How Can Unfortunate Souls Whose Bad Qualities Are Strengthened Over Several Previous Births, Attain Salvation?

[Shri J Prasad (Prof. Sanskrit, Central University) asked: The soul is very much influenced by the qualities strengthened through several previous births. What is the way for salvation of such unfortunate soul?]

Swami replied: The soul is given full freedom regarding its selection of a right path or wrong path (Svabhaavastu pravartate—Gita). God will not force the soul to come to right path only leaving the wrong path except preaching the soul regarding both paths with fully applied logic. The soul must be attracted towards right path preached by God with full freedom. Krishna, after preaching Arjuna regarding the right direction, told finally to analyze whatever is told by Him and then take own decision with full freedom (yathecchasi tathaa kuru). Krishna can just force Arjuna to fight in the war even without preaching the Gita. His mere will is sufficient to change Arjuna in a fraction of second and there is no need of preaching eighteen chapters of the Gita. Hence, the concept of God is to honour the freedom given to the soul by Himself. The change in the soul shall come not by divine force but, shall come by the divine knowledge. Due to this fact, the soul has to grasp the right concept preached by God and assimilate it in order to practice it. If the soul has no freedom and acts as per the direction of God, there is no possibility of your question since the divine Father is very much interested in the welfare of the souls created by Him. Such arrangement went on till the end of Kritayuga, which is a very long span of time. The souls got bored by this rigid trend of strictly following God without any self-freedom for a long time and desired for freedom. The divine Father is always aiming at the pleasure of His issues and hence, gave full freedom to souls expecting that the souls will use their powerful intelligence in understanding right and wrong paths. God also incarnated Himself again and again to preach the true spiritual knowledge to the souls so that the right path is again and again stressed. God also wants the souls to come to right path since the divine Father, who is more concerned about the souls than yourself. You are concerned about your brothers and sisters in this world and you must realize that God is more concerned about them than yourself. But, God will never break the freedom given by Him to the souls. Under these circumstances, there is no other way than to give full freedom to the souls while preaching the correct path to the souls again and again. There is no alternative regarding the spiritual progress of any soul under these circumstances.

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