Satsanga With Atheists (Part-1)

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God

[Swami, my atheistic friends are asking the below questions. Please enlighten my friends through Your divine wisdom. – Ms. Thrylokya]

Part-1

1. How to overcome the idea of suicide in my mind?

[Ms. Thrylokya asked:- One of my old friends said, “Many a time since childhood, I get a strong desire to commit suicide at soul level so that I remain permanently in peace without any activity. How to overcome such idea in my mind?” Swami, please enlighten my friend with Your answer.]

Swami replied:- By true spiritual knowledge, you can overcome such extreme pessimism. The aim of the life of any created soul is only to please God through devotional service by propagating spiritual knowledge in this world. God created this entire world for His dignified entertainment (not for killing time with cheap entertainments as in the case of ordinary human beings). God always recommends to perform the good activity, which is the service to God to uplift the ignorant souls present in His creation. For this good activity, one has to withdraw from bad activity, which is based on blind fascination towards worldly bonds, which are temporary and hence, unreal. The only real bond is with the real God, who incarnates in every generation along with us in every birth. The bonds between the roles of a cinema are unreal and the bond with the producer of cinemas is permanent for any actor playing the assigned role in each cinema of the producer. In between the good activity (plus) and bad activity (minus) lies the central inactivity (zero) called as peace. One has to come to the central peace (zero) from bad activity (minus) and progress towards good activity (plus). The zero of inactivity is stressed and encouraged only to withdraw the soul from the minus of bad activities. Such central zero representing peace is not the final goal. The final goal is plus, which is the good activity of serving God. Living in minus leads us to hell and living in zero leads us to the central Pitru Loka, which is lower heaven. The goal must be plus, which is the heaven obtained by meritorious activity like serving the society. The double plus is going to the abode of God (Brahmaloka, Goloka and Datta Sevakaloka) by practical service and sacrifice to God without aspiring for anything in return.

The final goal is to live with full awareness along with God, participating in His divine mission on earth by accompanying God in human form. This double plus activity is the ultimate goal, which is not to become an inert stone. God gives such inert births to tremendously condemned bottom-most sinners only. Awareness must always be aspired and not inertness. The Gita also condemns inactivity at several places (Mā te saṅgo'stvakarmaṇi…, Na karmaṇāmanārambhāt…, Na cākriyaḥ… etc.). You shall not argue that if a devotee wants to destroy himself/herself by desiring to become an inert stone, God must help that devotee in that line to fulfill the desire of the devotee to reach such self-destruction goal, based on the promise of God that He will help any devotee to reach his or her desired goal in the path desired by him/her (Ye yathā māṃ… - Gita). The reason is that in this context, there is another statement of God in the Gita that He will not allow His devotee to perish through such a way (Na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati…). In the constitution also, there may be a general rule. If that rule is not applicable in a specific situation, the same constitution frames another exceptional rule confined to that specific situation alone. Hence, God will help the devotee provided it is beneficial to the soul and God will not help to harm the devotee even if the devotee prays for his/her destruction.

2. Swami, please reply to the following argument.

[Swami, another friend says “Souls didn’t ask God to create them, but, God created them for His own entertainment. When a soul wants to exit His creation based on one’s own will, it is justified to provide the soul with a procedure to exit because if God forces any soul to be alive just for His own entertainment, He becomes a dictator”. Please reply to his argument.]

Swami replied:- I have told a thousand times that even though God created this world for His entertainment, He did not hurt justice and did not support injustice anywhere. I gave an example also, which is that a very rich man established a college since he was bored and wanted to engage himself with a meaningful entertainment in the service to education-system. As long as such person did not do any injustice in the establishment of infrastructure of the college, he cannot be blamed by a failed student that he is a sadist establishing this college for his sadistic entertainment. The argument of the failed student is that had that person not established that college, he would not have faced this tragic situation of failure. If the failed student evidently proves the faults in the infrastructure like staff, laboratories and other facilities, then the failed student is said to be correct and the rich man is said to be wrong. But in reality, majority of the students are passing the exams and only some students are failing. If the blame of the failed student was correct, all the students or at least a majority of the students must have failed. This student failed due to his faults only, which are that he roamed on the streets without attending classes and did not study the textbooks on any day even while staying in the hostel room. If the same failed student works hard and passes the exams with flying colours, the same student will refuse his own idea of suicide since he is going to enjoy a meaningful and respectful life. Even if God comes and tells that He is ready to grant suicide, the same candidate will deny it! All this pessimism is only due to the influence of temporary bad time, which is caused due to one’s own sin.

