Free will exists with the marginal living entities (jiva-souls) for the purpose of allowing self-expression and voluntary personal contributions.

This is part and parcel of a two-way exchange with the jiva-soul's relationship with Krsna, making the union a "two-sided" loving affair instead of a "one-way" over bearing dictatorship.

Krsna does not force His dominance over His servants and friends, the jiva-souls in the spiritual world, like a puppet master impersonally manipulates his puppets with strings to only do what ever he wants them to do.

In the REAL spiritual world's on the Vaikuntha planets and Goloka-Vrindavana, loving exchanges are forever expanding the jiva-soul's voluntary service to Krsna, and Krsna reciprocating with His loving service to the jiva-souls (His pure devotees).

Love can NEVER be experienced with just one, there MUST be two involved in a "two-way" exchange of personal feelings, expressions and offerings, otherwise the jiva-souls are no better than dead mindless stone Prabhupada has warned us.

Srila Prabhupada - "If you have no free will, then you are a stone. The stone has no free will. You want to be stone? Then you MUST have free will! But don't misuse your free will. But don't try to become stone either. That is not life." (Aug 5, 1976, New Mayapur France)

The jiva-souls are expansions of Krsna but with minor independent qualities that allow them to express themselves with their own voluntary actions based on free will in their own way. 

The jiva-souls can never become God (Visnu-tattva) but can become godly and Krsna's dear devotee which is each jiva-soul's original and infinite position and home in the spiritual world.

We all must understand that there was no beginning to the marginal living entities (jiva-souls) existence, nor will there be an end as Bhagavad Gita As It Is explains. 

The jiva-souls have ALWAYS existed just like Krsna has always existed. 

This relationship between Krsna and the jiva-souls is compared to the Sun-disc and the sun-rays, both have always exist together however, it is the Sun-disc that maintains the sun-rays. 

Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is compared to the Sun-disc who always maintains the marginal living entities or jiva-souls who compared to the sun-rays.

The jiva-souls are eternal spiritual living PERSONS and can never be destroyed, terminated, cut into pieces or extinguished because they are indestructible.

All individual jīva-souls are ETERNAL persons therefore there are no new jiva-souls being created because they have ALWAYS existed meaning they are beginningless and endless.

Srila Prabhupada – “There are no new souls, new and old are due to this material body, but the jiva-soul is never born and never dies, so if there is no birth, how can there be new souls?” (Letter to Jagadisa dasa, 7/9/1970)

The individual jiva-souls ALWAYS have "free will" on Visnu's Vaikuntha planets, and Krsna's central planet of Goloka-Vrindavan, which is a natural part of their spiritual constitutional identity, making them the eternal PERSONS they are for infinity. 

Bhagavad Gita As It Is - “Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.” (BG, Ch 2 text 12, 1983 edition)    

Bhagavad Gita As It Is - "For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain." (BG, Ch 2 text 20 “corrected” 1983 edition)

Bhagavad Gita As It Is - "The soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind." (BG, Ch 2 text 23, 1983 edition)

Bhagavad Gita As It Is - "This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, present everywhere, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same." (BG, Ch 2 text 24, 1983 edition)

All marginal living entities (jiva-souls) in the spiritual world are eternal PERSONS who are able to make their own independent decisions while serving Krsna. 

This allows them to be the voluntary contributing PERSON they are eternally, only then can an unlimited variety of intentional loving exchanges with Krsna be possible in a "two-way" reciprocation. 

Srila Prabhupada - "In the spiritual world service is voluntary. Some devotees want to serve Krsna as flower; so they become flower there if they want to be a flower and lie down at the lotus feet of Krsna, then he becomes flower, voluntarily, and he can change from flower to human body also. That is spiritual life. There is no restriction. If some devotee wants to serve Krsna as cow, he serves Krsna as cow, as calf, as flower, as plant, as water, as ground, field, or as father, as mother, as friend, as beloved, anything. It is inconceivable yet a fact." (SB, Canto 6 Ch 1 text 1-4, Melb, Australia May 20, 1975)

Srila Prabhupada - "Love is a reciprocal, voluntary, good exchange of feeling. Then there is love. Not by force, no, Krsna does not want to become a lover like that, ‘You love me, otherwise I shall kill you!" (Washington DC July 8, 1976)   

Srila Prabhupada - ''Love means you take, and you give also. Suppose if you love somebody and you simply take from him, but you don't give. Oh, do you think it is very good? No. It is not good. That is not love. That is exploitation. If I go on simply taking from you, and if I don't offer you anything, that is simply exploitation."(Lecture BG, Ch 9 text 2-5, New York City, Nov 23, 1966)

Srila Prabhupada - "Love means two. There MUST be two, the lover and the beloved. Kṛṣṇa is already lover. He loves you so much that He's trying to get you back. Therefore love cannot be one or love cannot be executed only one, there MUST be another one. I love somebody; somebody loves me, so there must be lover, there must be beloved. We must understand that love means you take and you give also. Suppose if you love somebody and you simply take from him, but you don't give. Oh, do you think it is very good? No, it is not good, that is NOT love, that is exploitation and forced obedience. If I go on simply taking from you, and if I don't offer you anything, that is simply exploitation." (Quotes 1966 - 1974, Vaniquotes)

Srila Prabhupada - "The impersonalist philosophy is oneness. So how there be love with just one? Is it possible? Have you got any such experience that love means one? No. Love means two. There MUST be two, the lover and the beloved. Kṛṣṇa is already lover. He loves you so much that He's trying to get you back. That is Kṛṣṇa's attempt. "Please, My dear boy, or My dear friend, My dear servant." (Lecture SB, Canto 2 Ch 1 text 3, Paris, June 12, 1974)

Bali Mardana - "An example of free will is someone can choose Kṛṣṇa or turn away? Is that an example of free will?"

