Sharanagati

Collected words from talks of Swami Tirtha




The jiva has similar qualities as the Supreme. And Krishna has full freedom. His freedom is manifested in lila. Lila is pastimes, His playful life. And this lila is always sweet. His independence does not bring any harm neither to Himself, nor to others. This independence means freedom. And actually this is the sixth feature of God – tyaga, renunciation; usually they call it renunciation, but it is very difficult to understand how renunciation? But it is freedom – He is not affected by His creation or anything else, He is free from all influences. We also have inherited some little part of His freedom. But unfortunately in most of the cases our freedom brings bitter results. His freedom brings rasa-lila; our freedom brings nara-lila, human pastime. So evil comes from the misuse of the freedom of the jiva. Some western philosophers also came to the conclusion that humans are co-creators with God. And we can agree with that – we had created all the trouble. This is our contribution to the universe.

So, the misuse of freedom – this is the problem. But without that freedom there is no chance for love, there is no chance for progress either. Because then everything is fixed and set; you cannot move out of the picture. But we should never forget that divine freedom brings happiness and human freedom, in most of the cases, brings suffering – misuse of the freedom.

Yamuna: Can we summarize the answer to the question of the existence of evil like this: it is explained by the mystery of the free will of jiva, which includes the possibility to choose and in this way the karma theory serves as vindication of God for the fact of the existence of evil? Because karma is connected to jiva and its free will.

Tirtha Maharaj: “If you want to misuse your freedom, I will give you the chance to do it – under these conditions, in this world, with karma, without Me, etc.” But the hidden meaning of this verse is not simply description of illusion, but also a way to overcome that illusion. “If something seems to be disconnected from Me – that is illusion.” How to overcome illusion? Connect everything back to Him. So do not be depressed  : “Ah, here is illusion, here is darkness, here is only a reflection…” Do not be afraid.Krishna says: “I have given you these little things to engage you for a while, but as soon as you want to come out of that illusory situation, I will help you.”

 



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