Free Will

The following is an article written by Her Grace Krishna Prema Devi Dasi, from the Matchless Gift magazine.

Krishna Prema mataji getting ready on her wedding day

"At present, human society is being misled by leaders who are blind, for they do not know the aim and objective of human life, which is self-realization and the reestablishment of our lost relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.... The Krishna consciousness movement is trying to enlighten human society in this important matter." SSR, p.2

Humans have something that other species do not: free will.

Animals are bound by instincts. A dog will not stop and look both ways before crossing the street after he spots a squirrel on the other side. Neither will he hesitate to bark at someone entering his abode, even though it may be his beloved master. 

Animals are bound entirely by the senses. But human beings are invited to make use of something extra, something that, when used intelligently and correctly, can elevate us to finally escape from the cycle of birth and death, from all material and physical anxieties. That special something is called will. More importantly, the determination to use will in the propagation of God consciousness. This turning towards God, this shift in valuation of human life, this change of priority is a symptom of a rare soul who is finally ready to, perhaps for the first time in millions of incarnations, start the conscious journey back home, back to Godhead.

Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth. BG 7.3

After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare. BG 7.9

The journey is always ongoing, for we are all fallen souls climbing back. But we have a little independence. Krishna allows us our little independence. He is not a dictator, nor a tyrant who enslaves us and forces us to serve and love Him. No. As parts and parcels of Krishna, we naturally want to serve Him. If you are cringing at this, it is because you have got a bad taste for service, for service in this material world is pure exploitation. 

Everything is transactional. An employee serves his boss to receive a fee. A boyfriend buys his girlfriend flowers so he can receive her love. A parent looks after their child so the child will return the favour when they’re indisposed. We, as eternally separate, conditioned souls, are subject to four imperfections: the tendency to be in illusion, to commit mistakes, to cheat others, and to have imperfect senses. Because we think we are our bodies, we naturally cheat others. If you are disturbed by reading this, it is because you think you are your body.

But you are not your body. Just look at those two last words: your body. There is the body and there is the owner. The observer. Your body is your vessel. What it houses or is permeated/powered by, is the living force: the soul. That is you. As Krishna (God) says in the Bhagavad Gita (known as the Song of God):

dehino ’smin yatha dehe

kaumaram yauvanam jara

tatha dehantara-praptir

dhiras tatra na muhyati

As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. BG 2.13

You are in fact the observer of the changes of the body. You were present when you had a child body, you were present when you had an adolescent body. And you will be present when you have an old body. Older people often say they don’t feel their age, which makes sense, because they are not their age. The spirit soul does not age. They are the infinite observer, powering the body but not eternally attached to it.

Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be. BG 2.12

We are not our bodies. Every living thing is a living force, a spirit soul that is more than their current body. Every body you see, no matter how big or small, is simply matter moved by the soul inside, the living force. With this wonderful knowledge, one can enjoy the peace that comes from the realisation that, if I am not my body but a pure spiritual soul, with an identity rooted in no material designation (English, Indian, girl, boy, Christian, Muslim, fat, thin, tall, small, all the unimportant temporary variables), then everyone else must be too. With this realisation, there need not be any fear, because you realise that all are siblings within the family of life. The Father is God, and just like your own father, He has many names. God has Hundreds of names. Some people who have yet to discover His personal nature (as well as the impersonal) even simply refer to Him by His position, just simply, God. We in the Hare Krishna movement refer to Him by His most intimate name, Krishna. Krishna means all attractive.

