How can unfortunate souls whose bad qualities are strengthened over several previous births, attain salvation?

[dattaswami]

How can unfortunate souls whose bad qualities are strengthened over several previous births, attain salvation?

Swami replied: The soul is given full freedom in choosing the right path or the wrong path (Svabhāvastu pravartate—Gita). God does not force souls to leave the wrong path and turn to the right path. Using logic, God fully explains to souls about both paths and the results of following each of them. It is the souls who must feel attracted towards the right path preached by God and follow it, using their own free will. Krishna only preached to Arjuna what the right direction in his situation was. After presenting the complete logic before Arjuna, Krishna finally told Arjuna to analyze whatever He had said thoroughly and make his own decision, using his own free will (Yathecchasi tathā kuru). Krishna could have just forced Arjuna to fight the war, even without preaching the Gita. His mere will was sufficient to change the mind of Arjuna, in a fraction of a second. Then there would have been no need to preach all the eighteen chapters of the Gita! But God honors the free will that He Himself has granted to the soul. The change in the soul should not come through divine force. Instead, it should come through divine knowledge. It is for this reason that the soul must correctly grasp the concepts preached by God and assimilate them, in order to bring them into practice.

If the soul had no freedom and acted only as per the direction of God, the question posed by you would not even arise. The divine father, being greatly interested in the welfare of all the souls created by Him, would only direct them on the path of justice and they would all follow justice. Thus, there would only be peace and harmony in the world. In fact, such a situation actually existed for a very long time in the period called the Kṛta Yuga. But after that long time, souls got bored of always strictly following the directions given by God, without any freedom to choose what they wanted. So, they desired a free-will. The divine father always aims at the pleasure of His children and hence, He granted them a free-will, using which they had full freedom to choose what they wanted. But God expected souls to use their free-will in a responsible manner, using the powerful intelligence given to them to discriminate between the right and wrong paths. He clearly explained to them about the right and wrong paths through the scriptures. Knowing that souls are likely to misunderstand or deliberately misinterpret His preaching, He has repeatedly incarnated in human form, to eliminate the doubts and misinterpretations and preach true spiritual knowledge to every generation. In His preaching, He stresses on souls following the right path, again and again.

God is the divine Father of all souls, whereas, you are only a brother or sister to other souls. You should realize that He is far more concerned about their welfare than you are and He wants all souls to return to the right path. But God will never violate the free-will that He Himself has granted to souls. Under these circumstances, there is no other way than to repeatedly preach to souls about following the correct path while, at the same time, giving them full freedom to choose what they want. The souls who follow His preaching progress spiritually, while those who reject His preaching do not. Souls who wish to change must choose to follow His guidance, using their own free will. There is no other alternative, under the circumstances.

 

 

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-By Shri Datta Swami
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