29 May 2021
[Śrī Anil asked: Padanamaskaram Swami! Could You kindly grace us with Your response to the following questions raised in an internet discussion forum? At Your Lotus Divine Feet-anil]
1. Did Jesus rise from the dead with His own power or did God raise Him?
Swami replied: The Father of heaven is the first Energetic Incarnation, whereas, Jesus is the Human Incarnation. The Father merged with the Son, Jesus. The unimaginable God has already merged with Father, at the beginning of creation. Hence, both the Father and the Son have the unimaginable God. Any miracle is an unimaginable event and it is performed by the unimaginable God alone. With this background, you can realise that the Father and the Son are one and the same and the miracles performed by both, ultimately come from the unimaginable God.
2. Is a live-in relationship sinful?
Swami replied: Such a relationship is not sinful provided both promise before God and live together, satisfying legal norms.
3. According to the Gītā, how can a person become a yogi?
Swami replied: Continuous effort associated with God’s grace can make anybody a yogi. God’s grace will certainly come if the person’s effort is strong and continuous. A yogi means the possessor of yoga. Yoga is the state of being equally entertained in both the happiness and misery in one’s life. This yoga is the state of God as He is entertained by creation. He remains in the same state even when He enters the world as an Incarnation.
4. Is it true that the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata were manmade, while the Quran was revealed by God?
[Śrī Anil asked: A person remarked on an internet discussion forum that, as per his Muslim teacher, the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata were written by humans, whereas, the Quran directly came from God. What should be my best answer to him?]
Swami replied: The Quran indeed came directly from God, like the Veda and the Bible. But the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata came from certain human beings called sages. Of course the writings of the sages were backed by God.
5. Is there any easy means by which all people may be liberated?
Swami replied: The propagation of spiritual knowledge, which projects the divine personality of God and which develops perfect attraction (devotion) to God, is the only inevitable way for liberation. Liberation from worldly bonds must be natural, without any force. The strong attachment to God leads to natural detachment from the worldly bonds. The attachment to God comes through spiritual knowledge and devotion.
6. Are Muslims who see the Prophet as an idol for their life, not engaged in idol worship?
Swami replied: An idol does not speak, whereas, the Prophet preached spiritual knowledge. The prophet was not an inert idol, but a living Human Incarnation of God for His immediate followers.
7. What should a sinner do to attain salvation?
Swami replied: There is only one path to salvation, which is spiritual knowledge leading to devotion to God.
8. Why does God punish you if you do not pay zakat, as per the Muslim belief?
Swami replied: Sacrifice is the basis of the divine path.
9. Why has God stopped healing like He did during the time of Jesus?
[Śrī Anil asked: A person in an internet discussion forum wonders why God has stopped healing miraculously as He did during the time of Jesus? Is it because He has provided us with enough medical doctors? If not, he asks, how can one be healed?]
Swami replied: Souls who believe in doctors have been provided with doctors by God. Even spiritual devotees must take the help of doctors, following the general trend established by God, without aspiring for anything from God.
10. Why do intellectuals or thinkers get labeled as anti-Christ by religious people?
Swami replied: Ignorance followed by ego and jealousy cause people to do so.
11. When God asks us to give up everything, take up our cross and follow Him, do we also have to give up the food we have?
Swami replied: God preached about this extreme sacrifice because only when devotees set such a goal of extreme sacrifice, will they do at least some normal extent of sacrifice. If God were to preach only about a normal level of sacrifice, no one will even sacrifice anything!
12. How do You know if God forgave people who committed murder in the past?
Swami replied: God speaks to everybody through their conscience. He especially does so in the case of those who have no faith in the Human Incarnation of God. If one does not listen even that advice of God, such person has no spiritual potential.
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