Question: Does Krishna have a very specific plan for each living entity, and deviating from this plan causes one to be in maya? I’m wondering mainly whether it’s a very specific plan, all mapped out, with every other path being maya, and we do best by trying to discern it and adhere to it, or are there a few options?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
Your question is addressed by Prabhupada in Sri Isopanishad as follows: “Every part and parcel of the Complete Whole is endowed with some particular energy to act according to the Lord’s will. When the part-and-parcel living entity forgets his particular activities under the Lord’s will, he is considered to be in maya, illusion. Thus from the very beginning, Sri Isopanishad warns us to be very careful to play the part designated for us by the Lord. *This does not mean that the individual soul has no initiative of his own.* Because he is part and parcel of the Lord, he must partake of the initiative of the Lord as well. When a person properly utilizes his initiative, or active nature, with intelligence, understanding that everything is the Lord’s potency, he can revive his original consciousness, which was lost due to association with Maya, the external energy.” (Sri Isopanishad Text 4 purport)
In other words, serve we must, but the living entity has choice *how* he/she wants to serve and how to express his/her devotion and surrender. Everything is not predetermined and mapped out for each one of us. That would make the very definition of “personhood” meaningless. It would render us, in effect, into programmed robots. This will be even more clear if we consider that Krishna is a Person too — He is the Supreme Enjoyer, not simply a universal taskmaster. He enjoys exchanging loving reciprocation with His devotees, and the devotee in turn is very eager to understand the Lord’s desires and fulfill it. Thus there is a reciprocal relationship and both the Lord and the devotee are ‘competing’ to increasingly reciprocate and satisfy each other. There can be no question of exchange of loving feelings or of enjoyment if everything is already mechanically chalked out for us.
Individuality implies that we have some independence or free will; we have desires, each of us are endowed with a certain range of capacities and intelligence to plan and execute, and so on.
The symptom of a surrendered devotee is that they are always consciously subordinating their minute free will, their desires and plans to fulfill Krishna’s desires. But within that subordinate position, there is factual freedom. Conversely, when one expresses one’s free will to choose something *other than* Krishna’s enjoyment, it is then that one is in maya.
The operative principle in devotional service is freedom.
Please see SB 1.6.37 where Prabhupada describes the freedom enjoyed by a liberated soul such as Narada Muni:
“We can just imagine the extent and unlimitedness of his freedom, which is as good as that of the Supreme Lord. There is no reason or obligation for his traveling, and no one can stop him from his free movement. … in all spheres of devotional service, freedom is the main pivot. Without freedom, there is no execution of devotional service. The freedom surrendered to the Lord does not mean that the devotee becomes dependent in every respect. To surrender unto the Lord through the transparent medium of the spiritual master is to attain complete freedom of life.”
