If in the beginning there was only Lord Krishna, why did He create the universe and the human beings? He advises everyone to follow the Gita by surrendering to Him, but at the same time He creates His inferior, illusory energy known as Maya that deludes everyone. Is this considered to be a testing phase for human beings? If yes, then what is the need of doing all these things if finally everything is going back to Him?
ANSWER GIVEN BY SANKARSHAN DASA ADHIKARI
The first thing you should try to understand there was never a time when there was only Krishna and no one else. Krishna is eternally emanating the living beings from Himself in order to enjoy loving relationships with each and every one of them. But since love by its very nature must be voluntary, Krishna gives each living being the freedom to choose whether to love and serve Him as the Supreme Person or whether to try to imitate Him by foolishly considering himself to be the Supreme Person.
If the living being chooses to try to imitate the Lord, he cannot try to do so unless he is the under the illusion that he is the supreme. Therefore for a such a fool the Lord provides His Maya, His illusory energy, which enables the living being to actually think that he is the center of the universe.
It is wrong to think that everyone is deluded by Maya. The vast majority of the living beings remain eternally absorbed in the Lord's service in His eternal kingdom. It is only an infinitesimal fraction of the innumerable living beings in the spiritual world who opt out of an eternal life full of knowledge and bliss because of a foolish desire to be the center of existence.
Everyone has a choice of one of two destinies. One can choose to think that he is the center of enjoyment and thus try to be an enjoyer of this material world. Such an unfortunate soul will be caught up in the cycle of birth and death living one temporary existence full of ignorance and misery birth after birth until he finally wises up and comes back to the Lord's service.
Or one can choose to be an eternal servant of God in His transcendental kingdom and live an eternal life full of knowledge and bliss. Everybody gets to make this choice. This material world is the place for those who make the wrong choice. The living beings who choose not to serve the Lord will remain eternally in this material existence but they can rectify themselves whenever they want to.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
