Swami Answers Shri Anil's Questions

Śrī Anil asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmi, some questions raised in internet discussion forum are presented below. Please grace Your response to the same. At Your Lotus Divine Feet-anil

1. Why didn’t God create the Bible directly instead of using people to write and compile it?

Swāmi replied:- Such action of God indicates His love to His devotees to give credit of the authorship of the spiritual knowledge. A true devotee will not accept such gift from God and immediately announces that it is gifted by God alone and hence, God is the real author of such sacred spiritual knowledge. Even when the human incarnation performs miracles, the miracles are performed by the unimaginable God present in the human medium. A true human incarnation reveals this truth again and again as and when the unimaginable God performing miracles tries to give the credit to the human medium possessed by Him. A false demonic human incarnation takes the credit onto him without passing it to the original performer or unimaginable God. This whole process involves the equilibrium of love between God and devoted soul indicating both forward and backward reactions taking place with equal rates.

2. When will Sai Bābā be born again?

Swāmi replied:- When Saibābā is born again, the unimaginable God present in Him will declare the incarnation through excellent Spiritual knowledge and miracles. The lotus flower is known by its scent spreading out immediately.

3. What can we do to bring greater unity amongst all the religions of the world?

Swāmi replied:- We must propagate the speech given by Śrī Datta Swāmi in the first World parliament on Spirituality.

4. Was there any fight that happened between Lord Kṛṣṇa and Śiva? Why?

Swāmi replied:- The fight only represents the fight between their followers. After the fight, both forms of God joined together with love indicating such re-union between the followers at least after the fight.

5. Was Śrī Rāma really good as He wanted to kill a deer just for its skin?

Swāmi replied:- Śrī Rāma followed the tradition of the caste called Kṣatriyas, who are non-vegetarians. Sometimes, God follows certain defects of the humanity when He is stressing on some other important point. In the next incarnation as Buddha, He condemned the violence. If every defect is criticised, humanity will refuse the reformation totally. By following certain defects, God becomes close and dear to the defective people so that He can reform them in friendly atmosphere. Jesus was a non-vegetarian and Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa took fish in meals. We have to understand the background as explained above.

6. Why do many Indians say that any new scientific discovery was already mentioned in the Vedas?

Swāmi replied:- These people are fanatic of their religion and their religious scripture. They are not understanding one point clearly, which is that any scientist discovering any concept is able to do it by the grace of God only.

7. Does the Bhagavad Gītā guide us to believe in God or the self?

Swāmi replied:- The Bhagavad Gītā is mainly preaching about God in human form like Lord Kṛṣṇa. This very important point of the Gītā is not caught by anybody so far! Self is also important because self-confidence is required to do any worldly effort or spiritual effort. Sometimes, the self-confidence falls down so much that belief in the concept that self is God is inevitable. Once the self-confidence is gained, one shall leave such concept, which is like antibiotic tablet to be leftover after the cure from fever. Otherwise, over self–confidence leads the soul to commit sins.

8. Why is the prayer drum in Buddhism dynamic, as an object of worship, but in other religions objects are static? 

Swāmi replied:- Whether the object is dynamic or static any object prayed is only a representative model of God like the national flag representing the nation.

9. What does the statement "One who knows Brahman or Ātman knows everything" mean? Does it mean he has all scientific and material knowledge or does it refer to spiritual knowledge?

Swāmi replied:- It refers only the spiritual knowledge that God has created everything in this world. By this concept, one cannot know the details of every item created by God. Of course, the omniscient God, being the creator of everything knows the details of everything.

10. When you get sick, do you need medicine, doctors and God or just medicine?

Swāmi replied:- Medicine cures the disease. But some medicines do not work or work in other way leading to side reactions. Sometimes, doctors also miss the correct medicine. Hence, in any worldly work, the wisest people always pray and believe fully in the help of God.

11. Does the Hindu God represent the present world system of work? For example, everyone is given their own responsibility.

Swāmi replied:- God from any religion always represents the correct concepts. Worldly responsibilities come under the ethics or justice, which is always liked by God. A devotee shall like anything (in fact, whether it is justice or injustice) that is liked by God. A devotee follows justice not due to liking for justice and not due to liking for humanity, but, for the simple point that God likes the justice in the worldly life or Pravṛtti.

12. What are some tips for spiritual beginners? I am asking for myself.

Swāmi replied:- When all the Spiritual knowledge is thoroughly studied with lot of patience and deep interest, the tips will appear by themselves to any such devoted human being. Tips are useful only in the end and not in the beginning. In the beginning, the patience and interest are not developed to the full extent. Tips are given by the teacher in the end of the academic year just before the examinations and not in the beginning of the academic year.

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