think of something else or you might decide to focus So now is your action free freely chosen Yes, and you can choose to pay attention or not pay attention so Krishna knows the present and still that doesn't impede your free will or our free will to choose the present Similarly krishna knows the future, but that doesn't impede our free will to choose the future I'll give two more examples and then I'll open for questions If we consider somebody has made a map say gps has got the whole world mapped about Now On the map If There's a particular path. It takes a if you turn this way you go to the city You turn this way you go to the city turn this way you go to the city So now there are different paths which lead to different destinations The when if a person who has made the map That person is observing They know if people take this road now at this turn that the tree three roads are there And takes the road this road they'll go here this road. They'll go here this road.
They'll go here So this can't be changed If you take a particular road, you're going to get to a particular station So in that sense if you consider That which cause will lead to which consequence Which action which will lead to which destination? That the person who is driving if they don't have a map, they don't know it But the person who has made the map and who's aware of the map they know it So now if you take this further To the point where we understand that This is not just a if Just as the map is Spreading out is describing territory that has spread out in space The territory that has spread out in space And for a person who is traveling on the on a journey They are at a particular point and there is okay. This was where I was in the past This is where i'm going to go in the future but There are different paths and each path will lead to a particular destination For them they have not yet reached the destination but others For some for the map maker they know which path leads to which destination So similarly for us You know if we what applies to a map in space We can try to visualize a map in time A map in space refers to Territory being mapped out this path this destination this path this decision Now similarly if you could have a map in time not just in space Then this territory leads to this destination this territory leads to this destination And that way if we move forward Then we understand that krishna can know past present and future, but he will not intervene Now ultimately what is the purpose of of knowing about krishna There's a verse in the bhagavad as in the upanishad which says that One who thinks he knows Does not know And one who knows he does not know knows That means ultimately god is unknowable The purpose of knowing god is not just to know god it is to love god And if you understand this the way to approach krishna is So that you can love him The purpose of knowing krishna is not to know krishna in full we can never know krishna in full It says somebody is a geologist And they want to study the earth They want to study some particular rocks which are there in the rocky mountains Then they go there the rocks won't come to them They go there and they study the rocks the rocks stay there as it is So in this case all the initiative has to come from The person who wants to study Now instead of a geologist say consider somebody the zoologist And they want to study Say pandas in the wilderness They want to study animals in the wilderness Now in the case of animals Zoologist has to go to the animal But the animal can go away So in that case It's It's the initiative has to come from the zoologist But there has to be some kind of sanction or reciprocation from the object of study also Without that sanction the animals run away and they can't study They may say that i'll catch the animal i'll kill the animal and i'll study the animal Well, that's dead. What are you going to study over there? So you if you want to study the animals in their habitat in the wilderness then they have to cooperate Now take this further ahead And suppose we want to meet some very big person If somebody wants to meet the president of the head of state of canada the president of america the prime minister of india Somebody wants to meet Then in that case So in the case of the zoologist the zoologist has to go there and the animal has to also cooperate In the case of a person who is bigger than us At that time it's not just we have to go that person has to take initiative So unless there may be thousands of people who want to meet the head of state So the initiative may have to come from us, but the major part in meeting Has to come from them Now if you take this further higher up That in the case of krishna He's a supreme being he's far far greater than any head of state And if we are to connect with him Certainly a citizen has to take the initiative to try to meet the head of the state But it is there is a citizen's initiative and there is the head of the state's prerogative Prerogative means a privilege the right whether I want to meet or not want to meet I have 100 things to do I can't meet you so similarly there's the prerogative of the Supreme being now it's interesting that krishna speaks this verse Just after speaking the previous verse that is I am not known to everyone I am covered over by yoga maya Those who are deluded do not know me So here the point is that For us our purpose is to know krishna so that we can love krishna just as in krishna leela The point is not just knowing what is going to happen.
The point is to relish what is happening Similarly Whether krishna knows our future or not What is important is krishna loves us and if we choose to love him Then our future is always bright We can't know what the future holds but we know who holds the future We know who holds the future Krishna is with us in the future also krishna was with us in the past Krishna is with us in the present and krishna will be with us in the future And with this understanding In every situation rather than thinking. Oh does krishna know what is going to happen? Is this going to happen is that going to happen focus on how best can I serve krishna in this situation? Krishna, you are my lord. I am your servant krishna.
