why was the jiva soul granted free will when they could also misuse it?

A devotee once ask Srila Bhaktisiddhanta why was the jiva soul granted free will when they could also misuse it?

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta answered - 

“You are fighting for freedom. Don’t you know the value of having free will? Devoid of freedom the soul is only matter".

Furthermore freedom (free will) offers one the alternative to do either right or wrong Gandhi once told the British authorities.

”We want our freedom too.”

The British authorities replied -

“You are not fit to have self-government or your freedom. When you are fit, we shall give it to you.”

Gandhi replied,

“We want the freedom to do wrong too.”

So, freedom does not guarantee only acting in the right way; and that choice must be there to do wrong too.

Freedom means being able to choose "right or wrong".

The possibility of also rejecting Krishna must ALWAYS be there even in Vaikuntha and Goloka-Vrindavana because that's what free will means.

And this is always the case in the Spiritual Planets.

Our first choice AFTER rejecting Krishna in Vaikuntha or Goloka-Vrindavana, is to dominate and imitate Krishna, therefore it is that choice due to free will that causes the jiva soul to enter the material creation and try to dominate.

And such choices have nothing to do with the influence of Maya or the material energy because material energy does NOT exist in Vaikuntha or Goloka-Vrindavana.

As a result of this "choice", everything else in the material creation has developed.

So Srila Prabhupada has explained that the "original position" of the jiva soul is to be always with Krishna in a servitor reciprocal relationship based on voluntary loving exchanges.

As explained above, Maya can NEVER be blamed for the fall down of the jiva soul from Vaikuntha or Goloka-Vrindavana in any way.

This is because Maya, in her role as the personification of material energy, does NOT exist in Vaikuntha or Goloka-Vrindavana, therefore nothing material can exist there.

But "free will" does eternally exist there and has ALWAYS existed in Vaikuntha and Goloka Vrindavana!

The jiva souls are always responsible for their choices and actions in both the Spiritual Planets and the material creation.

Srila Prabhupada - “Unless there is a possibility of misusing our free will, there is no question of freedom.” (Dialectical Spiritualism, Critique of Descartes)

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)