"Free will is critical in a loving relationship because there cannot be love without the opportunity to oppose that love. There cannot be an appreciation without the opportunity to express it through choice. If we are made in the image of the Divine, then just as God has free will, we must also have it. The difficulty arises in our inability to understand, or accept, that it is not beneficial to try to use our free will separate from God. This is because we are part and parcel of God, a tiny fragment of the whole, but we are not the complete whole. As part of the whole, our function is to serve the whole. The whole is certainly not meant to serve the part. For example, imagine if your stomach tried to eat on its own and told your mouth, "I'm tired of you always taking the food first. I think I should get it first." This would be impossible. A part cannot properly function separately from the whole. This is the natural order of the universe."
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People from ClevelandNew religious movement leadersHindu gurusInternational Society of Krishna ConsciousnessMonotheists
Original Language: English
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p. 66-67
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bhakti_Tirtha_Swami
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Bhakti Tirtha Swami
Bhakti Tirtha Swami (February 25 1950 – June 27 2005), also known as Swami Krishnapada, was a prominent scholar, Gaudiya Vaishnava Hindu teacher, and religious leader of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, commonly known as the Hare Krishna Movement. He was the disciple of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
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