I want to serve you Please guide me. How can I serve you? We have this mood That we find that whatever the future holds good or bad Krishna will take us through the good and through the bad ultimately to him who is the best Krishna tells arjuna in the bhagavad-gita that By my arrangement all the opponents are killed And prabhupada says that then krishna arjuna doesn't tell krishna krishna. You already killed the opponent that I should I fight the war No Krishna says arjuna says That I will fight to glorify you to serve you and that's how krishna also tells arjuna Become my instrument And that is what arjuna does and that's how arjuna becomes glorified As the person who brought down the foremost warriors on the opposite side And krishna gives arjuna the credit The bhagavad-gita concludes with Wherever there is krishna wherever there is arjuna, there will be victory there will be Opulence there'll be power there'll be morality So it's interesting that now why does krishna why does krishna that last verse have to include arjuna You could say wherever there's krishna there is going to be victory Wherever there's krishna there's going to be opulence Wherever there's krishna there's going to be power, isn't it? Krishna is the lord the goddess of fortune So wherever he is all this is going to be there So then why include arjuna in the list The purpose of the gita Is not just to glorify god's position.
It's not just to proclaim god's position The purpose of the gita is to transform man's disposition To transform arjuna was unwilling to fight initially and arjuna became willing to fight at the end of the war so By krishna's arrangement The opponents were killed But arjuna had the free will And krishna spoke the whole bhagavad gita so that arjuna could use his free will and fight the war Win the war and gain the credit So the whole point Is not to know what is going to happen in the future. The whole point is to reciprocate love with krishna as we move towards the future So krishna, how can I love you? How can I serve you? How can I attain you krishna? So if we keep that mood of love just as krishna keeps that mood of loving reciprocation In his pastimes and thus he relishes those pastimes So similarly if we keep that mood krishna, I want to serve you Then krishna Will Reveal to us that he is always with us And that in remembering him in loving him our future is always bright And in that sense a devotee also knows the future We don't know what is going to happen at the material level At the spiritual level by our connection with krishna by our absorption in krishna We can always be absorbed and thus we can tolerate and transcend life's ups and downs So by focusing on krishna What happens? we get the Confidence to move through life whatever it sends our way So i'll summarize I spoke on the topic of does krishna know the future? I started by speaking that if krishna knows the future does it mean that we don't have free will I said no krishna knowledge of the future is like our knowledge of the past It is information without intervention How does that information without intervention work out I gave examples that Krishna is not limited by space and time Krishna exists outside space and time and therefore He in his existence is different from ours so In a in one-dimensional space to go from a one particular distance to another distance Will take some time in two-dimensional space if to go from here till here In one-dimensional space will take three journeys in three-dimensional space. It will take only one year so if we Raise this to multiple dimensions to infinite dimensions, then every point Will be connected with the shortest distance at every other every other point So krishna is like that point So krishna is is For us space is all spread out Because we exist in three-dimensional space But krishna exists in omni-dimensional in unlimited dimensions.
So for him the space that is spread out is all connected And thus krishna can pervade all of space krishna can be present in your heart in my heart and everyone's heart at the same time so god's omniscience God's omnipresence is relatively easy to accept Because we accept the space is spread out and static But his omniscience his knowledge of the future becomes a little difficult to accept because there the free will comes into the picture Then I talked about the author author author Writes the stories of the characters And when we offer prayers to krishna If 100 people are offering prayers to krishna krishna doesn't have to do parallel processing to be with at high speed to be with everyone Krishna is personally with everyone just like when author is writing a novel each character's decision That is taken The decision may be taken a split movement, but the author is there to deliberate as long as is needed for the character to make the decision Now it may appear that the other characters programmed no the characters have a life of their own And krishna is a supreme controller, but not the sole controller So krishna gives us free will But free will within a limited jurisdiction Just like the wind can move within the jurisdiction of the sky I talked about the krishna going as shanti doodh as a peace messenger Where krishna knew the future that durudhana was not going to accept the peace proposal and yet krishna went Why? To demonstrate his love for his devotees the pandavas and demonstrate the world to the world And the pandavas did everything humanly possible and divinely possible to avoid war And then I discussed damodar leela briefly outlined that the the point is not knowing what happens Not to know what happens the point is to relish what happens So krishna is like the actor in a drama and yoga maya is the Director and then krishna himself is the script writer So that means krishna is in is in not in control when he enters into a particular role He fully enters into it and forgets that he is god But at the same time Whatever is happening is ultimately under his control So similarly when we Want to act in life at that time Rather than worrying too much about whether krishna knows the future does that mean i am not free We see the mood of the bhagavad-gita is