08 Feb 2022
1. Is the last part in Your following statement only for spiritual knowledge spoken by a person?
[Shri Anil asked: “If you say that the omniscient God will always speak the truth that stands any fire test of logic, the reverse of it must be also true, which means that any true statement standing any fire test of logic spoken by any soul must be also from the mouth of God only”.
Padanamaskaram Swami, In the above statement, is the last part true only for spiritual knowledge spoken by a person or is it also true when worldly knowledge and scientific concepts are spoken by a person?]
Swami replied: True knowledge means the knowledge that is proved to be true through sharp logical and scientific analysis. The analysis can be through theoretical logic or practical experiments, which are the aids for the establishment of truth. This concept is equal to any branch of knowledge.
2. Why did not God want there to be absolute nothingness?
[Shri Anil asked: Swami, few questions from an internet forum are given below. Please grace Your answers to them. At Your Lotus Feet-anil. Why did not God want there to be absolute nothingness?]
Swami replied: Absolute nothingness should exist beyond God and beyond God such existence of absolute nothingness is impossible because God is beyond everything and nothing is beyond God. This absolute nothingness cannot exist within God because God is the absolute reality.
3. How does karma get carried forward to the next life?
[How does karma get carried forward to the next life? What kind of mechanism stores and executes it in a world which is full with billions of people and each one having his/her unique fate/karma?]
Swami replied: It is a very simple mechanism for the omniscient and omnipotent God.
4. If God knows all about the never ending infinity, then can we say that infinity is a creation of God Himself?
Swami replied: Infinity means never ending. God is unimaginable, Who is beyond the concept of space and due to this, God is neither finite nor infinite. This creation or space created by God, is finite for God. Otherwise, if this creation is also infinite for God, it means that God is not omniscient. This creation is infinite for us since we or even our imagination cannot touch the boundary of space, which is nothing but the boundary of the unimaginable domain or unimaginable God. If even our imagination touches the boundary of space, God is no more unimaginable.
5. Why does Goddess Parvati need to do severe Tapasya for 1000's of years to get married to Lord Shiva?
[Why does Goddess Parvati need to do severe Tapasya for 1000's of years to get married to Lord Shiva? Why does the greatest love need penance?]
Swami replied: Parvati represents the soul made of inert energy. ‘Parvati’ means daughter of hill, which is an inert item. Parvati is female representing the soul, which is also considered to be female or ‘Prakruti’. God is considered to be male or ‘Purusha’. Penance represents the deep analysis about the unimaginable God done by the soul thinking that God is imaginable to deep analysis. When the soul realizes the true nature of God, the ego of the soul drops out and God shows grace on the soul. God merges with the soul to become mediated God and this merge can be interpreted as marriage between God and the soul. The love of the soul towards God is the real devotion of the devoted soul.
6. Why is "Guru Granth Sahib" a holy book?
[Why is "Guru Granth Sahib" a holy book? As it is made by a man, then why do they call it a Holy book? (Guru Granth Sahib is the central holy religious scripture of Sikhism).]
Swami replied: Any religious scripture is the word of God and hence, every religious scripture is holy.
7. If You are confronted by armed Muslims and are given an option to convert to Islam or fight and die, what option will You take and why?
Swami replied: I will convert Myself as a Muslim even before they attack Me on hearing that they are coming to attack Me. By this, I will avoid unnecessary stress for the Muslims in attempting to convert Me into a Muslim. When I am converted into a Muslim, I have not changed in any way because Islam is also a religion accepting the existence of God and there is no trace of atheism in any religion. There is no need of any attack to change Me or to resist any change because the conversion of a soul from one religion into another religion is not the conversion of a theist into an atheist!
8. Where in Vedas or Gita, is it suggested to respect all other religions like Islam, Christianity, Sikhism etc?
Swami replied: When the Vedas were written by ancient sages, these words like Islam, Christianity etc., were not born at all. How can you then expect the usage of such words in the Vedas? Existence of other thoughts about God, which are the other religions, were mentioned in the Veda as ‘Ekaṃ Sat viprā bahudhā vadanti’. This means that the same one truth is spoken in various ways by various scholars.
9. If God is perfect and never makes mistakes, why did He regret creating humanity and cause a flood?
[If God is perfect and never makes mistakes, why did He regret creating humanity and then cause a flood in Genesis 6:5 and Genesis 6:6?
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 The Lord regretted that He had made human beings on the earth, and His heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”]
Swami replied: All these statements indicate that the creation is giving the real entertainment to God, which is the main purpose of creating this creation. Entertainment is always in various ways just like a film show seen by us. God gave free will to the bored children-souls along with serious rules to be followed by the souls for the sake of universal discipline. When the souls crossed such rules, the divine Father says such statements due to His divine love on His children.
10. Is Satan a theist or an atheist?
Swami replied: Satan is the personification of the free will of souls after crossing the disciplinary rules framed by God. Satan is the embodiment of the ego and jealousy towards God based on the wrong side of the awareness of souls.
11. Is Jesus truly wrong to suggest turning the other cheek and walking the extra mile with a person who ask for it?
Swami replied: It is not the question of right or wrong. It is an effort of the Divine Father to change the hearts of His issues due to unbounded love towards His children. The Father is omnipotent and omniscient and hence, this does not represent the weakness of the Divine Father. If the Divine Father just wishes, all the souls in the creation will disappear permanently in a fraction of second! This must not be forgotten by us.
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