How to Attain to Free Will
In this chapter, Sukadeva addresses a profound philosophical question that has puzzled thinkers for ages: If the Supreme Lord controls everything and all events are predetermined by His will, how can living entities have free will? This is the age-old paradox of free will versus predestination. Sukadeva resolves this apparent contradiction by explaining that the Lord has two kinds of potencies: the power to control (through His arrangements of karma and cosmic law) and the power to grant freedom (through the gift of consciousness and choice). Every living entity, as a part of the Lord, possesses a minute amount of free will - the freedom to choose to cooperate with the Lord's will or to resist it.
The key to understanding free will is recognizing that it operates within the framework of karma (the law of action and reaction). Every action has a corresponding consequence. If one acts in accordance with dharma (religious duty) and the Lord's instructions, one experiences happiness and spiritual progress. If one acts against dharma and God's laws, one experiences suffering and entanglement. This is not arbitrary punishment imposed by the Lord but a natural law that the Lord maintains. One's apparent freedom to choose is always within this framework - one is free to choose between right and wrong, between serving the Lord or serving one's senses, between actions that lead to liberation or actions that lead to bondage.
Sukadeva explains that what people think of as unlimited free will is actually a delusion. Those who are materially conditioned think they can do whatever they want and enjoy unlimited happiness. However, this is a false perception. Their so-called freedom is restricted by the laws of nature, the results of their past karma, their bodily limitations, and ultimately by death itself. A person imprisoned in a jail might have freedom to move around within the jail, but they are still prisoners. Similarly, materially conditioned living entities, though they think they are free, are actually bound by the laws of material nature and the cycle of birth and death.
True freedom, Sukadeva explains, comes from surrendering one's limited free will to the Supreme Lord's unlimited will. This might sound paradoxical, but it is the deepest truth. When one surrenders to the Lord and aligns their will with His will, one becomes free from the burden of individual decision-making, anxiety about the future, and the false responsibility of being the controller and enjoyer. One becomes part of a larger purpose and derives unlimited strength and guidance from the Supreme Source. A river that tries to flow against the ocean can never reach it, but a river that flows toward the ocean naturally merges with it and becomes one with the vast ocean.
The chapter concludes with the teaching that the attainment of true freedom requires first understanding one's constitutional position. One is not the controller but the controlled, not the master but the servant. This acknowledgment is not a degradation but an elevation, for it brings one into proper alignment with reality. Once one accepts this position and consciously dedicates one's free will to serving the Supreme Lord, one becomes truly free from the miseries of material existence. One's actions, though executed in the world, become detached and purely devotional. One acts, yet doesn't identify with the actions. One experiences the world, yet remains uncontaminated by it. This is the paradoxical freedom of the truly liberated soul who is free while acting, free while engaged, and free even in the midst of all activities.