God gives freedom. If God didn’t give us freedom, if God simply programmed us to love, then we would be a computer. But God gives us the freedom to love Him, or love anybody else, or hate Him or betray Him, rebel against Him. We have the freedom to do whatever we want. We can go on to be a murderer right after reading this. We can go to a movie; we can go to a temple. We can dance. We can get drunk. We have freedom to do any of these things.
Does the computer have the freedom? A computer has no freedom. A computer is simply programmed to do exactly what the computer operator wants. God does not want to live with computers; He wants to live with people. Therefore, He has given us freedom and independence. Our freedom is whether we want to accept or whether we want to reject the grace of God, as it coming from the word of truth.
Radhanath Swami
