Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1999

by Swami Krishnananda

14. Free Will, Tantra Yoga

(Darshan given in March 1999)

A visitor: What is free will?

Swamiji: 'Free will' means you can do what you want; that is free will.

Visitor: Is it true that we are assigned some free will?

Swamiji: No, it is not true. There is no ultimate free will. It is Universal Reality, God Himself working through you. Only if you identify the working of God through your ego, you think “I am doing it”. You see the electrical bulb shining, but it doesn't shine. Only the electricity is shining. There is a force behind the bulb. The bulb itself cannot shine. So like that, you yourself cannot do anything. But if the bulb assumes individuality – “I am shining. See my beauty!” – then it is bondage.

Visitor: When we do something wrong, then...

Swamiji: You do something wrong because you are thinking that you are independent.

Visitor: Why does that happen?

Swamiji: It happens because of the egoism. You want to assert yourself independently. You want to be independent. You don't want to cooperate with anybody, and therefore, you do what you like. That is egoism. Whether you succeed in it or not, that is a different matter.

Free will is a confidence in the direction you are taking in your action. You are sure this is correct. That is the free will. But if you doubt it, then you cannot do anything afterwards. Doubts are our traitors. Shakespeare wrote in his play, “Doubts are our traitors.” If anybody does harm to us, the doubt is doing the harm. You should not doubt anything. If you assert a thing with confidence, with force, with faith in it, it will work. If dubiously you go into the university and dubiously you appear for the examination, how will you pass?

Visitor: Then isn't that thinking of the fruit?

Swamiji: What is the fruit in your case?

Visitor: In my case, suppose I am appearing for the university exam; then in that case...

Swamiji: There is nothing wrong in aspiring for first-class first, so at least you will get second-class. But you must always aim at the highest, and sometimes you may succeed also because your determination is so strong.

[Later on, about tantra yoga]

Swamiji: It is very good to have dynamite. You can blow stones and make the passage open, but you can blow it on your head also. People with personal desires, with greed, with attachment of any kind, they should not touch it. Electricians climb up the electrical pole and repair it, but if you go and do that, it will give a shock. Only well-trained persons can do that. You must overcome human thinking, and therefore, human beings are unfit to touch that subject; and if you try that, it will come in your face afterwards. So I don't talk on these subjects. It will shock a person if you hear what it is.

A visitor: I have some idea of it, Swamiji, but I would like to... I want a safe book on it.

Swamiji: Nobody will write a book like that. People refrain from writing such things.

Visitor: I have seen a couple of books. I think Gurudev has something on tantra. He has all the yogas, so he must have also written on tantra yoga.

Swamiji: They will say something which is the safe side of things. That which is unsafe, they will not tell. But the unsafe thing is a part of the tantra.

Visitor: But by not saying that, they are already saying it.

Swamiji: They are saying that you don't touch it. A totally dispassionate person, wanting nothing, and loving nothing, hating nothing, such a person can touch it. But if you say, “I am a Brahman,” “I am a Sudra,” “I follow this religion,” and all that... Tantra is not a religion. It is a scientific technique of super-psychology. Purposely I use the word super-psychology, not ordinary psychology. It touches the characteristic of the higher mind. So it is not worthwhile bothering about this matter when usually you cannot say that any person is fit for it. Those who get angry for any reason, and those who see things according to their own predilections, they cannot do this practice. You will be shocked by hearing it. There are things which you abhor, but in tantra nothing is abhorred. They embrace anything. So sometimes people think that they are dangerous people – practicants of tantra. They may be dangerous people, but if they are really tantrics, they will be very powerful people also.

There is no division of one thing and another thing. They call it Sahaja Yoga. Sahaja means a kind of uniformity of approach. The approach is uniform to everything, and that is not possible for any human being to do. There is no uniformity in the world. It is all ups and downs only. You are different from me and I am different from you. This is removed in tantric perception.

Why do you unnecessarily waste time in thinking all these things? It is not meant for you. I never talk on this subject, as it is not worthwhile. It cannot be practised, and you should not talk about it also. It is very high-level thinking, very high-level thinking. I will not tell you anything. You should not talk on that subject. Nobody is fit for that. You can practise any other method. Why go only tantra? They are all forbidden areas, usually.

Visitor: I don't follow everything I read about, Swamiji, but I want to know about it to beware of it and to make others beware of it, I must know about it.

Swamiji: Nobody will talk to you on that subject.

Visitor: But they do, Swamiji.

Swamiji: They will tell only that which is agreeable to you. That which is not agreeable, they won't tell.

Visitor: They tell you what is agreeable to them, and I don't know enough about it to say anything.

Swamiji: Nobody will talk to you on that which is disagreeable. They will always hide that part, and tell you only what is pleasant and acceptable. This is the truth about it. Ordinary human beings are not fit for that because it will look abhorrent.