Q: Are free will and surrender to the Divine two contrary aspects or inclusive of one another?
ALOKDA: The sense of free will that we have is a needed instrument designed by nature to facilitate our progress. In reality however the only free will (if we may so) is that we can choose between different forces that at any given point of time enter into us and we have to observe and choose or sanction. But even our choices are influenced by many factors beyond our reckoning let alone control. Given such a state of affairs what is the best thing to do is to let the Supreme Will (the Divine Mother’s Will) decide for us and from our side we align and choose what She in Her Supreme Wisdom chooses for us. In any case even when play at cross purposes with Her Will, still it is Her Will that will prevail through all the oppositions that we and the world forces may offer. Hence the wisest thing to do for us is to surrender our individual will to Her. One may ask then why not the Divine simply forces His Will upon us rather than go through the process of freedom and surrender. Well this is so because it is only when we consciously choose and surrender out of our own free will that we evolve in a living organic way. Otherwise, it will be a mechanical automaton kind of world. To put it in simple terms we have to choose to surrender out of our own free will then only it helps us evolve through the smooth and sunlit path. But we have also the freedom to play at cross purposes with Her Will. When we do that still Her Will prevails but it is through a long and tortuous path besieged with complexities, complications and difficulties.
