15 Mar 2023
[Mr. Talin Rowe asked: Hello Shri Datta Swami, blessings unto Your divine grace. Thank You always for answering questions.
My question was how does one discern a good person from a bad person? We can only see what a person acts like in the little bit of time we interact with them. This isn’t to mention the time away from us, their thoughts, their intentions or especially their past lives to give us insight into if a person is good or bad? In one of your discourses you mentioned that harming bad people is good and helping them is sinful, and vice versa for good people. How should we proceed? Thank you and have a nice day]
Swami replied: This is a problem existing in nature and for this problem, there is no miraculous solution. If you are God, then only you can solve this in no time because you can judge the approaching person as good or bad even without glancing such person. We are human beings and do not possess such miraculous powers. Hence, the only solution in the case of normal human beings is that you shall observe the person for a long time to judge whether he/she is good or bad. However, one short way exists. If the person is a strong theist, we can believe him/her to be a good person because the theist fears for God, who severely punishes the sinners. This works to a large extent, but, we have to beware of atheists acting as theists in order to cheat the public.
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