24 Apr 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
1) Does God give Muslims the Holy Spirit like it is said He gives to Christians? Why?
Swāmi replied:- To encourage the devotees, God will say so many things. Unless encouragement is given the student will not progress and this is the reason why the teacher boosts up the confidence of the students frequently.
2) Why do You think Jesus said that the Lord our God is one Lord (James 12:29) if God is truly a trinity God? Why do You think Jesus said that He was ascending to His God (John 20:17) if He was truly God Himself and did not have a God?
Swāmi replied:- The human incarnation itself is the ultimate God. It is said as one because the trinity merges mutually. The human incarnation behaves as a devotee of God to reduce the ego based jealousy of devotees.
3) In Islam, is the saying "God loves those who love its fellow men more than God" true?
Swāmi replied:- Loving fellow men creates peace in the world and God wants perfect peace in this world created by Him. If you love the fellow men, the worldly life will be very smooth and world peace is maintained perfectly. Word peace is disturbed because you love your family so much that you don’t mind to harm others for its happiness. Hence, God encourages Pravṛtti or worldly life to the climax. He does not mind Nivṛtti, which is love to God. Nivṛtti is not at all introduced by God since it was introduced by the devoted souls only.
4) Muslims assert Allāh is a God for non-Muslims too. Should a Kṛṣṇa devotee consider Allāh to be a God especially when Allāh warns that anyone not worshipping Allāh as prescribed in Quran even after reading Quran will be punished for eternity?
Swāmi replied:- Here, the word “anybody” means any Muslim. In every religious scripture this is told. Only one unimaginable God is called as Parabrahman, Allāh etc.
5) Why did Jesus (God) use to pray to Himself (God)? Why did Jesus (God) need to pray to Himself if he can answer His own prayers and already knew the answer to His prayers?
Swāmi replied:- The human incarnation behaves like a devotee because it wants that the devotees should behave following the practice of human incarnation (Loka saṇgrahamevā'pi— Gītā). For the sake of devotees, God behaves like a devotee. Hanumān is God Śiva, but, behaved like the servant of God so that devotees learn to do service to God.
6) Is it scriptural to give God credit for every good thing in your life and blame yourself for every bad thing?
Swāmi replied:- Such tradition removes ego in you. The highest dislike of God is ego and highest like of God is lack of ego.
7) If you believe in heaven, how do you reconcile the idea that we need the bad to appreciate the good with the everlasting bliss of heaven?
Swāmi replied:- For the sake of relative value, God did not create bad. Bad was created by souls only and such bad brought much relative value to good. God created relative pairs like cold and hot, night and day, success and defeat etc., but, did not create good and bad. He created good only, in which bad developed due to souls.
8) If Jesus is God, His mother Mary God too?
Swāmi replied:- His mother provided the human medium to God. When God merged with human medium perfectly, the human medium becomes God. Parents need not occupy the same position as occupied by the issue.
9) Not all who say to Me Lord Lord will not enter the Kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven". Matt 7:21. Why do Jesus say that doing God's will is the only way when Paul say we are saved by Grace (not by doing God's will)?
Swāmi replied:- When you follow the will of anybody, then only the grace comes from him. If you go against the will of somebody, how do you expect him to be graceful to you?
10) Many Christians today read the Bible and make the Bible conform to what they already believe or what they hear from someone else. Can we read into the Bible whatever we want? What keeps us from doing this?
Swāmi replied:- If what you want is only said in the Bible, perhaps, you must have been the author of Bible!
11) Can non-Catholic (Hindu, Buddhist etc.) keep Lent fast if they believe that Jesus is their Saviour (Baptism of Desire)? Is it allowed? And what can You tell to Protestants who say only Christians can keep Lent?
Swāmi replied:- I can’t answer every Tom, Dick and Harry. So many people say so many things and I am not responsible nor answerable to all those things. I can answer only the concepts of scriptures and logical concepts spoken by anybody. You can follow any practice if it is good for your health or for your spiritual progress.
12) If God has the power to see through our eyes, does that mean He experiences everything we experience and in a sense, aren't we all God?
Swāmi replied:- I am sure that your mind is derailed. Please check it up with a doctor as early as possible. I am telling this because I sincerely wish your welfare. What is the meaning of saying that God see through our eyes? When a beautiful person loves an ugly lady and when we ask him about the reason, he says “look her through my eyes”. When the eyes of a blind person are not working, doctor operates and adjusts the eyes that are taken out from a dead person immediately. In that case, we can say that one sees through the other eyes. Only you ask such meaningless questions. Why don’t you elaborate your question so that I can understand your intension clearly?
13) If Jesus is supposed to be God, He has to be omnipresent too. Yet Jesus is a man too, so then how could His presence be everywhere as man's movements are limited?
Swāmi replied:- When God merges with human being to become human incarnation the aim is to preach spiritual knowledge and give right direction in the spiritual path. For this purpose, God follows the normal atmosphere of humanity so that He can freely mix with humanity and convey the spiritual knowledge in normal way. Now and then, He shows some small miracles without disturbing the norms of normal human atmosphere. If abnormal miracles are done, the humanity gets isolated from Him and that spoils the aim of the divine program for which the human incarnation descended.
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