25 Nov 2020
[Śrī Anil asked: In a Hadith the following is mentioned: “They said: 'O Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ)! When was the Prophethood established for you?' He said: 'While Adam was between (being) soul and body.'" In another Hadith from the narration of Umar Ibn al-Khattab it is written: "The Prophet [PBUH] said, "When Adam sinned he said, O Allāh! I ask for Your forgiveness for the sake of Muhammad (PBUH)." Allāh asked him, "How do you know Muhammad (PBUH) when I have not yet created him?" He (Adam) said, "O Allāh! After you created me and breathed into me of your soul I raised my head and saw 'There is no God but Allāh and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allāh' written on the Throne. I then came to know that You would not put anyone's name next to Yours except the name of the one who is dearest to You from among creation." Allāh said, "O Adam! You have spoken the truth. Indeed, he [Muhammad] is the dearest to me from among all creation. Supplicate to me through his sake for indeed I have forgiven you. If it were not for Muhammad, I would not have created you". In another place it is mentioned: Jabir ibn `Abd Allāh said to the Prophet: “O Messenger of Allāh, may my father and mother be sacrificed for you, tell me of the first thing Allāh created before all things.” He said: “O Jabir, the first thing Allāh created was the light of your Prophet from His light, and that light remained (lit. “turned”) in the midst of His Power for as long as He wished, and there was not, at that time, a Tablet or a Pen or a Paradise or a Fire or an angel or a heaven or an earth. And when Allāh wished to create creation, he divided that Light into four parts and from the first made the Pen, from the second the Tablet, from the third the Throne, [and from the fourth everything else.
Even in the Bible, John Chapter-8: Jesus said to the Jews: 56Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad. 57Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and You have seen Abraham? 58“Truly, truly, I tell you, Jesus declared, “before Abraham was born, I am!
Swāmi, how can we correlate the statements of the Prophet and Jesus that they were present even before Adam or Abraham? Adam is the first created human being, as per the Quran and the Bible and Abraham came some generations after Adam. Both Jesus and Prophet Muhammed came many many generations after Abraham.]
Swami replied: The unimaginable power of the Unimaginable God is omniscient knowing all the three stages of time—past, present and future—as said in the Gītā (Vedāham...—Gītā).
[Śrī Anil asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmi! In the Bible, we can see that all 12 disciples served Jesus in His mission of divine knowledge propagation. However, there is a special mention of John (not John the Baptist) as ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’. Some references of the verse mentioning this is given below:
[1. [Jn 13:23-25] It is this disciple who, while reclining beside Jesus at the Last Supper, asks Jesus who it is that will betray him, after being requested by Peter to do so. 2. [Jn 19:26-27] Later at the crucifixion, Jesus tells his mother, "Woman, here is your son", and to the Beloved Disciple he says, "Here is your mother." 3. [Jn 20:1-10] When Mary Magdalene discovers the empty tomb of Jesus, she runs to tell the Beloved Disciple and Peter. The two men rush to the empty tomb and the Beloved Disciple is the first to reach it. However, Peter is the first to enter. 4. [Jn 21:1-25] In John 21, the last chapter of the Gospel of John, the Beloved Disciple is one of seven fishermen involved in the miraculous catch of 153 fish. 5. [John 21:20-23] Also in the book's final chapter, after Jesus implies the manner in which Peter will die, Peter sees the Beloved Disciple following them and asks, "What about him?" Jesus answers, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me." 6. [John 21:24] Again in the Gospel's last chapter, it states that the very book itself is based on the written testimony of the disciple whom Jesus loved.
