Devotee: ...Śrīla Prabhupāda, that if God is, if He is actually wanting us to go back, then why is He causing suffering?
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Devotee: If He wants us to come to back home to Godhead...
Prabhupāda: But, you rascal, you are suffering. He says, "Come back." You don't go.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: Because He has given you freedom and this is...
Prabhupāda: He says, "My dear boy, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66)" But you don't do. You must suffer. It is your creation, suffering. You must suffer.
Devotee: They say, "If He is all-loving, why is He...?"
Prabhupāda: Loving, but.... You are.... I love you. I say, "Do this." If you don't do it, then...?
Devotee: It's reciprocal.
Prabhupāda: Yes. You must suffer.
Yadubara: So the suffering is His mercy also.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Suffering means he'll be purified. Suffering is the process of purification.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: And part of His laws.... It's within His laws.
Prabhupāda: You have infected some disease. You suffer. Then the enviousness(?) of Kṛṣṇa will go away by suffering.
Guru dāsa: So the pure devotee is sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1).
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: So this question of freedom of jīva and control of Kṛṣṇa, that there is freedom but at the same time there is no freedom, is a very fine line between the two that sometimes we do not understand.
Prabhupāda: But why don't you understand? Just like you belong to a free nation, the American. Does it mean you are free to do anything and everything?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: With your limited freedom.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: There's a fine line between this freedom.
Prabhupāda: When you say, "I belong to this free nation," then yes, you are free. But that does not mean that you can do anything and everything.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Take that example of the habit, if someone is smoking out of habit. So again. So is he free in that smoking, or is it..., has he completely surrendered his freedom?
Prabhupāda: No, no.... These things are very common. Just like in your country the government has written on the cigarette box, "It is harmful to health." But if you still smoke at your risk, do it.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: So freedom.... You can smoke, but you cannot avoid suffering from the result.
Prabhupāda: Yes, from the result.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: You have to suffer.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: This is the law.
Prabhupāda: Yes. This is the law.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: And you cannot smoke outside the laws. You cannot smoke a cigarette...
Prabhupāda: This is.... Already warning is there that "You smoke; you suffer." And if you still do that, suffer. What can be done? Common thing.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The freedom is always there, minute independence.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: Minute.
Guru dāsa: Freedom with responsibility.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guru dāsa: Just like they say that you have the freedom to yell "There's a fire" in a theater, but you don't do it.
Prabhupāda: So many examples are there. Freedom is there, but you are not absolutely free to do whatever you like.
Guru dāsa: Because of the stringent laws of nature.
Prabhupāda: Because you are small. Just like children. He has got freedom, playing. But when he is doing something wrong, father, "You don't do this. Don't do this. Don't do this." But if he does it, even he is children, even he's child, he'll suffer. He cannot say, "I am child. I did not know, father." Then that does not matter. You must suffer. You must suffer, even though you are child.