09 Apr 2022
1. Kindly explain the meaning of the statement “Crossing of ‘I’ is more painful than even the crucifixion”.
[Shri Anil asked: Padanamaskaram Swami, during the recent Satsang conducted on 3 April 2022, Shri Phani Kumar explained various miraculous incidents experienced by him due to Your grace and Your blessings. During the narration he mentioned the concept that crossing of ‘I’ is more painful than even the crucifixion. I did not understand the meaning of that. I request You to kindly explain the meaning of this statement and its background.]
Swami replied: ‘I’ stands not only for the pride and ego but also for the basic identity. It is good to cross pride and ego, but it is not good to cross the basic identity because if the basic identity is lost, devotion vanishes, which is the sweetest love that takes place between God and the devotee. Hence, crossing of I means only to cross its excess overgrowth that is ego-based pride.
[Some question from internet forum is presented below. Kindly give Your replies to this.]
2. Will religious conversions eradicate the caste system?
Swami replied: If the caste system is understood on the basis of qualities and its subsequent deeds, there is no need for conversions. Good and bad are also two castes. Every religion has caste system based on some or other differences.
3. What can we do for the Moksha of our ancestors?
Swami replied: First you do something for your Moksha and then you can think of others. First you must learn swimming thoroughly and then think of saving drowning persons.
4. Should we worship our ancestors as per Hinduism? If so, why?
Swami replied: Worship has no religion as far as My little brain knows.
5. Did Adi Shankaracharya really believe in Hari-Hara Abheda?
Swami replied: Adi Shankaraacharya believed in the monism of all the forms of God.
6. Do Goddess Saraswati and Lord Brahma love each other like a couple and if yes then why in India are they not worshiped together?
[Do Goddess Saraswati and Lord Brahma love each other like a couple and if yes then why in India are they not worshiped together? Why are the couple of India are said as Gauri Shankar and Laxmi Narayan but not Brahma Saraswati?]
Swami replied: Who told you that Brahma and Sarswati are not worshipped together? We say in the beginning of any worship “Vāṇī Hiraṇyagarbhābhyāṃ namaḥ”.
7. Why did Lord Krishna love Arjuna so much?
Swami replied: Krishna and Arjuna were divine sages called Nārāyaṇa and Nara, Nara worshipped Nārāyaṇa always with friendly devotion, which is the last but one step (Sakhyamātma nivedanam).
8. If Dashrath (Ram's father) had three wives and Krishna had 16,000 wives, why can't Hindus have more wives? Why is this discrimination?
Swami replied: There is no discrimination. You must read the background of such marriages. If the wife also thinks in the same way………!
9. Why did Lord Krishna ask Arjuna to get down from the chariot after the end of the Mahabharata War?
Swami replied: Krishna stopped all the divine arrows surrounding the chariot used by opponents and as soon as Arjuna got down, Krishna also got down and the chariot burnt to ash. On that last day if Krishna had got down first, the chariot would have been burnt along with Arjuna!
10. Why was Lord Krishna riding Arjuna's chariot in the Mahabharata War?
Swami replied: Driver is compared to intelligence in the body-chariot. If God sits in the place of intelligence, anybody will succeed in anything.
11. Did Peter sin when he denied Jesus?
Swami replied: It is not a sin because he saved himself to propagate the knowledge of Jesus as desired by Jesus Himself. But, his love to Jesus was not in the climax state.
12. Was Jesus Christ afraid of death when He said “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”
Swami replied: The human being component in the incarnation will have its own properties. The properties of the human being component are not interfered with by the God component. It is the human being component that prayed so to the God component.
13. Does Mark 15:40-41 suggest that Jesus travelled with a group of wealthy single women that funded His work?
[Does Mark 15:40-41 suggest that Jesus travelled with a group of wealthy single women that funded his work? [ 40 Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph,[a] and Salome. 41 In Galilee these women had followed Him and cared for His needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.]
Swami replied: It is good that some good devotees supported Jesus.
14. Did Jesus forgive those who crucified Him?
Swami replied: The soldiers were forgiven but not the priests.
15. Why did God ask Abraham to sacrifice his only son Issac?
Swami replied: The bond with own issues is the strongest worldly bond.
16. If there is only one Jesus, why are there four gospels?
Swami replied: Number of gospels is related to the number of disciples and not to the preacher. The Veda says that the same one truth is interpreted in several ways (Ekaṃ sat viprāḥ…).
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