From among total 12 disciples, John is referred as ‘the beloved disciple of Jesus’. Even on the cross, Jesus gives the responsibility of caring for His mother Mary to John stating that now onwards She is his mother. Swāmi, I want to know why God-in-human-form loved a particular disciple more compared to others; in this case, disciple John? Please give Your response to the following questions. At Your Divine Feet-anil]
Swāmi replied: The divine preacher or Sadguru, who is the Human Incarnation of God, loves all souls equally since He is the divine Father of all souls. But, based on the merits and defects of different souls, He may show some variation in His love for different devotees, which is also justified. If the merits and defects of the different souls are filtered off, God’s divine love for all souls is exactly equal. God’s expression of love for a certain devotee, based on the devotee’s merits cannot be called God’s favoritism and God’s anger towards a certain devotee, based on the devotee’s defects, cannot be called God’s hatred.
[Śrī Anil asked: Bahá'u'lláh (Bahai faith spiritual preacher) said: ‘Love is a light that never dwelleth in a heart possessed by fear. Through his ignorance man fears death, but the death he shrinks from is imaginary and absolutely unreal; it is only human imagination. When our days are drawing to a close let us think of the eternal worlds, and we shall be full of joy!’ Swāmi how to overcome fear so that we shall have love for the Human Incarnation of God continuously?]
Swāmi replied: Love for God is expressed as the love for the Human Incarnation of God because there is no difference between God and His Incarnation. The fear of death is meaningless since death takes place in a very short time, while the suffering in hell has to be undergone by us for a very long time.
[Śrī Anil asked: Jesus asked a disciple to follow Him, then that disciple told Jesus to give permission to bury his just died father. Then Jesus told, “Follow Me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” Swāmi, I would like to know why Jesus did not allow the disciple to bury his father?]
Swami replied: The disciple’s father was not to be buried; but his inert dead body was to be buried. The physical body is inert and is like an external dress. Jesus called even the living worldly people dead because such worldly people are only fond of the inert body, which is equal to a dead body. The awareness of the soul is useless, as long as it is aware of only the body and is not aware of God. Following God is the real awareness.
[Śrī Anil asked: Swāmi, in the Bible, Jesus criticized the common people saying that their present comfort would turn to misery in the future. He said, “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. 25 Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” But to His disciples who participated in His mission, Jesus said the reverse of it. Swami, why did Jesus criticize the common public in that way?]
Swāmi replied: God and the world are opposite to each other like north and south poles. The reason is that the devotee’s bond with God always competes with the devotee’s worldly bonds. God’s sight falls on those who vote for the bond with God alone, against all the worldly bonds. This brings some worldly worry and the devotee should be prepared for it. The devotee must bear that initial misery and loss in the world. Once the firm devotee is blessed by God, there will be permanent happiness and permanent gain. Jesus is indirectly referring to Himself as an example of the concept.
[Śrī Anil asked: In the Bible, there is an incident in which Jesus expelled impure spirits from a demon-possessed person. Jesus asked the name of the impure spirit to which he replied that the name was Legion. After that, the impure spirits requested Jesus to not to send them to Pātāla, but requested Him to allow them to enter into a large herds of pigs who were feeding on the hill side. Jesus allowed it and they entered into the pigs and subsequently, the pigs ran and jumped into the nearby lake and died. Swāmi, why did Jesus allow this to happen? Due to this, ultimately, the pigs also lost their lives?]
Swāmi replied: The wicked ghosts wanted to enter into the pigs. The pigs were also wicked sinners who had been born as pigs. Souls of sinful nature like to live with sinful souls alone. The pigs died, only to face further sinful deaths, as per the cycle of deeds. The lives of the pigs were anyway supposed to last only up to that point. Such sinful souls keep continuously rotating in an endless cycle of such sinful births.
[Śrī Anil asked: Jesus said to His disciples “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me”. Swāmi, is it equivalent to Your preaching regarding serving contemporary Human Incarnation of God ‘without expecting anything in return’ in His mission?]
Swāmi replied: This means that a devotee dedicated to God must be ready for all types of suffering, which prove that his or her attraction to God has reached the climax. Before showering His grace, God tests the devotee deeply, even though He knows the heart of devotee. The test is essential for others to know the purity of the devotion of the devotee, so that they will not blame God of partiality.
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