How to reconcile Krishna’s omniscience with our having free will?

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Transcript

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If Krishna knows past, present and future, how do we reconcile that with the fact that we have free will? Or if we have free will, how do we reconcile knowing past, present and future? Firstly, Rupa Goswami explains in the Sandarbhas that when we approach Krishna, there is the concept of achindyato, inconceivability that needs to be understood. So what does inconceivability mean? He says that sometimes scripture talks about two attributes of God or two Now they seem contradictory to us but they are not necessarily contradictory. Why? Because God can have powers that we don’t have.
So he says if scripture is saying two statements, then, say for example, scripture says that the absolute truth is personal. Scripture also does say that the absolute truth is impersonal. So now, how that is so? That we don’t know but we accept both as true.
Similarly, scripture is quite clear that we have free will. The end of the Bhagavad Gita is what Krishna is asking Arjuna 18.636 and scripture is also clear that So in 18.636 Krishna is emphasizing our free will. In 7.25, 7.25, 7.26 he says that no one knows but he knows everything.
So how is this to be reconciled? So the I’ll talk about three main points in this. First is that God’s knowledge of the future is like our knowledge of the past. What does that mean? Our knowledge of the past is knowledge without control.
I did something in the past, I know it but I can’t correct it right now. So now God’s knowledge of the future is also knowledge without intervention. It is not that Krishna cannot intervene but he chooses not to intervene because he respects our free will.
So for Krishna’s it is not necessary that knowledge has to mean that our freedom is taken away. So this is a philosophical analysis. A little more practical point of view what it means is that if there are three roads on our path you know this road goes to a rocky area this road is a smooth road and this road goes into a dead end.
Now if someone takes a particular road we know eventually what is going to happen. It’s that choices are connected with consequences. So which choice will lead to which consequence is known to a person who knows the whole area.
But that does not still mean that person forces the person to make a particular choice. Similarly when Krishna he knows the future in the sense that he knows there are certain choices that will lead to certain consequences but still he gives us freedom by which we can choose. Secondly and more importantly in the spiritual realm more important than knowledge is love.
That means if you see when Krishna performs Krishna Nidra he knows what is going to happen. It is he who is performing the pastime. It is he who knows oh when I am going to steal butter Yashodhama is going to come from here and then she is going to catch me then I am going to run here then this is going to happen this is going to happen.
Now Krishna knows everything. So sometimes when we want to when there is some some suspense novel then somebody says this is a very good mystery novel don’t tell this story to me don’t tell that otherwise you will spoil all the fun. So there in that sort of mystery novel the fun is in knowing whereas when there is when there is love between two people the joy is in the doing it is not so much in the knowing knowing is there but the joy is in the doing.
So Krishna loves Yashodhama Yashodhama loves Krishna and in just their reciprocation there is joy. So it is not necessary that the event happening in a particular way and this happening or that happening that’s what brings joy. It’s just their reciprocation that brings joy.
So in the spiritual realm more important than knowledge is the expression of affection. So for other sadhakas irrespective of whether Krishna knows or not our future what is more important is that we have the opportunity to express our affection to Krishna and by expressing our affection to him we can experience higher spiritual happiness and ultimately so what applies to the spiritual realm now it is not only Krishna who knows what past times is going to be Krishna has certain assistants associates who participate in the past times and some associates who set the scene for the past times like we have Puranamasi or we have Yogamaya especially she is setting the scene for the past times and when she does that the whole purpose is that she knows what is going to happen and still she punishes it. So the same principle so what applies to the spiritual world is that in the spiritual world knowing is not as important as doing and loving to that the same applies to other sadhakas.
So we don’t have to bother whether you know if Krishna knows the future then does Krishna know when I am going to go back go to him when I am going to attain him and then if I am going to go to him after 10 lifetimes maybe I can practice Bhakti after 10 lifetimes why practice now no the point is even if we are going to go to Krishna after 10 lifetimes if we are practicing Bhakti those 10 lifetimes will be much richer we will be much better in our existence here we are much better in our contributions whatever we can do for others so the point is we can even if it is after 10 lifetimes we will go to Krishna still those 10 lifetimes also we can be experiencing Krishna Prema even if it is not a very advanced level but still we can experience love for Krishna and experience the higher life devoted to him in this world so if we shift that focus as devotees we are not really concerned so much about the future we want to attain Krishna but our focus is on loving Krishna so I came from India to America suppose I had come here to meet someone and I had not the person who I had come to meet I had not met that person so then I come to this come to America and then I knock I find the address I knock on that door the person opens the door then I say this person was sitting right next to me in my flight throughout my flight but because I did not know this person so I did not know this was the person I was going to meet so like that you know Krishna is not just someone whom we will attain when we attain Krishnaloka Krishna is right next to us in our own hearts sarvasthi chaaham ridhi sanyini vishnu is right now in our heart so it is not that the opportunity to connect with Krishna depends on our attaining him in some distant future that opportunity is there right now even though we may not realize and relish it as much as we will when we become purified but still there are opportunities there right now so the whole principle the whole essence of bhakti is what we can do to connect with Krishna how we can love and serve Krishna right now so the whole Krishna whether it is omniscience or it is Krishna’s omnipotence Krishna knows past, present and future that is omniscience so omnipotence is whether he can do anything and everything now all these attributes are subordinated for the purpose of love see Krishna is omnipotent how can mother ishu have time but still he for the sake of reciprocating love he lets himself get time and so the just as Krishna in Krishna Nilayam focuses not on his godhood but on the reciprocation of love similarly when we are practicing bhakti we don’t focus too much on his godhood in the sense that certainly we focus on his godhood so that we subordinate ourselves to him but when it comes to practicing bhakti we focus not on his godhood but on the principle of offering our love thank you any other questions thank you very much for a wonderful class