We must allow every day of our lives to represent healthy closure now! When we live for love, this is most natural because all of our associations wi… - Bhakti Tirtha Swami

Free will is critical in a loving relationship because there cannot be love without the opportunity to oppose that love. There cannot be an appreciation without the opportunity to express it through choice. If we are made in the image of the Divine, then just as God has free will, we must also have it. The difficulty arises in our inability to understand, or accept, that it is not beneficial to try to use our free will separate from God. This is because we are part and parcel of God, a tiny fragment of the whole, but we are not the complete whole. As part of the whole, our function is to serve the whole. The whole is certainly not meant to serve the part. For example, imagine if your stomach tried to eat on its own and told your mouth, "I'm tired of you always taking the food first. I think I should get it first." This would be impossible. A part cannot properly function separately from the whole. This is the natural order of the universe.

By the mercy of the Lord, you have been given a guru, so your selflessness is simply a matter of serving your guru with more love and care. Give up all of your individualized desires and live for his pleasure, as he lived and lives for you.

No one is a solitary agent. We all have various types of guides who assist us. Most important, there is a form of God in everyone’s heart, and when you put the physical body to rest, you make closer contact with the Lord in the heart and with your higher self.