Posted on: 05 Jun 2024
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
[Prof. JSR Prasad asked:- Ref.: Satyanveshi, a YouTuber]
1. Satyanveshi says that the Bhagavad Gita is a murder manual. Swami, please comment.
Swami replied:- Murder means killing an individual for some personal reasons. The Kurukshetra war can be compared to the first world war or the second world war. Till recently, several wars have taken place in this world. You (Satyanveshi) should have given this advice to various countries participating in the wars. Even our India did some wars and got victory. The Kauravas cheated and harmed the Pandavas in several ways and the Pandavas patiently underwent the suffering. They were the owners of half the kingdom. Instead of half the kingdom, they begged the Kauravas at least for five villages. The Kauravas denied giving even one square inch place to the Pandavas. God Krishna preached Arjuna to fight against the Kauravas to protect justice and condemn injustice. This is Pravrutti or worldly life. Regarding Nivrutti or spiritual life, all the concepts covered by the Upanishads and the Brahmasutras were explained in a very logical way and Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva wrote commentaries on the Gita. Among the three sacred spiritual scriptures, the Gita is one. So, do you think that all these are fools and that you alone are the genius?
2. Satyanveshi says that God is not necessary since natural laws exist to run the world.
Swami replied:- All the mechanisms of sending a rocket into the sky exist in the computerized system in ISRO. Hence, there should be no employee in ISRO as per your greatest idea. An inert system, however much may be complicated, cannot perform the required functions without an intellectual element. The fifth Brahmasutra says that the inert nature (prakriti or pradhāna) alone cannot create or run this inert universe and hence, intellectual awareness is required for such a purpose. If there was no intellectual control, the world would have been destroyed long back.
3. Satyanveshi says that even if you say that God is required, what is the necessity of many Gods?
Swami replied:- There are no many Gods because the same one omnipotent and unimaginable God exists in different divine forms of various religions and this looks like as if many Gods exist. If the same person exists in different dresses, will you say that several persons exist? You cannot deny the existence of the omnipotent God because several genuine miracles are taking place, which cannot be rejected as magic. Even great scientists believe in the existence of the unimaginable God, who is the source of many unimaginable events called miracles. Very great scientists like Einstein, Newton etc., were strong believers of God. Are you greater than them?
4. Satyanveshi says that why does God need rituals like sacrifices in religion?
Swami replied:- No scripture says that God requires the rituals. These rituals like sacrifices are from the minds of devotees only to show practical devotion to God. Sacrifice denotes true love and this is very clearly seen in our worldly bonds.
5. Satyanveshi says that it is the responsibility of theists to establish the existence of God.
Swami replied:- Yes, we theists have taken this responsibility on us and several genuine miracles establish the unimaginable God since miracles are also unimaginable events. If you rigidly say that you will not believe the genuine miracles shown by God in this world, what can be the course of our future action?
6. Satyanveshi says that when God is not fulfilling our desires, what is the necessity of believing in God?
Swami replied:- Many devoted people say that their desires were fulfilled by God. When you negate Him in the beginning itself, shall He fulfil your desires to make you believe in God? Are you such a great person that the greatest God needs your support to save His position? If you care a pin for Him, He will care half a pin for you.
7. Satyanveshi says that if everything has to be created, God also must have been created.
Swami replied:- If you say that some God must have created this God, that God must have been also created by some other God. In this way, the chain of causes extends endlessly (ad-infinitum) and we must stop somewhere in this chain. The point where we stop must not have its cause and then only the chain stops with a beginning. That stop-point is called God. This is the essential logic for any learned scholar.
8. Satyanveshi says that why did God allow all this trash in the secondary scriptures called the Puranas?
Swami replied:- God has given freedom to the souls after creation because anything shall be followed by the soul in a complete free atmosphere only and not by any compulsion (Svabhāvastu pravartate - Gita). Such good quality of God shows His broad-mindedness. You say that the trash exists in the Puranas. What you feel trash may not be trash in the eyes of very learned scholars. Even if some illogical point exists in the Puranas, it can be treated as an insertion by an atheist, who exploited the free will and free atmosphere given by God to souls. Such bad point can be identified by the sharp logic of scholars. You cannot say that every work done by a human being was allowed by God.
9. Satyanveshi says that we reject the insertion when there is difficulty for us and we accept the insertion if it is convenient to us.
Swami replied:- What are you doing? If it is convenient to you, you don’t say it as an insertion and if it is not convenient to you, you say that it is original text. Hence, this point is universal without any exception. How can you throw mud on us? And by that, you are provoking us to throw mud on you based on the same logic.
10. Satyanveshi says that Shambuuka was killed by Rama because he was Shuudra, doing penance. Is this not bad character of Rama?
Swami replied:- Shambuuka was a Shuudra by qualities and deeds and not by birth. He is assigned agriculture by the administration of kingdom following the Scriptures. Penance means burning interest on God and not leaving the house and professional work and going to the forest to sit idle. If he is encouraged, all other agriculturists may follow his path and society will starve if agriculture disappears. Every caste has the right to do penance (penance means burning interest in God as per the Veda – Brahma vijijñāsasva, taddhi tapaḥ), doing the worldly duties simultaneously. He was advised by several sages. Every sage was also doing penance in this way only. But, Shambuuka refused the sages becoming rigid of his own foolish path. It is the duty of the king to rectify any imbalance in the society that will cause a fundamentally severe damage. Moreover, this can be an insertion by a bad fellow wishing to bring split between Brahmanas and Shuudras.
