If our intelligence can never supersede Krishna’s intelligence, how can our will supersede his will – how can we act independent of him?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
If our intelligence can never comprehend Krishna, in the sense that Krishna’s intelligence is far greater than ours, then how can our will be greater than Krishna’s will? That means, by issues of our free will, how can we turn away from Krishna? The two are different. The intelligence is a resource that the soul has. The will is innate to the soul.
Will is innate. The will is innate to the soul. So we could say that the intelligence in different species is different.
Even in different human bodies, the intelligence is different. And it is not just maternal genius that is different. That means, some people can do maths very well, others are poor at maths.
That is maternal intelligence. But even in spiritual intelligence, different souls are at different levels of spiritual evolution. And therefore, their intelligence also is different.
Now, this is, we are talking in the material world. In the spiritual world, Sat, Chit, Ananda. Chit is consciousness.
The soul has consciousness. Within the spiritual body itself, whatever the soul needs for serving Krishna, the soul is endowed with that. So even intelligence, even limbs, even eyes, whatever is required is provided for the soul in the spiritual world.
So with respect to both our intelligence and our free will, are actually subordinate to Krishna only. It is Krishna who gives us intelligence. And it is Krishna who gives us, gives a particular scope for our free will.
Even with our free will, it is not completely free. That means that, if I desire to fly in the sky, I can’t do it in this human body. I need a bird’s body.
So our free will is never unlimited. But within a limited framework, it’s almost like we have unlimited freedom. That means within whatever limitation is imposed by my human body, I can do a wide variety of things.
I can make friends with someone. I can make enemies with someone. I can even attack and wound someone.
I can do a wide variety of things. It’s like a, say there is a pole and a horse is tied to the pole. The horse cannot go beyond the circumference of the rope that is tying it.
But within that circle, within that circumference, the horse can do whatever it wants. It can eat, it can pound its leg, it can sleep, it can try to break the rope, whatever, like that. So, by our free will, even when we turn away from Krishna, we actually still turn towards Krishna.
In the sense that, when we turn away from Krishna, we turn towards something else. And whatever is attractive in that something else, that attractiveness is also a spark of Krishna’s attractiveness. So, if somebody is attracted to a good looking person, now the good looks of that person are also by Krishna’s arrangement.
They are a spark of Krishna’s splendor. Krishna says, everything attractive manifests a spark of my splendor. So, in that sense, we are never entirely away from Krishna.
It is just that, we are not conscious of our connection with Krishna. So, by the arrangement of Krishna, he has given us free will. By the arrangement of Krishna, he has given us intelligence.
So, both the free will and the intelligence are finite. Because Krishna is infinite, with the finite intelligence, we can never understand Krishna fully. We can understand him enough so that, we can feel inspired to devote ourselves to him.
Our free will also is finite. And that’s why we cannot do things unless Krishna sanctions them. So, Krishna wants us to allow him voluntarily.
Love that is forced is no love at all. When parents have a child, sometimes the child is mischievous, sometimes the child is so obedient. But, how many parents would want to replace their child with a perfectly obedient robot? No one.
Because there is no reciprocation of love in that. So, for the reciprocation of love, the other person has to have free will. And love is that, in the process of love, the parents try to give intelligence to the child, try to intelligently help the child to make their wise choices.
So, Krishna, because he wants to have, wants us to relish the joy of loving him, and he wants to relish the joy of loving reciprocations with him, between us, he has given us free will. And if we don’t use the free will properly, we can turn away from him. And if we use the free will properly, we turn towards him.
So, the intelligence is the tool, which if we misuse, then our free will will go in that direction. Use it properly, it will go towards Krishna. But just as our free will can never become omnipotent, similarly, our intelligence can never completely conquer Krishna.
So, Krishna has given us free will, and that is primarily for the reciprocation of love. Does that answer your question? A little bit. Can I ask a follow up?