Posted on: 23 May 2021
Śrī Anil asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmi, some questions raised in internet discussion forum is presented below. Please grace Your response to the same. At Your Lotus Divine Feet-anil
[A person says that he believes in karma but not God. As per him, the karma is nature's law, nothing to do with the God. He says even the Gods are bound by karma. If God can influence karma, then there won't be so many religions believing in a God. Simple logic.]
Swāmi Replied:- God is the author of the divine constitution, which decides the rules of karma. God follows the constitution strictly, which does not mean that God has no independence. God is all in all and far far greater than the constitution. The supremacy of constitution is with respect to the souls but not with respect of omniscient and omnipotent God. Same unimaginable God appeared in different media and this is the reason for the difference in the religions.
[How do Hindus defend verse 6.4.7 of Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad which is part of the Vedas that are considered 'Apauruṣeya' by the Hindus? The verse calls for beating wife if physical intimacy is denied. How is such a verse divine?]
Swāmi Replied:- This context refers to a characterless woman having illegitimate sex and objecting the legal husband entering into legal sex to give birth to issues. Marriage was done with the ultimate aim to extend the humanity. The sinful wife is referred in this context. It is irrespective of gender. If the husband is in the place of the wife, she shall also punish the husband in the same manner. If she/he dislikes the life partner, she/he should have refused the life partner before marriage itself. The Veda is not recommending leaving such sinful life partner, but, is suggesting a punishment through which the sinful life partner rectifies his/her sin. Accepting the sinful life partner after a small punishment shows the generosity of God, who is the author of the Veda.
[God says in Quran, “As I sent Bible, Torah and Psalm to previous nations, I'm sending Quran to you”. What was the purpose to teach some nations Bible, Torah and Psalm and some nations Quran? It caused only hate, wars and turbulence among all?]
Swāmi Replied:- God is omniscient and knows what type of scripture should be given to what type of people. Even if quarrels result, justice can’t be changed. Quarrels are due to the ignorance and egoism of the followers. Quarrel cannot decide that the scripture is incorrect. The concept is important and not the majority of votes as is done in assembly or parliament. Divine law stands on truth and justice and not on the majority voting of receivers.
[If the God is truly concerned for man, as the Bible says, why did He never reveal to us the existence of germs (viruses and bacteria) which cause most diseases, but instead left it to science to discover them after many thousands of years?]
Swāmi Replied:- The bacteria and virus punish the sinner on the direction of God. If the bacteria and virus are absent, do you think that there will be no punishment?
Swāmi Replied:- The pain is the punishment of sin. In this context, God does not want His glory to be praised by a sinner so that the sinner shall be exempted from the punishment. If God keeps silent without punishing the sinner because the sinner is glorifying God, such a God is not the real God and must be the false God or Satan.
Swāmi Replied:- Viśvarūpa is the miracle that shows that God is the substratum of the entire universe as maintainer. The miracle always depends upon the need of the context and not on the fascination of God to project Himself. God Viṣṇu is the middle maintainer and God in the form of Viṣṇu showing Viśvarūpa is very much appropriate. God Brahmā and God Śiva are creator and destroyer respectively. Śrī Lakṣmī is the power of God Viṣṇu and the power to maintain the entire universe itself is Goddess Lakṣmī, who is not different from God Viṣṇu.
Swāmi Replied:- It depends on the psychology of the devotees. If a devotee deserves, the devotee can perform the miracle. The disciple of Śaṇkara, called Padmapāda performed a miracle in killing the Kāpālika, who took Śaṇkara along with him secretly in order to kill Śaṇkara. Padmapāda knew the truth by the will of God and reached the secret place to kill the Kāpālika. This is certainly a miracle. Several devotees have done miracles because a climax devotee is the dualistic incarnation in which God follows the wish of the devotee like a servant.
Swāmi Replied:- Only on the will of God, some souls reveal their previous birth. This is only to show that re-birth is present. Re-birth can be sanctioned by the omnipotent God for a deserving soul. Re-birth here means re-human birth. Re-birth as animal or bird or insect is not considered as re-birth. Hence, we can say that many souls have no re-birth (means re-human birth). In this way, the religions supporting re-birth and opposing re-birth can be correlated.
Swāmi Replied:- The person, who asked this question is mad and extremely foolish because there is no difference among the devotees worshipping divine mother (Śākta), the devotees worshipping God Viṣṇu (Vaiṣṇava) and the devotees worshipping God Śiva (Śaiva) since Śakti, Viṣṇu and Śiva are the names of different external forms or media of the same God.
Swāmi Replied:- Why do you take the conversion of anybody from one religion to the other in negative sense? After all, such conversion did not convert a theist into an atheist. It is only a conversion of the external culture, language etc., only and not the internal spiritual knowledge. Of course, conversion is meaningless because the content of the syllabus of any religion is one and the same. One develops aversion to his/her own religion because of the inserted wrong versions of some ignorant followers. Every religion has some or other defects and has the same basic merits. Because of the wrong insertions of some ignorant followers in the name of tradition, one shall not leave his/her own religion (Svadharmamapi cā'vekṣya…- Gītā).