Answer
“If Krishna is responsible for everything” — this statement needs to be properly understood. It is not accurate to say that Krishna is directly responsible for all our actions.
Krishna provides the facility, but the responsibility is ours.
Take a simple example: Krishna gives you a sharp knife. Now, that knife can be used either to cook food or to harm someone. Krishna is responsible for providing the knife — but how you use it is your choice. The responsibility for the action lies with you.
In the same way, Krishna has created this entire system — the body, the mind, the material world, and all the circumstances. Everything operates under His arrangement. But within that system, each living being has free will.
A good analogy is a factory. The factory is set up for production, and everything runs because of the owner’s arrangement. But within the factory, workers have freedom — they can work sincerely, be lazy, or even act against the organization. The system belongs to the owner, but the choices belong to the workers.
Similarly, Krishna is the cause of all causes, and nothing functions without His sanction. Yet, within His system, we are given limited independence to choose.
Once we choose, His system executes the result:
If we choose properly, we are elevated.
If we choose wrongly, we face the consequences.
That is the law of karma.
For example, if someone uses a knife to harm another person, the punishment is theirs — not Krishna’s. Krishna did not choose the wrongdoing; He only provided the facility.
Even in our own body, we may decide to lift our hand — but do we understand how that actually happens? The entire mechanism — brain signals, nerves, muscles — is carried out by material nature (prakriti), which works under Krishna’s supervision.
As Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita, material nature works under His direction. He designs the system, but He does not force individual choices upon us.
Everyone is given a certain level of freedom based on their past karma:
A human being has more freedom than an animal.
A wealthy person may have more options than someone struggling for survival.
These conditions are results of past actions — we have shaped our own situation.
Within that situation, we still have freedom. It is like a cow tied with a rope:
Within the length of the rope, it can move freely.
But it cannot go beyond that limit.
That “rope” is our destiny. Within it, our choices create future destiny.
If we use our freedom wisely, our scope expands.
If we misuse it, our freedom becomes more restricted.
Krishna, seated in the heart, gives sanction and support:
If you want to enjoy materially, He allows it.
If you want to pursue spiritual life, He helps you even more.
If someone wants illusion, Krishna allows that also — even the hope that “tomorrow I will be happy materially” is sustained by Him.
But He does not interfere with our free will.
Therefore, we cannot blame Krishna.
We are the architects of our own destiny.
The moment we choose sincerely — “I want to progress spiritually, I want to practice bhakti seriously” — Krishna begins to provide the necessary guidance and facilities.
But He will not force us. Love and devotion must come from our own willing choice.
That is the key principle:
Krishna provides the system and the facility; we provide the choice — and we bear the consequences.
