Does Krishna have a plan for each one of us or are we simply going through life based on our past karma and present choices?

So, does Krishna have a plan for everyone of us? There are so many Jivas in this world, like billions. So, he has a plan for all of us. And what is the plan? What’s the final goal of the plan? Is it to go back, come back to Godhead? Or is it something of our choosing? Or something? Of our choosing.

Okay. Now, does Krishna have a plan for everyone? See, there are two distinct aspects to it. To Krishna’s plan, if we consider, there is a universal aspect to the plan.

And there is an individual aspect to the plan. So, the universal aspect is that each one of us is meant to love and be loved. And that propensity to love and be loved is fulfilled most in our relationship with Krishna.

So, in that sense, to love Krishna is the ultimate purpose. And that is the overarching common plan for everyone. But at the same time, Krishna has made each living being to be an individual.

And each one of us has to find our individual way to express our love for Krishna and to experience our love for him. So, what that means is that if we consider, say, this is a mountain and this is a river. So, this is the ocean, rather.

So, now, from the mountain, the river has to go to the ocean. Now, the river has to, in one sense, there is a plan for the river. Basically, let’s get to the ocean.

But the specific path that the river has to find, sometimes there might be just too much obstacles. The river might go left, might go right, might go above, might go below. Or might just erode through.

So, that the river has to decide. And from the mountain, there are many different rivers that are flowing. So, each river will have to find its path to the ocean.

So, like that, each one of us is an individual. And each one of us has to find our path to the ocean. So, the ocean is Krishna.

Now, the impersonalists use this metaphor to say that we merge into Krishna. But for devotees, they say the river keeps flowing to the ocean. Like that, for a devotee, the consciousness keeps flowing toward Krishna.

And the key principle here is that, while the river is flowing toward the ocean, the river does so much good to the thousands and thousands of life forms that are there, human and non-human, plants and vegetations, flora and fauna. So, like that, each one of us, as we are going through this life journey toward Krishna, learning to express our love for Him, each one of us can do so much good in this world. So, in that sense, there is very much a room for individuality for all of us in Krishna’s plan for us.