“God has many dealings with His many devotees, and according to those dealings, He is called certain names. Since He has innumerable devotees and innumerable relations with them, He also has innumerable names. We cannot hit on any one name. But the name Krishna means ‘all attractive.’ God attracts everyone; that is the definition of ‘God.’ We have seen many pictures of Krishna, and we see that He attracts the cows, calves, birds, beasts, trees, plants, and even the water in Vrndavana. He is attractive to the cowherd boys, to the gopis, to Nanda Maharaja, to the Pandavas, and to all human society. Therefore if any particular name can be given to God, that name is ‘Krishna.’” SSR p.18

The human, when he is attached to and identified with his material body, is just like a dog. He barks at people who are not of the same religion as him. He whines when life doesn’t go in the way he wants it to. In this way we can be extremely animalistic. But those who are sincere and who are ready, due to a long journey through countless lives of searching, to accept a higher authority and come to the platform of acting like a human and not an animal, will begin to cut off their animalistic tendencies using what? Determination, intelligence, and will.

"Animals transmigrate in only one direction -- upward -- but human beings can transmigrate to either a higher or a lower form of life. The body is awarded according to the living entity's desire. The lower animals have one kind of desire, but the human being has thousands and millions of desires⎯animal desires as well as human desires. By nature’s laws, the lower species are coming up from animal forms to the higher, human forms. But once you come to the human form, if you don't cultivate Krishna consciousness you may return to the body of a cat or dog." Life Comes From Life⎯morning walks with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

One of the reasons that this Krishna consciousness movement is the most sublime and the most joyful way of existing in this world of misery, is because the Acharyas, our disciplic session of bona fide representatives of God Himself, understand our limitations. At different times in history, such as the period named Satya-yuga, different techniques were recommended by the learned for self-realisation. In that age, when people lived hundreds of thousands of years, a particularly austere (from the Kali-yuga point of view) method of God realisation was prescribed…

Now in the Satya-yuga the people were trained to meditate on Kṛṣṇa. They had, I mean to say, 100,000's of years they used to live, 100,000's of years. Just like we cannot..., our limit is one hundred years only, similarly, in the Satya-yuga the limit of living was 100,000's of years. And people would meditate. There are history... Meditate some fifty hundred thousands of years..., no, fifty thousands of years. Just like Vālmīki Muni. Vālmīki Muni meditated for fifty thousands of years, and then he wrote Rāmāyaṇa. Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.330-335 -- New York, December 23, 1966

In the following age, Treta-yuga, yajnas, and in Dvapara-yuga, temple worship was recommended. In this age of Kali, with degraded minds unable to grasp, let alone be interested in elevated topics, tongues that are obsessed with eating animals, senses that are completely uncontrolled… all we have to do is simply chant the simple mantra, known as the Mahamantra, or the great mantra for deliverance. What else is required for self-realisation according to the Hare Krishna movement in this age of quarrel and hypocrisy? Dance, sing, play instruments, distribute knowledge when you hear it, try and understand this philosophy, and eat copious amounts of prasadam, vegetarian food that has been prepared with love and devotion for the enjoyment of the supreme Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Shri Krishna.

Modern scientists guess that the universe was created by an exploding chunk, a mass of gas, or some other inanimate source. But from the Vedas, the reservoir of infallible knowledge, we learn of the real source of creation⎯Lord Krishna. Here we see Lord Krishna's partial expansion

Maha-Vishnu lying in the Causal Ocean. While He sleeps in that ocean, millions of universes are generated as He exhales. A second expansion, Garbhodakasayi Vishnu, enters all the universes to create diversities in each of them. From the navel of Garbhodakasayi Vishnu springs the stem of a lotus flower, the birthplace of Brahma, who is the father of all living

beings and the master of all the demigod-engineers. It is Lord Brahma who creates each universe, using his fine intelligence to manipulate the gross elements supplied by Krishna and His expansions. SSR plate 8

There is no artificial renunciation in our movement. This simply doesn’t work. It doesn’t last. That’s why there are so many rascals who are voted into positions of power who abuse it. Our spiritual master Srila Prabhupada, the current Acharya of our movement, tells us not to give up food, but rather honour Krishna prasadam. It’s so easy to do. Don’t give up your love of music, simply listen to bajans (prayers) and hear songs all about Krishna. When you listen to Krishna music, especially the Hare Krishna mantra, you can listen all day, every day. At the BLISS temple, we do the same program every single day. We chant Hare Krishna in different ways and in different tunes, and we never get bored. That’s because the Mahamantra is a transcendental sound vibration. If you’re just scrolling on Spotify, how many times do you skip the song without hearing the whole thing through? That’s the difference between material and spiritual. When it comes to the material or the illusory energy of God, everything has a saturation point. No matter how much delicious chocolate you eat, or how many times you have sex, eventually you have to stop, it’s too much. But with spiritual practices, the enjoyment is eternal. We prefer that, we feel fulfilled by that, because we are eternal….