krishna tells arjuna your enemies are killed, but then you take up the initiative and fight Similarly, we take up the initiative to serve krishna And if we strive to serve krishna to the best of our capacity Our future will always be bright And krishna will be with us in the past in the present and the future at all times Krishna is that lord who pervades space and pervades time And the whole purpose of approaching krishna is not to know him It is to love him Krishna is not like a geologist objects of study or a zoologist object of study or even a Social activist object of wanting to meet the head of state krishna is supreme So our if our initiative to meet him is required, but it is his prerogative To whom he reveals himself So what to whom does he reveal himself to those who approach him with love? So god's omniscience and his omnipotence They may seem contradictory, but they will be reconciled if you understand that god is not stuck with his attributes all his attributes Are in the service of his omnibenevolence of his loving nature And out of his love he does everything and when we approach him out of love Then we will experience his omnibenevolence and thus whatever the future holds for us By focusing on the one who holds the future we can face the future and grow to krishna through that future Thank you very much So sufficiently confused Any questions or comments So krishna chooses whom he reveals himself to so how to ensure that krishna chooses us There are two aspects to this one is we say krishna chooses does that mean that krishna Doesn't want to choose someone That krishna is krishna Is krishna is? reciprocal at the same time He's personal What is so he because it's personal. What does that mean? I'll explain this with two examples Once prabhupada was on a morning walk and they were passed by a lake And when they passed by the lake at that time there's a man who was feeding some crumbs to a duck so the ducks in the lake I was throwing some crumbs to the ducks and the ducks were coming forward and All of them were getting something but there's one duck that was quacking especially loudly And this man was feeding more to the duck And prabhupada said this is how we should call to krishna the more we call to krishna the more he will Give us now here We often say krishna's mercy is causeless So krishna's mercy is causeless means what now that duck's quacking Does not Necessarily force the person to give the crumbs more That person who is a donor is not bound to give more to somebody who approaches more But The person who approaches more the person who calls out more that person is possibly likely to get more So what is in the hands of the duck or in the it's just a croak to quack rather So similarly what is in our hand is to call out And if we call out more and more we show krishna our desire that we want him We want to attain his mercy. So krishna will choose us That's one way that our endeavor doesn't force krishna, but our endeavor attracts krishna Having said this The other point to understand is Actually Our endeavor is not so much to attract krishna or Our endeavor is more to Open our heart to krishna Because krishna krishna as prabhupada would say krishna wants us to come to him more than we want to come to him But our heart is misdirected to many other things And because of that Because of that misdirection Krishna is not able to reveal himself to us Say a simple example that the sun gives light to everyone But if somebody's eyes are closed They can't see the light of the sun they can't see the light of the sun so now At one level we could say krishna.
Please give me light. Please give me light The other level krishna has already given the light As I only have to open my eyes So for us when we say krishna has to choose us It is rather we could say that we have to let ourselves be chosen by krishna That krishna already wants us to come to him. It is just that we have so many other desires that we are not ready to go to him So in this second example the stress is what it is not so much on that It's not that krishna has some special mercy that he's holding on to and he doesn't want to give It's not like that krishna wants to give his mercy to everyone But it's just we who are not able to connect with him Because of our so many attachments that we are holding on to So if we just keep practicing bhakti Then by that At one level it's one level.
We are calling out to krishna like the duck. Please. Give me more.
Please. Give me bread Please give me bread Please give me some crumbs another level Our endeavor is like as bhaktivinoda thakur depicts chaitanya mahavasya Just open the eyes open the eyes to the reality So when we open our eyes, we'll see krishna is with us So we can only endeavor to the best of our capacity, but while endeavoring we shouldn't think that krishna is somehow Holding himself back Rather than it is we who are holding ourselves back. So if we just try to give ourselves to krishna Krishna will bring himself to us.
Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Yes, bro Said uh, we have there's a saying that without krishna's Will not even a blade of grass moves.
So how do you? Okay So if we say We have free will but then without krishna's will Not even a blade of grass moves So, how do we justify that do I have the free will to not answer this question What do you think do I have the free will The question is answered We all have free will Okay Yeah Uh, if you see there are many Popular or anecdotal popular renditions of spiritual truths Which may not be as accurate as the actual spiritual truth In hindi there is a many people in their homes in india have something called gita saara And then gita saara says Whatever happened was good. Whatever is happening is good. Whatever will happen will also be good Now At one thing this is nice It's very soothing Now i've been studying the gita for more than 20 years.
I've read the gita hundreds of times at least recited the gita hundreds of times but And read it also dozens and dozens of times. I have never found any words which comes even remotely close to this Whatever has happened is good. Whatever is happening is good.