Suppose a small child got attracted seeing the red flames of fire and is pressing his parents to allow him to catch the fire assuming that fire to be some red-coloured toy, will the parents allow the child? The parents clearly know that the child has misunderstood the fire as an attractive item. The child doesn’t know that it is ignorant in this matter and the parents very well know that the child is completely ignorant in this matter. Will the parents allow the child to follow its wish because there is basic constitutional fundamental right for freedom? The parents will give some slaps to the child and will force the child to follow their advice. The child cannot report against its parents stating that they are forcing it without giving freedom, which is its constitutional right. If the child complains to some elders in the society or files a case in the court about its lack of freedom in this issue, the elders and the court will advise the parents to admit the child into a pediatric mental hospital.

In the case of the failed student, if there are other colleges present in his place, the failed student has every right to say that his mind is not peaceful in that college and he is perfectly justified to get a TC (Transfer Certificate) from that college so that he can join another college to continue his education. Here, in the concept, this entire creation is that one college and the establisher of the college is the omniscient and omnipotent God. There is no other college to give admission to the failed student because this universe created by God is infinite. Now, the student is asking to relieve him from the single universe-college to commit suicide. In this case, there is no alternative for the soul except to ask God to remove itself from the universe by turning it into a stone, which is killing the soul. If God accepts this, God will become that parent, who allows its child to catch the fire! The universe is only one, which is also infinite. The soul has no alternative except to continue in the universe. Since the contemporary human incarnation of God is present in every generation, the soul has full freedom to discuss its personal case with God patiently and get the complete true solution that helps the soul by removing its false illusion of understanding truth. But, the soul cannot get its favourable destructive solution that is harmful to it since the benevolent God cannot allow such destruction.

3. Is forcing to live justified?

[Swami, he says “Even the concept of mercy killing is justified on the request of the patient. Forcing to live is definitely not justice”. Please reply to his argument.]

Swami replied:- In the case of mercy killing of a patient, the patient is suffering with a real physical disease and is requesting to relieve him/her from the unbearable pain forever. This case has some minimum logic and you cannot compare the case of a failed student to the case of a cancer patient suffering with incurable illness that causes unbearable pain. Here, the case of the failed student is a psychological problem, in which he is not recognizing his faults that led to his failure and he is blaming the college for his failure. This psychological problem can be easily cured by good talented counselling and you cannot compare his tension to the tension of a cancer patient. Psychological problem arises due to illusion of mind that can be easily cleared by a good psychiatrist. The case of cancer is different, which is incurable and its pain is also unbearable. The answer for this question can be easily arrived if you discuss with a Sadguru, who is God Himself incarnating on the earth in every generation to guide the souls in the correct path.

4. Swami, please reply to the following argument.

[Swami, he says “A student at college or an adult soul in creation is a grownup and not an ignorant child. Hence, we cannot compare both and draw a conclusion”. Please reply to his argument.]

Swami replied:- You may argue that the student is a grownup and cannot be compared to an ignorant child. Here, child means ignorance based rigid foolishness. Ravana was a great scholar in the four Vedas and the six Shastras and his 10 heads represent these scriptures. After Hanuman burnt Lanka, several elder relatives of Ravana including Vibhiishana advised Ravana to return back Sita to Rama and save the dynasty of demons. Even on the first day of the war, Rama made him helpless by His powerful arrows, but, did not kill him even if full opportunity was created. Rama told Ravana to go back that day and come on the second day along with Sita so that He will return back to Ayodhya without harming anybody. Ravana came back for war on the second day also without Sita. Such a scholar of scriptures became an ignorant-foolish child in this context. Hence, the word ‘child’ referred here means the rigid foolish ignorance that can attack any soul of any age having any extent of knowledge and it is not based on age here. The Gita also says that the foolish rigid ignorance attracts and controls even a very great scholar (Vidvāṃsamapi karṣati…).

