In2-MeC

Prague, Czech Republic
29 November 2004

Hare Krsna Maharaj,
please accept my humble obeisances.
AGTSGASG. AGTSP.

Maharaj, I just met my friend whom i had preached some years back and he is still chanting 16 rounds but otherwise not in a good spiritual mood. Yesterday we had a discussion and he had a doubt that why Krsna gives us suffering if we dont want to be with him. He says he wanted to enjoy without Krsna and when i told him its not possible he says then where is he free will because there are only two ways: be with Krsna and be happy or suffer without Him so he says there is no free will for he has to be go for the first one even if he himself wants to opt for the second one because he thinks he can enjoy there. He also thinks that there are many things he wanted to achieve which are on the other path.

I didnt argued with him for long. Would you please give more input in this regard Maharaj.

His statement expresses a concept of God that more resembles the Yahweh of Judeo-Christianism than the Krsna of Gaudiya Vaisnavism. In J-Cism, it's God that does the punishing. But in G-Vism, it is maya.

"If we are meant to serve Krsna, why did He create maya?" a Godbrother of mine once asked Srila Prabhupada. HDG replied, "Krsna did not create maya, you did. " That is a fact. In tattva (truth), there is only Krsna and His yogamaya (internal potency). But as He declares in chapter 7 of Gita, naham prakasa sarvasya yoga maya samavrtah, "I am never manifest to the foolish, for my yogamaya pushes them away. "

For foolish souls who desire to enjoy sense gratification instead of the real happiness of loving exchange with the Anandamaya Purusa, Bhagavan Sri Krsna, yogamaya, the spiritual potency, acts as mahamaya, the material potency. That is how she reciprocates with the foolish souls' ignorant, selfish plans to become so-called enjoyers. Actually there is no maya except yogamaya. Maya is just yogamaya playing as mahamaya. And she does this because of the choice of the jiva.

As mahamaya she helps the jiva forget all about Krsna, which is the next stop for your friend if he doesn't shape up. When he's forgotten all about Krsna, then he can exercise his so-called free will without this doubt that troubles him now.

It's all up to his desire. So he cannot argue that there is no free will. There is, but because he is not God, his choice is limited. Choosing maya instead of Krsna means to choose to try to be God. Under the illusion of "I am God" it seems that the soul has unlimited free will. As I said, if he desires this strongly enough, that is precisely what your friend will get by maya's grace. But what he will get is really just an illusion.

He cannot blame Krsna for imposing this illusion upon him. Krsna is the reservoir of transcendental pleasure, and He wants your friend to be happy. When your friend argues "I want to enjoy separately from Krsna," he's really saying "I want to be Krsna. " Problem is, because he is only a jiva, he can't be happy separate from Krsna. Only Krsna is independently blissful. But if your friend insists, then maya will bless him with that illusion that he too can be independently happy. She will even help him enjoy the suffering of being separate from Him.

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