When people ask spiritual questions, can I answer them based on my knowledge or forward their questions to You?

An online spiritual discussion was conducted on November 21, 2020, in which several devotees participated. Some of the questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.

[Śrī Bharath Krishna: While sharing Your discourses with people, they ask some questions. Am I allowed to answer them with my own understanding of Your knowledge or should I always forward their questions to You? I used to be devotee of Matā Amṛtānandamayī Devī. A lot of my friends are also Her devotees and we have a group wherein we discuss the spiritual knowledge given by Her. Since that group is meant for spiritual studies, I shared Your discourses on that group. Initially, when I shared discourses on some worldly topics, they liked them a lot. Later on, I shared some quotes on Sītā Mātā where she blamed Lakṣmaṇa and also the discourse on Lalitā Sahasranāmam. Although whatever was written there in Your discourse was the truth, they were emotionally disturbed and were unable to analyze it properly. They started asking too many questions. In such situations, they expect an immediate reply. For the questions that You have already answered in earlier discourses, I shared those relevant discourses with them. But when their questions are a little different, can I answer them based on whatever I have understood from Your knowledge? Some of them demand an immediate reply. When I tell them that they can ask their question directly to You, they say that since I have posted the discourse, they want me to answer them. How should I react during such situations? What if I say something wrong?

Śrī Anil asked: Why is it not a problem if a female devotee worships Lord Viṣṇu who is very handsome?]

Swāmi replied: I have already sent the answer to Surya. Please read it. You can send Me the questions of your friends so that I can send the answers to you, which you can then forward to them. It is allowed for female devotees to develop a bond with God considering Him to be their lover or husband. The main point is that God must always be in the position of the protector, as the husband or the male-darling while the devotee must be always in the position of the protected, as the wife or the female-darling. The wife or the female-darling being in the position of the protector and the husband or the male-darling being in the position of the protected is not familiar in our tradition. Such a relationship has never existed so far in the long-standing tradition. God can be the Female and the devotee can be the male when the bond between them is that of Mother and son because the mother is the protector and the son is the protected.

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