5. Is it dictatorship of God to decide everything?

[Swami, he says “It is God, who created souls for His entertainment and it is the same God, who is defining the soul requesting to exit His creation as ignorant and childish. Isn't it monopoly and dictatorship of God to decide everything? If there is a facility for every soul to exit His creation and if the soul stays in His creation by choice of freedom, then it can be agreed that God is not forcing every soul to live in His creation just for the sake of His own entertainment. God can perhaps amend a rule that the soul must clear its punishments of bad karma without which he/she cannot exit His creation, which gives fair opportunity for all souls”. Please enlighten him, Swami.]

Swami replied:- God created the world and souls for His entertainment and this is true. You are arguing that every soul should have full freedom like that of an actor in cinema field, where he has full freedom to sign an agreement with a producer to act in an offered role. But, the important point here is that the producer did not create the actors like God created the souls. There must be some minimum common sense to give more respect to God than the respect given to the producer of the cinema by the actors. Your thought of destructive freedom is total injustice. Moreover, you are asking God for the suicide of your soul. Since you are a fool and mad fellow, you may not have love on the parent-God. But, God has infinite love on every soul. God always wishes to uplift every soul to His level. For such pure love on you, you are blaming God! I think no mental hospital can treat you. Shankara rightly told that a bad son may be born, but, no bad mother exists (Kuputro jāyeta…). God’s love is a million times more than the parental love. When a soul faces difficulties, an emotional thought of suicide comes, which is quite natural. If the thought of suicide is stopped at that time, later on, when the soul becomes normal, the soul will be happy and will wish to live for a long time.

6. Is there any logic to prove that God loves the souls?

[Swami, another friend says “Logic and rational thinking helps human beings to progress forward. There is no logic to prove that God has love for souls. He might have created this creation for random entertainment like an experiment”. Please enlighten him, Swami.]

Swami replied:- Don’t follow dry logic, which means logic without moisture. Moisture here means the complete faith in God. In absence of moisture, the skin (the psychology) becomes dry giving cracks. Logic shall be used to find out the true meaning of the Veda and the secondary scriptures. The Veda is from God and the secondary scriptures are from sages.

God is the primary standard. You have to stop somewhere in the chain of finding the ultimate cause. Otherwise, Ad-Infinitum (Anavasthā doṣa) results, which is the fruit of dry logic. Sages and angels stopped at God and God is the ultimate standard and authority for deciding justice and injustice. Whatever told by Him and whatever done by Him is justice. Whatever condemned by Him and not done by Him is injustice. He is the creator and supporter of justice and also the destroyer of injustice.

Wet logic means the dry logic following the scripture given by God, which is like moisture. Logic is to be used to understand the concept of God recorded in the scripture. Dry logic means only logic without the support of divine scripture, which is speculating the personality of God and imagining the intentions of God without any basis of scripture. Sages and angels stand with wet logic only, whereas humans slip from the wet logic frequently basing on dry logic due to uncontrolled use of their intelligence called over-intelligence. To err is human because many a time, they use dry logic. They are neither fully ignorant nor fully wise. They do both merits and sins. Fully uneducated ignorant human beings can be taught easily and fully educated human beings can be taught more easily. Some humans have both ignorance and knowledge, which means half-knowledge. They can never be convinced. Ego of their half-knowledge based on dry logic makes them not to hear others. Inherent ignorance makes them not to know the truth at all. Neither they themselves know the truth nor do they hear others speaking the truth. There is a verse, which says that a half-knowledge human being can’t be convinced even by God Brahma (Jñāna lava durvidagdham, Brahmā'pi na rañjayati - Bhartruhari). These people based on dry logic go on travelling in endless space continuously even though the world is running with several final dissolutions. Every time, they make conclusions and their dry logic condemns their own conclusions, resulting in an endless journey of logic.

