Free will (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"free will" |"free, will"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.7-11 -- New York, March 2, 1966:

We should always remember that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is present as incarnation. Now, God is all-powerful. God is all-powerful. So if He comes before you, you cannot deny, that "How is that, God has come?" You cannot say that. If God is all-powerful, then it is His choice. It is His free will. He can come before you, come before you, provided you are such qualified devotee.

Lecture on BG 7.1-3 -- Stockholm, September 10, 1973:

Swedish man (3): Is there free will?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Just like you are sitting here. If you don't like, you can go away. That's your free will. There is free will. Because we are part and parcel of God, God is completely free to do anything. And because we are part and parcel of God, therefore we have got minute quantity of freedom. Just like a drop of ocean water, it is also salty, but the quantity of salt in that drop is not equal to the salt in the ocean. Similarly, you have got a little quantity of freedom, but not as freedom as God has got. That is not possible. You are subordinate. Your freedom is subordinate to God's freedom. Therefore if you misuse your freedom, then you become punishable. The government gives you freedom, but if you misuse your freedom, if you violate the laws, then you are criminal.

Lecture on BG 15.15 -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Why God gave to man free will if He knew the man would fall down in the material world?

Prabhupāda: If you have no free will, then you are a stone. The stone has no free will. You want to be stone? Then you must be, must have free will. But don't misuse your free will. But don't try to become stone. That is not life.

Translator: If the artistic inspiration, like the intuition, is also coming from Paramātmā.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.5.28 -- Vrndavana, August 9, 1974:

God is supplying everyone, even birds and beasts and cats and dogs. Eko yo bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. He is giving food to everyone. So sattva-guṇa means to remain satisfied whatever is obtained by, from God, by His free will. That's all. They are not after economic development.

Lecture on SB 1.8.29 -- Los Angeles, April 21, 1973:

Just like sometimes the governor goes to inspect the prison house. He has no business to go the prison house. He is getting report from the superintendent. He does not... Still sometimes he comes: "let me see how they are doing." It is called pastime. It is his free will. Not that he has become subjected to the prison laws and he has to come to the prison. No, not like that. But if the prisoners think: "Oh, here the governor is also in the prison. So we are equal. We are equal. I am also governor."

Lecture on SB 1.8.29 -- Los Angeles, April 21, 1973:

So tava, tava īhamānasya nṛṇāṁ viḍambanam. It is bewildering. Nobody can understand what is the real purpose. The real purpose is His free will. "Let Me go and see." He doesn't require to come to kill the demons. There are so many agents that if there is a strong wind, thousands of demons can be killed in a moment. So Kṛṣṇa does not require to come to kill the demons. And He does not require also to come to give protection to the devotee. By His simply will, everything is there. But He takes a pleasure pastime, "Let Me go and see."

Lecture on SB 1.8.34 -- Los Angeles, April 26, 1973:

Kṛṣṇa is fully independent. Just like we take our birth being bound by the cause of our karma. Kṛṣṇa does not come being bound up by somebody's request or by His karma. He comes out of His free will. Ātma-māyayā. It is said ātma-māyayā. He's not compelled by another's māyā. Just like we are compelled by the energy of Kṛṣṇa, external energy, this material energy. We are compelled to take birth. Kṛṣṇa does not take birth in such condition. Ātma-māyayā. Not by the... Because māyā is under the control of Kṛṣṇa. So how māyā can control Kṛṣṇa? One who thinks that Kṛṣṇa is also like us, controlled by māyā, they are called mūḍhas. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11).

Lecture on SB 3.26.4 -- Bombay, December 16, 1974:

So Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as He says that sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā... (BG 4.6). Sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā. Kṛṣṇa and the living entities, both of them are the same quality, but when the living entities come in this material world, he is forced by the prakṛti, by the material nature. But when Kṛṣṇa comes, He is not forced, but by His free will, yadṛcchayā upagatām... Yadṛcchayaivopagatām abhyapadyata līlayā.

Lecture on SB 6.1.32 -- Surat, December 16, 1970:

Devotee (1): But by His yogamāyā He appears as a child, an ordinary child, but He did not appear as an ord... He is not an ordinary child. This material nature is always under His direct control. And even if you accept that He takes a material body, He does so of His own free will. He does not do so, forced by the modes of material nature.