11. Satyanveshi says that God is allowing us to do sins and then the same God is giving punishments.
Swami replied:- I have already explained that God has given full free will to the souls so that they shall be reformed in free atmosphere only and not by any compulsion. In such atmosphere of free will, do you think that all human beings are doing sins only? There are several human beings, who are doing meritorious works in such atmosphere of free will. If all the people became sinners due to this free will, then, we can conclude that the policy of God is wrong. Therefore, God is neither provoking to do sins nor provoking to do meritorious deeds (Nādatte kasyacit pāpaṃ…- Gita). In a college, the entire administration is excellent and all the teachers are marvellous. Still, some students fail due to their negligence to studies. Can you blame the administration of college for the failure of some students without a trace of blame on the side of student?
12. Satyanveshi says that God, introduced by religion, does not exist like an iron-glass cup.
Swami replied:- You have simply given an example born in your tremendous brain for God without any logic behind the statement. People will neglect your statement as your personal opinion since no supporting logic is given by you. The boundary of universe is unimaginable. If you say that everything is imaginable to your brain, what about the unimaginable boundary of space or universe? When science says that this boundary is unimaginable, it means science agreed to the existence of an unimaginable item. This cracks the foundation of science, which says that everything is explicable. Will this space end at some distance with a compound wall on which it is written that ‘space ends here’? In such a case, what is present beyond the compound wall? These statements are presented in a scientific research paper presented in a world seminar on ‘The space’. After this unimaginable item, we have several genuine miracles (unimaginable items) exhibited by God-men, seeing which even several topmost scientists have become devotees! You neither go to such places where miracles are exhibited to observe and disprove them nor accept the existence of unimaginable God as the source of such miracles. You simply sit in your house, blindly refuse the miracles stamping them as magic and conclude that there is no God. Hence, you are the total authority for every step of your foolish path!
13. Couples enjoyed in public gardens as per the Ramayana; does this prove the greatness of the kingdom of Rama?
[Satyanveshi says that in Balakanda of Valmiki Ramayanam, in public gardens couples used to enjoy. Does this prove the greatness of Ramarajyam (kingdom of God Rama)?]
Swami replied:- The word ‘ramaṇam’ does not indicate mere sexual union since this word stands for general enjoyment or entertainment also. Even if you take this word in the sense of sex, there is nothing wrong when the justified couples enjoy the sex in bushes built-up by creepers. This cannot be referred to illegal enjoyment since the people enjoying must have been couples only. Ladies and gents were enjoying there, which means justified couples only. By this, the kingdom of God Rama cannot get any blame. You cannot interpret such public gardens as clubs and pubs of the present days.
14. Satyanveshi says that the Gita strengthens the caste system and Arjuna also lamented over the inter-caste system.
Swami replied:- The Gita emphasizes caste system based on qualities and subsequent deeds of the soul and not based on birth (Guṇakarma vibhāgaśaḥ). Such system is acceptable to every citizen of the world except yourself! Marriage between the bride and groom of the same caste was recommended because the same professional qualities and professional deeds will bring much unity between the couple. Remember that marriage between the bride and groom of the same caste does not mean the caste decided by birth. If the qualities do not match, there will be clashes between the couple and hence, from this point of view, marriage between the couple based on same caste by birth is not referred here. Don’t turn the points in exact opposite sense by turning them in 1800 rotation. You are blaming the Gita for supporting the caste system without analysing what it said about the caste system.
15. Satyanveshi says that even Arjuna was born by inter-caste marriage only.
Swami replied:- Brahmana-Paraashara met Kshatriya-Satyavati to give birth to sage Vyaasa. All these are sacred sages, who cannot be blamed with hormonal lust. As per the divine order, such union took place for the birth of sage Vyaasa. If sage Paraashara has hormonal lust, why shall he leave Satyavati just after one meeting especially when she was very beautiful? When sage Vyaasa met Ambika and Ambaalika, the two wives of his younger brother Vicitraviirya, it was the then justified practice (Devara nyāya) at the time of Dwaapara age. It was the serious problem of extending the Kuru dynasty. Here also, there is no point of lust, because, after just one meeting, sage Vyaasa left. Certain practices were ethical in certain ages (Yugas) and we shall not criticise them since they were banned for our age (Kaliyuga) by sage Paraashara (Devarācca sutotpattiḥ). It was just like the artificial insemination done in fertility clinics in the present days. Please don’t be hasty in criticising the scriptures without having even a trace of patience to discuss with the learned scholars before starting your criticism.
16. Satyanveshi says that Arjuna lamented that women will lose character leading to inter-caste marriages. What about males?
Swami replied:- The female is considered to be the most pious because it is the female, who gets pregnancy and not the male. The address of the seed (bīja) of the male may not be known, but, the address of the land (kṣetra) of the female is clearly known due to nine-month pregnancy and delivery of the child by the female. This is the reason why females are always very cautious about losing character. This argument is based on perfect scientific perception and not based on any religious scripture. The importance of land (kṣetra prādhānyam) is very much projected for this reason.