Why has God given us free will?

Transcription: Sudha Mehta Mataji

 Question: Why has god given us free will?

Answer: There are three levels of understanding this. First is in terms of constitution second is in terms of reciprocation and third is in terms of action

First in terms of constitution that is

mamaivamso jiva-loke
jiva-bhutah sanatanah
manah-shashthanindriyani
prakriti-sthani karshati

In Bhagavad Gita 15.7 Krishna says “We are amsha’s” Because we are parts of Krishna so whatever is present in him that has to be present in us. So if God has free will, which he definitely has, his will is supremely free will He is satya sankalpa whatever he desire happens he is omnipotent. So definitely we also need to have freewill so that is by constitution

Then in terms of actions and reciprocation, these two are related but small differences, that means that actually the purpose of free will is what? What does freedom mean? Freedom means freedom to do various things. God is filled with pleasure. He is free to express his pleasure and to enjoy the pleasure in whatever way he wants and similarly our free will also enables us to choose how we will enjoy? If we did not have free will we would be just like robots. Robot or Machine is programmed by its maker and it simply functions accordingly and now we human beings when we create machine the machine is not exactly like our part it is our creation so we created by God but we are not just his creation we are a part of the creator. Our relationship with Krishna is synthetic. Synthetic means we are always connected with him so we are his parts so just as he does actions so we also have the capacity to do actions and what is the purpose of action Krishna lives to love He wants love to reign supreme. So without freewill there is no question of love. If a boy puts a gun on the Girl’s head and says “you love me”? She may also say that she loves but that is not love. Real love means that the person has the freedom to do whatever he wants and still the person chooses to love then that truly loving and satisfying relationships so similarly when Krishna has his parts those parts are meant to relish the supreme joy of love. And that the supreme joy of love cannot be relished unless the parts have free will. By freewill all of us can choose either to love Krishna or we can choose do other things. Now we may think that the freewill is undesirable and by the misuse of free will we end up in lot of suffering ya that happens definitely but the point is if there were no free will at all then there would be no suffering but no happiness either because without freewill there cannot be any exercise of emotions Like say If say the master tells the servant this is the way you have to behave  this is the way you should talk this is way you should walk you cannot express any emotions     then that servant will be almost like machine. So although there is a master servant relationship between us and Krishna but still that relationship is based on love and because it is based on love Krishna gives us free will and the freewill enables us to relish supreme happiness so now if you ask why has god given us freewill? it is for the sake of happiness. The problem is not with the freewill it is with the misuse of freewill and Krishna he comes and gives us right guidance to use the freewill properly through scriptures, he sends the devotees so the problem is not with the freewill but the problem is with the misuse Just like when teacher in a class teaches a subject then there is an exam. In the exam there are multiple choice questions. Now someone may say that the teacher is giving out of five four wrong alternatives so isn’t it that if we go by probability then 80% probability is that the student may tick a wrong answer and might even fail Ya but it’s not a matter of probability over here it’s a matter of study. If the student studies, the teacher has already taught the student the lesson, so if he ticks the right answer then the student will be promoted to a higher standard so the problem is not with the teacher giving multiple options the problem is with the student ticking the wrong option he is ticking the wrong option because of not studying properly so same way problem is not with the freewill the freewill is what enables us to relish the supreme ecstasy of pure love and the problem is with misuse of free will so Krishna gives us proper education if we take the education properly then we will be able to use the freewill properly and then we will relish the supreme happiness that is the purpose of creation the purpose of existence that is happiness       Thank you.