Prabhupāda: Why? Why He takes a free will? There must be some reason.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: No. The individual soul does not. In Bhagavad-gītā it says that anumantā, individual soul, wants to do something and Kṛṣṇa gives orders. Man proposes and God disposes.

Śyāmasundara: So we have no free will?

Prabhupāda: No. Without sanction of Kṛṣṇa we cannot do anything. Therefore He is the ultimate cause.

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā very nicely, that the soul is in this material world, and he is influenced by the three modes of material nature. So according to his position under the influence of three different kinds of modes, he is getting this body. It is on account of his free will. Just like if he wants to eat anything and everything up to stool, then he is given the body of a pig. If he wants to eat direct blood, sucking, then he gets the body of a tiger. And if he wants to eat first-class nutritious food, then he is given the body of a brāhmaṇa. In this way we are getting different types of bodies according to our desire.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: He says that the free will develops in these three areas of experience of law, morality and social ethics.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. That is the field of free will activities. Unless you have got platform to execute your (indistinct), there is no meaning of free will. So that is the platform. There must be law, there must be system, morality. That is (indistinct). Just like Arjuna was advised by Kṛṣṇa, "Now, whatever you like, you do." That is free will. But He has explained to him, "This is this, this is this, now it is you have your choice."

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Prabhupāda: God is good in all conditions, or God is good when Stuart Mill accepts? What is the position of God?

Śyāmasundara: He says that the presence of evil indicates that if God were everything, that He would be not so good.

Prabhupāda: Why? Therefore God has to depend on the free will or on the opinion of Mr. Mill? Is that? He says that God is not so good. God is good, but not so good because he does not approve all of His activities.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Prabhupāda: No. God, evil is created by God undoubtedly, but the, it was necessary on account of the human being as, misuse of his free will. God gives him good direction but when he is disobedient, then naturally the evil power is there to punish him. Therefore the evil is not created by God but still it is created. It is necessary. Just like the government constructs the prison house. So this prison house creation is not the government's intention.

Philosophy Discussion on Johann Gottlieb Fichte:

Śyāmasundara: He says that the free will, which creates itself or realizes itself is the truest of all realities.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So if by free will if you choose to surrender to Kṛṣṇa they you'll get your real free will, freedom. Otherwise you are under the clutches of māyā. Daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). You cannot surpass the stringent laws of material nature, that is not...

Philosophy Discussion on Rene Descartes:

Hayagrīva: Why can't we have free will and at the same time...

Prabhupāda: Free will means...

Hayagrīva: ...infallible judgment?

Prabhupāda: Free will means that you can act wrongly. That is free will. Unless there is chance of doing wrong or right, there is no question of free will. Where is free will then? If I act only one sided, that means I have no free will. Because we act sometimes wrongly, that means free will.

Philosophy Discussion on Rene Descartes:

Prabhupāda: But that is free will. He misuses his. Just like a thief, he knows that his stealing, it is bad, but still he does it. That is free will. He cannot check his greediness, so in spite of his knowing that he is doing wrong thing—he will be punished, he knows; he has seen another thief, he was punished, he was put into prison—everything he knows, but still he steals. Why? Misuse of free will. Unless there is misuse of free will, there is no question of free will.

Philosophy Discussion on Rene Descartes:

Hayagrīva: In a sense he says that when one knows God he knows everything else, because...

Prabhupāda: Yes. If he knows God and follows the instruction of God then he is right, and as soon as he goes against the instruction of God, then he is wrong. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: "Now I have given you all instruction. It is up to you to accept or reject." Yathecchasi tathā kuru (BG 18.63). That is free will. So now it depends on me whether I shall act according to the instruction of God or I shall act according to my whims, according to my sensual inclinations.

Philosophy Discussion on George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel:

Hayagrīva: He sees the religion of India as a religion in which man is handed laws from a God who is exterior to man, from a will that is entirely foreign to man. And he sees this to be opposed to what he considers to be a more advanced religion, in which the individual soul is lifted to the supernatural through the use of reason, internal sanction or subjective confirmation. In other words, he sees the Indian religion as being blind following of an exterior will. He says that man can only attain God through the exercise of his own free will.

Prabhupāda: Then why the animals cannot? Animal is given complete free will.

Hayagrīva: He says animals have no will.

Prabhupāda: That is another foolishness. If he has no will, why he goes to different direction?