Everything has a saturation point like our belly, like our wife, like our family, like our eyes, ears, nose, our genital, it also has a saturation point, you see. How long can we enjoy sex life? For some time, then we have to reject it and go on to something else. Because it has a saturation point like anything else. But there is a type of pleasure that has no saturation point, and that can be experienced even by a child if he simply allows his consciousness to stop accepting, rejecting, accepting, rejecting, and fix on that unlimited pleasure within, Hare. Everyone can say that, Hare. [all repeat Hare!] That unlimited pleasure within. 

⎯His Holiness Vishnujana Swami, Laurelhurst Park, Portland Oregon 1975

If you are a musician, use your talent to sing about Krishna. Similarly, if you are a dancer, artist, finance wiz, computer programmer, scientist, anything. Everyone is welcome, because this Krishna consciousness is not artificial. It is not a new imposition, a new age technique offering temporary relief from the monkey mind. It’s called sanatana-dharma, it’s the natural position of every living being⎯to be connected with Krishna. That’s why we feel so happy when we chant.

This Krishna consciousness movement is not religious fanaticism, nor is it a revolt by some recent upstart; rather, it is an authorised, scientific approach to the matter of our eternal necessity in relation with the Absolute Personality of Godhead, the Supreme Enjoyer. Krishna consciousness simply deals with our eternal relationship with Him and the process of discharging our relative duties to Him. Thus, Krishna consciousness enables us to achieve the highest perfection of life attainable in the present human form of existence. SSR P3

His Holiness Vishnujana Swami, an exemplary disciple of Shrila Prabhupada, explains that whatever we do as practising Krishna conscious devotees, we should consider: is this action sanctioned by my spiritual master? Is this pleasing to my spiritual master? Is this for the good of Krishna, or my temporary, imperfect senses? For my temporary body? This is called using the intelligence to guide the mind and the dictates of the body, rather than being bewildered by the pushes and pulls of the mysteriously alluring material nature.

Everyone is using their will, powered by their determination. What differentiates our experiences of life is fueled by our actions. Our actions are fueled by our determination. The perfection of life is to change our determination to be fixed in devotional service - to use the human form of life to return to our swarupa, our natural constitutional position of being connected to Krishna via loving transcendental devotional service.

You have lived countless lives in different bodies. Now you have this opportunity, this human body, this human mind which has so much potential. Why not use it? Why not use this one life and dedicate it to self-realisation? There is no loss, and the gain is so great.

You try every day to gratify your senses, to build something to make you feel safe, but simply you are running from death. You’re terribly afraid of how little control you have in your life, and you’re grasping at a just a few controllable things. But you are not the supreme controller. This makes one feel terribly scared, until they realise that the supreme controller is Krishna, and Krishna is very easy to love and trust, because He is all attractive.

Everyone is seeking to find out Kṛṣṇa, directly or indirectly. Kṛṣṇa means the all-attractive. All-attractive. Bhagavān means the all-attractive Supreme Personality of Godhead. So indirectly or directly, everyone is seeking Kṛṣṇa, the all-attractive. Ānanda-mayo 'bhyāsāt---the Supreme Bliss. Bhagavad-gita 4.11 class, March 31, 1974, Bombay

"Always remain a devotee. You have had so many lives, just give this one for Krishna, then you may do whatever you want; but this one is for Krishna." Shrila Prabhupada to Jagattarini

If you are interested, here's the link to the most recent edition of the Matchless Gift magazine.