Srila Prabhupāda - "Yes, because if you accept Kṛṣṇa, then you must follow what Kṛṣṇa says. If you don't follow Kṛṣṇa, then what is the use of talking of Kṛṣṇa? If he accepts Kṛṣṇa, he must abide by the injunction of Kṛṣṇa." (Morning Walk, Jan 22, 1974, Hawaii)

Srila Prabhupada  - "Free will means that you can act wrongly. That is free will. Unless there is chance of doing wrong or right, there is no question of free will. Where is free will then? If I act only one sided, that means I have no free will. Because we act sometimes wrongly, that means free will."

Hayagriva dasa - "A man may know better but still act wrongly."

Srila Prabhupada - "Yes, but that is free will but misuses his free will, just like a thief who knows he is stealing, it is bad, but still he does it. That is free will. He cannot check his greediness, so in spite of his knowing that he is doing wrong thing—he will be punished, he knows; he has seen another thief, he was punished, he was put into prison— everything he knows, but still he steals. Why? Misuse of free will. But unless there can be misuse of free will, then there is no question of free will." (Excerpt from: Discussions on Rene Descartes philosophy)

Srila Prabhupada – "So everyone can know that independence means one can use it properly, or one can misuse it. That is independence. If you make it one-way only, that is not independence, that is force." (Los Angeles, June 23, 1975)

The jiva-souls are endowed with independence and an individual unique personality that enables them to experience their independent personality separate from Krsna's Divine Personality.

No two jiva-souls are the same, each have their own unique personality and character independent from Krsna's Personality. 

Krsna allows this freedom (free will) among the jiva-souls because Krsna wants to experience loving exchanges between Himself and the jiva-souls, between two and experience the jiva-soul's mysterious individual contributions and self expression.

This, however, does not mean all jiva-souls are fully independent from Krsna's control; that is not possible. At all times, the jiva-souls are always dependent on Krsna the Supreme Personality of Godhead and cause of all causes and His energies, even while experiencing their little independence. 

So, the jiva-souls are always independent individual living entities yet simultaneously depend on Krsna and His Visnu expansions in both the spiritual world and material world at all times.

Even though the jiva-soul is an expansion of Krsna, the jiva-souls are NOT one with Krsna's Personality because they have their own independent personality and individuality.

Each jiva-soul has their own unique personality separate from Krsna's Personality eternally. 

The jiva-souls may fall to the material world or further to an inactive dormant state in the impersonal Brahmajyoti, or rest dormantly in the Body of Maha-Visnu waiting for the next creation of Brahmanda material universes to be created by Him, but they certainly did NOT originate from the impersonal Brahmajyoti, Brahman or Maha-Visnu.

Entering the impersonal Brahmajyoti or Brahman is a "fallen condition" of the jiva-souls. It is a temporary "inactive" denial of one's existence as an eternal jiva-soul, who has entered the impersonal Brahmajyoti to escape the suffering and pain of being embodied in the material world trapped in the cycle of repeated birth and death.

In fact the fallen jiva-souls can stay in the impersonal Brahmajyoti for a very, very, very long time, so long that some foolishly believe it is where they have originated from after emerging from there.

Merged in the impersonal Brahmajyoti is also only temporary because the nature of the jiva-souls is to be active not inactive therefore, all jiva-souls eventually fall out of the impersonal Brahmajyoti.  

Therefore the dormant inactive aspect of the Brahmajyoti is not the origin of the jiva-soul, it is actually a fallen state they fall too Prabhupada has explained.

The fact is the jiva-souls do not originate from the Impersonal Brahman (Brahmajyoti), the Body of Maha-Visnu or tatastha-sakti (a conditioned designation) as some believe.

Srila Prabhupada - ''Existence in the impersonal brahman is also within the category of non-Krsna consciousness. Those who are in the brahman effulgence (impersonal Brahmajyoti) are also in the fallen condition, so there is no question of falling down from a fallen condition. When fall takes place it means falling down from the non-fallen condition. The non-fallen condition is Krsna consciousness [Vaikuntha or Goloka Vrindavana]." (Letter to Revatinandana, Los Angeles 13 June, 1970)

Tatastha-sakti is also an already fallen conditional state, as Prabhupada explains, so there is no question of falling down from an already fallen state.

Srila Prabhupada - "So this material world is the taṭastha (conditioned) characteristics, and the spiritual world is the "personal" characteristics. So our effort is to get out of this taṭastha (conditioned) characteristics and to enter the permanent characteristics. That is called spiritual elevation." (Lecture CC Madhya-lila 20.354-358, New York City, Dec 28, 1966)

Srila Prabhupada - "Because the individual soul is apt to fall down sometimes under the clutches of māyā, it is called taṭastha-śakti. Just like in the seaside the shore, the beach, sometimes you see it is covered by water and sometimes it is land; similarly, when we are covered by māyā, that is our jīva-bhūta stage, and when there is no more covering, that is brahma-bhūta stage. When we are Kṛṣṇa conscious, then we are brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20), and when we are not Kṛṣṇa conscious, we are materially conscious, that is māyā." (Lecture BG, Ch 7 text 4-5, Bombay, March 30, 1971)

Fall down means from a none fallen condition and that none fallen original position of the jiva-souls is Vaikuntha and Goloka Vrindavana which are their perpetual homes.  

The marginal living entities (jiva-souls) are a collective of eternal individual jiva-souls who have no beginning, nor will they ever cease to be.×<×.