free will If souls are God’s inert instruments, does it not violate their freedom and make it unfair to punish souls for their sins?

[dattaswami]

If souls are God’s inert instruments, does it not violate their freedom and make it unfair to punish souls for their sins?

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Shri Krishnaraj.V.S wrote: Dear Sir,

With reference to the above message, i would like to seek clarification for the following: The reply by Swami is, Quote “The real Speaker is God Datta alone. The audience has awareness just like the Speaker. The only inert or ignorant instrument in between God Datta and His live audience is Myself, who lacks even a trace of knowledge.”Unquote

Most spiritual books and gurus say on similar lines that man should consider himself as an instrument of God. The above logic raised a question for which I could not get a convincing answer. The question is, if man should only be an instrument, then what is the purpose of his creation ? If anything good or bad happens, should he attribute the same to God and refrain from exhibiting his emotions? Should he be only a puppet and suppress his emotions?

Why I am raising this point is that, most discussions /forums put forth the view that god has given freedom because, he doesn’t want humans to be programmed dolls. If god has given really freedom to humans, then what is the point in humans thinking that they are mere instruments of god. Thinking us as mere instruments imply that our freedom is not real freedom.

1. If the freedom we are enjoying is not real freedom, god can as well make us dolls so that evils are totally curbed. The point is, god wants us to be mere instruments and also make us to suffer by allowing evil. This is not just.

2. Assuming ourselves as mere instruments will not hold good in practical life. If a person commits a sin and if he says that, i am merely an instrument and god should be held responsible, will it be acceptable in court of law?

For me above mentioned points deter to think that we should be mere instruments of god. I may be wrong also. If I am wrong , kindly clarify what could be correct? Regards, Krishnaraj.V.S]

Swami replied:  The source of your question is the confusion between Nivrutti (divine life) and Pravrutti (worldly life). The statement given by Me is related to Nivrutti and not to Pravrutti. Freedom is given to all human souls, who are responsible for freely choosing to perform good deeds or bad deeds in Pravrutti (Svabhaavastu pravartate —Gita). Even here, God preaches to the souls through ethical scriptures and also directly in the form of Human Incarnations. His preaching clearly describes which deeds are good and which are bad. In Pravrutti, the human being takes the credit for the fruits of his good deeds, and tries to throw the blame for the fruits of his bad deeds on God! Pravrutti belongs to all of humanity whereas Nivrutti belongs to an extremely small number of climax devotees to God, who have surrendered to God totally (Tameva sharanam gachha —Gita). Especially, when divine work of God is to be done by a climax devotee such as delivering excellent spiritual knowledge, God merges with that climax devotee and generates that excellent spiritual knowledge through that devotee. Here, the planning of the divine program (Samkalpa), choosing the appropriate direction in its execution, and providing the energy for doing the work, are all actually done by God alone since it is entirely God’s work. God does His own work through that climax devotee and gives the credit to His climax devotee. The climax devotee in turn always passes on this entire credit back to God since the real credit belongs only to God. The climax devotee always says that he or she is a total zero whereas God is the all-in-all in such divine work. This point which applies only to the extremely small number of exceptional devotees cannot be extended to all the other general human beings.

In Pravrutti, while doing a good deed or a bad deed, the planning of the action, and choosing the direction for how it is to be executed, are done by the human being. Only the energy required for the work is supplied by God. A simile for this is that God is like the horse taking you to any place as desired by you. The horse merely provides the energy for the journey by doing the work of pulling the cart. This simile comes from the Veda which says “Abadhnan purusham pashum”. The planning and choosing the direction in doing the work is your responsibility alone. You may choose to go to a forest and get robbed or you may choose to go to a city in which your friends live, and enjoy happiness. The fruit of the work depends on your planning, and the direction chosen by you in executing the work. Hence, the fruit goes to you alone, and not to the horse. In Pravrutti, the horse (God) only acts like inert energy. You have complete freedom in planning and deciding the direction of the work. You have not given a chance for the horse to contribute to the planning and choosing the direction. Hence, you are responsible for the good and bad fruits of the work done as per your choice. In the case of the climax Nivrutti devotee, he or she has surrendered to the horse (God) in all the three steps of planning the work, choosing the direction, and obtaining energy for performing it. You cannot mix the cases of climax devotees with the other general human beings and arrive at confused conclusions. The teacher teaches the lesson to all in the class without any partiality. If the majority of students in the class are undisciplined, they may fail. A few disciplined students will pass the examination. You cannot mix the cases of both the disciplined and undisciplined students, and arrive at a common conclusion. The freedom of choice too was given by God to souls since the souls were bored after living in continuous discipline for a long time during the Kruta Yuga. By giving them freedom, the divine Father made all souls, who are His children happy. At the same time, in the interest of the welfare of His children, He has taken all necessary steps to guide them on the right path. He has guided humanity by giving the ethical scriptures. Moreover, He preaches the true spiritual knowledge to humanity directly by coming in the form of Human Incarnations in every generation. Under these circumstances, if one blames God, it is only the climax of ignorance!