Whatever will happen will be good There's no words in the gita like that Now, is this not true? That whatever happens is good. See the point here is that People have free will And if by their free will they misuse it At that time they do terrible things So it is not that when people misuse their free will to do terrible things It is you can't say that that is god's will If Dushasan is trying to rob Draupadi If Ravan is trying to abduct Sita Does anyone in the Mahabharata or Ramayana tell them Whatever happened is good Nobody says that it's terrible. It is a catastrophe that it happened So I would say a more precise rendition which is in harmony with scripture in the Bhagavad Gita 13.23 Krishna says I am the overseer and the permitter So Krishna doesn't say I am the desirer of everything that happens I am the overseer and the permitter of everything that happens So when Dushasan is trying to disrobe Draupadi, it is not that Krishna desire that Draupadi go through the dishonor It is Dushasan who misuses his free will to do that heinous activity and Krishna in that situation allows him to do it.
Why? Because he by his past karma Has got a Kshatriya position with which he's got some power And he can misuse that power or he can use that power properly So that's why a more precise rendition would be without god's sanction nothing happens So without god's will not a blade of grass moves What I mean if we use that word will to mean sanction that will doesn't mean intention There's a difference Everything that happens is with god's sanction. That's why I said god is a supreme controller But god is not the sole controller That means that it's not that is his intention that everything that happens happen If we start saying it's his intention then all people who do all terrible things No, it it's they can say okay. It's god's intention that we do it Then where would be free will where would be responsibility? What would be the meaning of the law of karma? Isn't it if person A goes and kills person B? And then he says actually it's god's intention that you be killed Then and that would make all systems of accountability collapse So everything that happens not a blade of grass moves without god's sanction Not that every moment of every blade of grass is god's intention Okay Yeah, actually do we really have a freedom because all the impulses which is coming is from the past karma so that we are motivated by the past karma Without even thinking we just act So is it really free will free will means I will have to make a decision whether it's right or not, right? I have a decision to do it.
So Good question So we have impulses coming from past karma. That is karma. So does that mean we still really have free will? See our past impulses push us They don't force us We have the capacity to push back In fact, that is the unique prerogative of of the human body The animals also have free will But their free will is extremely circumscribed Say if a cat sees a mouse The cat can't think today's ekadashi The cat sees the mouse it'll pounce on it Now the cat may have free will Okay, there are two mice which come out of the hole one goes this way one goes this way So which mice are going to bounce on? It can choose that When a cow eats grass it finishes eating one line of grass.
It can turn towards the left. It can turn towards the right So it has free will but its free will is extremely circumscribed That means the lower the species that somebody is in the impulses govern them that much more The higher the species someone is in the impulses push, but we also have intelligence to evaluate the impulses And that evaluation of the impulses is what actually Expands our free will So we could say that our free will is not a fixed source It's say somebody has a Somebody has say a million dollars And they put in the fixed deposit Then it stays as it is increases or it stays as it is But if they put in the stock market the stock market crashes Then it's gone So our free will is not like a static resource We have free will But based on how we use it that free will can increase or decrease So nobody is born Say smoking a cigarette But some people become so compulsive smokers that just can't as I was at a hospital and there's this doctor who was treating a patient And his patient had got lung cancer and he had to be operated And that patient just before going into surgery Says I want to smoke a cigarette It is pathetic But so what had happened he would not be born smoking like that But when we give into an impulse again and again and again and again that impulse gains more and more force And then it becomes almost impossible to not choose it It's always possible say If somebody is interested in movies And they have visited a particular website say bollywood.com And then they come for a spiritual program and they hear about bhagavad gita Oh, I want to know about bhagavad gita Then they go and type on their google bhagavad gita and for that they type b And as soon as they type b what happens? Now why bollywood.com come? Because they have chosen it in the past So in this case now bollywood.com has come as an autocomplete if they don't do anything it will get completed And bollywood.com may open up But if somebody is not choosing bollywood.com at all Then they type b nothing may come up over there If somebody has already visited bhagavad gita.com many times the type b bhagavad gita.com will come up So if we see in a computer based on past choices Certain autocompletes come up But we can choose whether to let them get completed or not be completed When something is not there as autocomplete then we have to put in effort to complete it When something comes as an autocomplete Then we don't have to put in any effort But if something unwanted comes as autocomplete Then we have to put effort to cancel it So similarly with respect to our free will Based on how we have acted in the past certain Ideas certain desires certain actions. They come as autocompletes And resisting them becomes requires more and more effort The free will is always there, but the scope of the free will can be decreased enormously Some people may have free will So somebody's alcoholic the only free will they have is not whether they can drink or not, but they still have free will Shall I drink three glasses or four glasses? But that is also free will nobody can say I have no free will So our free will can get limited by abuse and our free will can be expanded by proper use And human life has the opportunity for us to expand the resource of free will that we presently have So, thank you very much.