13 Jul 2018
Shri Anil Antony asked:-
Mr. Clint Cayson (His original question was: Why is it God did not change the Bible for the better?), in quora forum replied in response to Swami’s knowledge on analyzing every bit of scripture logically before accepting it. He also commented on the parable used by Swami of currency note printed by Reserve bank. Kindly give Your reply.
[Scripture: I understand the value of human intelligence. But, as Christians believed God is an all-knowing, all-knowledgeable, and all-powerful and yet He can’t give direct explanations to his creation? If God knows everything but failed to “enlighten” every human being what is he exactly good for? However, we cannot examine or ask people who “wrote” the scriptures because they are gone. Then, people will just have to rely on their own “analytical” minds to understand the scriptures and most of them got it wrong. Then, I’ll go back to the same question.
Reserve Bank: The argument is sensitively close. Here’s what I understand about this. Correct me if I’m wrong. Banks and Banknotes exist. Businesses have been using this for years and they are testable to be valuable and there are undervalued notes as well. But they exist because people made them. We can’t test god’s genuine self, we can’t demonstrate god’s existence, and we can’t even ask his/her gender. But, to be honest. There is this thought that a false equivalency is at play in here.]
Swami replied:- As you said, the omnipotent God can eliminate the people adulterating the scripture by directly appearing to human beings. He is doing the same by appearing as human incarnation. People are adulterating the scripture with some selfish motives. It is the responsibility of the human being to analyze the scripture and find out the illogical and unjust portions, which are not said by God. God has given very sharp intelligence to the human beings. If the intelligence is not used, it will corrode due to lack of work. God does not want us to follow Him like inert robots because certain insertions are introduced in the scripture in His name. God allowed the insertions so that we will use our intelligence and analyze to eliminate those insertions. Even the Veda says that we shall analyze the Vedic statements before coming to conclusions. Such exercise of intelligence on the subject gives perfect satisfaction in believing the truth. Arjuna got confirmation that Krishna is God through cosmic vision and was fully ready to do whatever Krishna says. Still, at the end of the Gita, Krishna said that Arjuna must use his intelligence and analyze the entire Gita before following it.