Talks Excerpt 447. Swamiji explains ‘free will’.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that you have the right to work but not to the fruits thereof. 

When Sri Krishna went to Kamsa, Kamsa saw Sri Krishna as a demon, as Lord Yama. He said, ‘Don’t kill me.’ Sri Krishna told him, ‘Look, I don’t kill you, your own karma kills you. Your own karma has come in this form to kill you.’ And when the same Sri Krishna went to the Rishis they found him to be the embodiment of their prayers, their blessings.

What this actually means is: what you are within, you will see without. If you are a dharmic person, you’ll see dharmic things. If you are an adharmic person, you’ll see adharmic things.

Sometimes people use God as a partner to do wrong things but when that person gets caught, God doesn’t go to jail for him – he himself goes to jail.

Devotee: Why does God allow him to go to jail then, Swamiji? Swamiji: Because of his actions. Man is given free will to choose what is right and what is wrong, and at the same time man has past karmas with him. His past karmas will impel him to do wrong things – if he has these bad karmas. But he, as a man, must now stand and say, ‘No. I won’t do the wrong thing, I would rather give up my life for truthful actions.’

The free-to-read or download, 396-page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography is available by clicking HERE. If you’d prefer the PDF version, please click HERE.

These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.