When a parent won’t give a child a pile of chocolates, why does Krishna create a world filled with sense objects?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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of others also, thank you if a child wants to eat chocolate we tell him don’t eat but he won’t give a pile of chocolate so similarly why does Krishna he gives us so many in this world there are so many objects to enjoy, so why does Krishna give that and then on top of our mind it also is so wildly attached to enjoyment and then how can we control ourselves, why are we put in such a vulnerable situation first of all Krishna is reciprocal see the relationship of parent and child is appropriate in some ways to define our relationship with Krishna but in some ways it does not describe it fully because generally when we talk about parent and child we always have a mind maybe a 3-4 year old child and maybe a 30-40 year old parent but we are not like small children we have free will we are grown up so the dynamic between say a 30 year old child and a 60 year old father is very different than between a 30 year old father and a 30 year old child so I would say that that relationship is every metaphor that we use for describing our relationship with Krishna or for anything spiritual it has certain context it has certain limitations so having said that when we look at the world, as I said Krishna is reciprocal, reciprocal means that he has given his free will see in a normal parental relationship how much can a child a parent can have much more control over a child when a child is 3 or 5 or 7 or 10 and even by the time when the child is 15 or 16, the amount of control the parents can have becomes much lesser it’s like often when children come to their teenage years parents start thinking what happened to my sweet little boy? where did he disappear? who is this fallen, angry uncommunicative person who has come in his place? it’s a difficult phase to go through and then say parents restrict the pocket money of a child when that child is 3 years old but parents can’t restrict a 25 year old son how much can they restrict? not much so we have a relationship with Krishna but he also has control, the parents can guide a 25 year old child also but the 25 year old son not child, 25 year old son or daughter for that matter they will take their own decisions so we have our free will and the very existence of free will requires an arena for the exercise of free will if I say that I give you free will but you can play as much as you want but you have to play within this 5 by 5 square feet what can you play especially if you want to play a physical sport so the very existence of free will requires the existence of an arena where free will can be executed and executed means it can also be misused when used it can be misused now this world is not necessarily an arena only for the misuse of free will we see that actions have consequences and recently this is a big question somebody asked me a big topic and I will not go into that somebody asked the question why do bad things happen to good people so I asked why should bad things not happen to good people what do I mean it’s not that I am saying that bad things should happen to good people but why do we ask this question bad things should not happen to good people because we expect and we perceive also a correlation between action and result I put my hand in fire my hand gets burnt I overeat my stomach gets upset I eat too much cold food on a cold night my throat gets sore so we do see actions and consequences in some cases we may not see the consequences but broadly we do see correlation between cause and effect so in this world Krishna has given us as he is reciprocal he gives us the freedom to see what we want to see if we want to see God’s hand and God’s existence and God’s benevolence we can see the cause effect we can see the correlation we can see the design and we can turn towards God if we want to turn away from him there is facility even for that now as far as the sense objects being present in the world which allure us that is simply because we have the desire to enjoy so the facility is provided now how much facility who gets that depends on their past karma some people by their past karma are very wealthy, very attractive and then they can attract many more sense objects some people may not be better that’s the result of past karma now within that how we use our free will is always up to us so why are there so many bad options so many bad choices and so few good choices that’s how always it is in any multiple choice exam four wrong answers, one right answer so similarly in this world all the variety it reflects the kind of desire that people have to enjoy the various species also reflect the soul’s desire to enjoy in different ways so basically because most people have material desires people who have material desires are far far more than people who have spiritual desires in this world being the facility for people to execute their free will exercise their free will whichever way they want if more people want to misuse their free will then there is facility corresponding so it’s a reflection of our desires it’s not a trap necessarily so when a teacher gives a multiple choice exam the teacher’s purpose, even giving the wrong options is not to fool the student the teacher’s purpose is to test the student if the student has studied, he will tick the right marks he will move on and get marks so like that in the world, the wrong options that are there they are meant to test us they are not meant to mislead us and as far as our own mind is concerned the nature of the mind is also a result of how we have thought and desired in the past some people say they were born in cultured families brought up in good parents their mind is not that kind sometimes after they become free get some freedom, go to college then they may contaminate their mind but it’s upwards the mind, the way it functions is largely a result of the way we have made it function so if I go on google and I start searching, I search something and then if I have read a lot about sports then no matter what I search sports news are popping up so that’s what I have searched in the past so google is not it’s also reciprocal the way we have searched the searches will get customized accordingly so our mind is like that whatever we have done, it tends to auto-repeat that so as far as Krishna is concerned he makes this world as an arena for experimentation if he wanted and an arena for rectification if he wanted so both ways are there in the life of everyone at some time or the other something happens which makes them say I want to explore something higher it must be something higher, I want to explore it so at that time it’s up to their freedom whether they take that prompting or they don’t take that prompting the super soul is in the heart of everyone the super soul is offering that prompting sometimes we achieve something and then we say there is nothing great about it must be something better in my life sometimes we get a big reversal in our life what is the point of it what is really important, what counts that can prompt us higher but either way the important thing is the super soul does guide us so the world has its purpose and if we look at anything divorced from its purpose any design can be faulted I may have a very good phone but if I decide to type my next book on the phone this keyboard is so small stupid phone the phone is not stupid it is it is meant for some other purpose it can be used for typing also but it’s not for typing a book so any design can be faulted if we divorce it from its purpose similarly if we understand what is the purpose of this world it has twin purpose experimentation and rectification so for those who want to experiment it has many options that it is offering but for those who want to rectify that option is also there and for those who want to turn towards God, it’s difficult and it’s especially difficult in Kali Yuga but then that also is reciprocal for those souls who in the previous Yugas did not choose to turn towards Krishna those souls who wanted more and more gross sensuality those are the souls who were born in Kali Yuga so our birth in this situation is also a result of our own past desires only but even in such a situation Krishna is there and Krishna manifests he comes as his holiness he comes as Lord Jaitanya and he gives us the opportunity to turn towards him if we take that opportunity we will be eliminated rather than faulting the presence of sense objects or faulting the presence of the wild mind what we can focus on is beyond the presence of all this is the presence of Krishna in our heart and the presence of opportunities to turn towards Krishna so every time we turn away from a temptation and turn towards Krishna it may seem like a struggle and it may seem like a pointless struggle today I give up tomorrow again it will come how long can I go on like this but actually every time we choose Krishna we are becoming stronger our capacity to choose the higher and reject the lower is becoming stronger and then it will become easier and easier as we become stronger and stronger so because of the misuse of the free will in the past things are a little difficult right now but they will become easier, Krishna says that that which tastes like poison in the beginning will taste like nectar in the future Krishna says this is the nature of elevated joys that we have to go through a phase of poison initiation if we can tolerate and penetrate through that phase of poison then the nectar awaiting us makes it all worth it and even that initial phase of poison which we have to tolerate that becomes much easier to tolerate if we have association of devotees so if we just penetrate through that then there is immense, unlimited nectar waiting for us