Why does God give some special skills to some people?

[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on February 13, 2021, in which several devotees participated. Some of the questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.]

[Smt. Anita Renkuntla asked: There are many ambidextrous people. Students in a school were shown on television writing with both their hands at a time. They do two home-works at the same time, i.e., writing Hindi with the right hand and doing Math with the left hand and so on. Is it God’s gift to let them do such multi-tasking?]

Swāmi replied: Such talents can be gifts given by God to that soul or they can be skills retained by the soul from the previous birth. The gift given by God always gets used for the welfare of the world. Skills attained by the person’s own efforts, however, might get used for the welfare of the world or they might even get used to harm the world.

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