Osho etc., are such human beings only. Osho says that there is no God and says that love is God. Love is the quality of awareness. Unlike independent electromagnetic radiation, independent awareness cannot exist in the world because awareness is always in the need of a container, which is an energetic or a materialised body. This means that if you say love is God, you have to accept that a personality with an energetic body (energetic incarnation of God) or a materialised human body (human incarnation) is accepted by you as God! This means that such people go with dry logic at very high speed without seeing repercussions. Such concentration of logic without seeing both sides is called as ‘Horse Look’, which means that the running horse always concentrates on the linear front direction only and does not see that side or this side because its eyes are covered by blinders on both sides!

Start with faith in God, faith in the Veda and faith in the scriptures written by sages. Don’t have complete faith on yourself at any cost. You can use logic to condemn the logic of atheists, who are against God. But, never use logic doubting God or against God. Hence, use logic only in two cases:- i) To understand the Vedas, scriptures etc., ii) To condemn atheistic logic. Don’t waste time in discussing topics, which are of no use to the present spiritual problems such as how to reach God, how to cross the hurdles in reaching God, which need pragmatic solutions to be investigated using a lot of time.

If you use logic to blame God that He is having sinful intentions, your future life is gone completely because such logic will lead you to become an atheist and then, to become a demon with full freedom to do anything liked by the demon. The end is the everlasting liquid fire and continuous life of the soul burning in the liquid fire.

7. Why did God control freedom throughout the Kruta Yuga?

[Swami, another friend asked “When God has given freedom at the end of Kruta Yuga, why did He control that basic freedom throughout Kruta Yuga?” Please enlighten her, Swami.]

Swami replied:- In Kruta Yuga also, it is not correct to say that God has not given the basic freedom to souls. He has given the basic freedom based on which only Adam and Eve plucked the fruit of a tree forbidden by God. Such fruit is going to be given to the souls when they become deserving by firmly standing on the faith of the word of God. Just for one day, Adam and Eve had full faith on God’s word and the next day itself, God was planning to tell them to eat that forbidden fruit also. The next day itself, even though Adam and Eve crossed the word of God and plucked the fruit, God did not interfere and this shows that God always gave full freedom to any soul at the time of its creation itself. God simply allowed Adam and Eve to undergo the punishment for their sin. God alone analyses the subject with perfect logic and gives full freedom to you in the end. God Krishna preached 18 chapters of the Gita and at the end, told Arjuna to analyse whatever He told and then, decide as per his wish finally. Out of the ten famous incarnations (avataras) of God Vishnu, six incarnations happened to be in Kruta Yuga only to kill demons. This means that even in the Kruta Yuga, free will was given by God, but the majority of souls decided to surrender to God rather than using their free will to do sins. Whenever a sinner is seen, God appeared immediately as incarnation and eliminated the sinner so that a small black spot present on the entire white cloth is immediately washed. As the Yugas proceeded, even sinners were having some good qualities and killing such sinner became very complicated in view of the merit existing in the sinner. Rama got sin by killing Ravana, who was a great devotee and a great scholar. Rama had to worship God Shiva in Rameshvaram to get rid of the sin. Gradually, the white cloth developed many black spots and Krishna had to fight and kill many demonic souls throughout His life. In the Kali age, the white cloth became completely black! Hence, the last incarnation, Kalki, has to destroy the entire black cloth since there is no use in washing the cloth!

When God created souls, then itself, He gave free will to each soul. In Kruta Yuga, almost all the souls surrendered to God rejecting the free will. Due to their prayer for total surrender, God had to cancel the free will in Kruta Yuga. Very few souls, which were demons used the free will in Kruta Yuga also. They were killed by God and six out of ten famous incarnations of God came in Kruta Yuga only. Later on, since majority of souls were bored with total surrender, God gave free will to every soul as the fundamental right thereby even the totally surrendered souls retained their fundamental right of free will.

To be continued...

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