24 Dec 2020
[Shri Balaji asked: Namaste Swāmi! Kindly clarify on the following incidents in Sai Saccharitra and the Mahabhārata which relate to distinguishing between good and bad people from the viewpoint of ordinary human beings vs. the viewpoint of God.
In one incident, there was a fakir called Javhar Ali who was well-read in the Quran. But he was very egoistic and short tempered. The fakir came to Shirdi and started to call Bāba as his disciple. Bāba also willingly accepted to be the fakir's disciple; He even went away from Shirdi with the fakir and rendered service to him as a disciple for a long time. Later on, the fakir was defeated in a religious debate by a saint Devidas from Shirdi who had great devotion towards Baba. The fakir ran away from Shirdi after the defeat. After several years, the fakir realized his error and surrendered to Baba, repenting for his actions. In Abhimanyu’s case, when externally he seemed like a courageous, selfless person, who also fought on the side of justice, God did not save him from the terrible death after an unfair battle with the Kauravas.
An ordinary human being will probably look at the behaviour of the arrogant fakir and decide him to be undeserving and hence will not associate with him or even show anger towards him since he is insulting holy men like Bāba. Whereas, a human being will consider someone like Abhimanyu who is siding with justice, brave and respectful towards elders, to be deserving and will associate with him.
However, in God’s viewpoint, the cases seem diametrically opposite. In this case, how do we decide deserving from undeserving people so that our behaviour with them is in line with what God is planning for the person? Sincerely, Balaji]
Swāmi replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! The fakir was egoistic, as we see from his behaviour and Bāba lacked ego, as we see from the behaviour of Bāba. Abhimanyu was a demon born as a son of Arjuna. Abhimanyu fought from the side of Pāṇḍavas, not because he had analyzed which side is justice and which is injustice. He fought from the side of the Pāṇḍavas, only due to his fascination towards his blood relations. He had developed some good character as a result of his association with his uncle, God Kṛṣṇa. But his inner core was completely demonic, which was hidden in his life as Abhimanyu. The omniscient God Kṛṣṇa knew it thoroughly and hence, He got Abhimanyu killed in the battle. The fakir was bad inside as well as outside. Abhimanyu was bad inside and good outside. The fakir repented because he was studying the sacred scripture called the Quran. Abhimanyu never studied any such spiritual scripture. This shows that spiritual knowledge can transform even a totally bad person. We can understand souls only by the way they are externally painted, whereas, God can understand souls by their internal material of construction. Our conclusions are not correct, whereas, the conclusions of God are always correct. It is not correct to say that God does whatever is right. It is correct to say that whatever God does is right. The reason is that our analysis is only superficial, whereas, the analysis of God is about the entire bulk.
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