22 Jan 2023
[A question by Shri Hrushikesh]
Swami replied: A devotee may be deserving the fruit from God. Suppose the devotee gets ego looking at his/her deservingness, he/she is not eligible for the fruit. At the same time, by deservingness, he/she is eligible for the fruit and the fruit shall be given to him/her. This is a situation of mutual contradiction. In this case, God removes his/her ego through a lesson and then grants the fruit to the devotee based on his/her already acquired deservingness. Removal of ego from a deserving devotee is based on the kindness of God. This means that God solves this problem in a positive way. Due to ego, God will not cancel the fruit which is the negative way. Negative way shows the hard heart of God. The positive way shows kindness on the devotee in the heart of God. Based on this kindness, the undeserving devotee shall not pray for the fruit. This means that the kindness of God is always logical and justified. This also means that an undeserving devotee cannot exploit God by misusing the kindness of God. Arjuna did a lot of penance for God Shiva to attain the Pashupatasthra weapon. But Arjuna got the ego to quarrel with God Shiva in the disguise of a hunter (A person doing penance shall not get such ego.). God Shiva defeated him in the war and removed the ego of Arjuna. Then God Shiva gave victory to Arjuna (because the ego of Arjuna was smashed) along with the Pashupatasthra weapon. Based on the ego of Arjuna, if the weapon was not given to Arjuna, all the severe penance of Arjuna would have gone waste.
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