Posted on: 07 Jun 2018
Shri Gangaiah Garu (Advocate in Guntur, a scholar of Gita and Upanishats) asked:- The souls are said to be sparks of God. Why shall God create this universe so that the soul has fallen from divine state to this state of difficulties and tensions?- Several people comment like this. What is the effective answer for this?
Swami replied:- The Veda says that we are sons of God (Amrutasya putraah). Ramanuja said that we are sparks from the God-fire, which means that we are the sons of God. All these statements are only to encourage us in spiritual effort to become sons of God. God did not call every human being as son of God and He called only Jesus as son of God. Everybody didn’t say that he is God Shiva except Shankara. In fact, one day Shankara went and drank wine saying that He is God Shiva (Shivoham). Already Shankara told that every soul is God and He told like this only to convert atheist in to theist through three steps (You are God, You exist and hence, God exists). Except this one way, Shankara had no other way to convert atheists in to theists. Already, the disciples of Shankara were influenced by such three steps, which were taken by them for their sake, even though these steps were told for the sake of atheists. The reason is that every human being is attracted to any benefit, which can be obtained without effort! Shankara told that you are God already and just by knowing that you are God, you become God! Hence, His disciples also drank wine and each one of them told that he is God Shiva. Next day, Shankara went to shop of a technician in metallurgy, who was just extracting lead from its ore and drank the molten lead. He asked His disciples to drink the molten lead also since everyone is God Shiva, who drank the terrible poison. They fell on His feet realising the mistake praying Him to become their saviour (Bhava Shankaradeshika me sharanam). Then, Shankara told that He alone is God Shiva (Shivah Kevaloham). By this miracle, Shankara proved the difference between disciple-soul and Himself-God. Through this, Shankara preached the disciples that they should not follow the monism, which was preached by Him confining to atheists only. One may say that you are God to give confidence and to encourage you. You must also believe it for some time to get confidence and encouragement. This doesn’t mean that you are really God forever and be in that illusion throughout your life! Krishna also encouraged Arjuna by saying that Arjuna is God among his brothers (Paandavaanaam Dhanamjayah). It is only to encourage him. If Arjuna is really God, why shall he ask so many questions in spiritual knowledge? God is said to be personification of spiritual knowledge.
Everybody is eligible to become God as human incarnation. Neither all become God nor nobody becomes God. There is only one gold medal and the topper in the class will get that medal. But, everybody in the class is eligible to make the effort to get that medal. All will not become toppers. One or two or three may get highest marks equally. Then, one or two or three medals can be awarded. To encourage everybody to get the medal, the teacher will say that everybody in the class is eligible and wishes every student to get the medal. This doesn’t mean that all will get the medal. The wonderful situation is that all the students started feeling that every student got already the gold medal! It means that all of them have become virtually mad without understanding the idea behind encouragement. Hence, no soul is either God or part of God to feel that they have fallen from the divine state to the present worst state.
It is true that all the souls were very good in the beginning of creation called as Krutayuga. They were very obedient to God. When a fruit of a tree was forbidden by God, the first pious couple (Adam and Eve) followed His instruction very strictly. In course of time, they were misled by Satan and violated the word of God. This means that as Krutayuga changed to other Yugas (eras), faith in God decreased leading to problems. Who is responsible for this change? The answer here is to be carefully understood, which is the life of the answer for your question. The souls were very happy throughout Krutayuga and got bored with continuous happiness. This is the nature of the soul, which is seen with every soul even today! If this nature is to be changed by force, such force is not acceptable to God since the will of God is always to maintain the natural state and even a change must take place not by force, but, in a natural way after getting convinced through knowledge only. The boredom resulting from continuous enjoyment of happiness (sweets) can be broken by suffering with tension (hot dish) only in the intervals. The divine Father is very much concerned for the happiness of souls created by Him. Hence, He gave freedom to souls, which was misused by the souls to get punishments of their sins. Even though the sins were done continuously, the punishments were not arranged continuously following strictly the sequence of deeds. The punishments (tensions) were arranged alternatively with fruits of good deeds (happiness) so that the boredom of continuous happiness disappears. By this, the problem of boredom was removed. But, some people are seen with continuous tensions and so they criticise God for not doing such above said arrangement. The reason for a specific situation like this is that the souls worshipped God to solve their problems and get happiness. God was forced to do this. But, the basic principle of His constitution is that no fruit of good deed can be given without doing good deed and the punishment of a bad deed can never be cancelled unless the soul is reformed. Based on this, God postponed the present punishment to future life cycles with interest added so that the present punishment disappears. He brought the good fruits arranged with increased values from the future life cycles with lesser values to the present birth and gave happiness. The ignorant soul is thinking that the punishment is cancelled and good fruit is given by God even though it did not do any good deed. Due to this, the future life cycles are leftover with punishments only without good fruits in the intervals. Hence, we shall never worship God for getting any benefit and our true love to God must be without aspiration for any fruit like removing the tension or granting benefit. Without understanding this background, we criticize God unnecessarily. Actually, we must criticize ourselves only.
We shall not criticize God for creating the world for His entertainment. He has not created this world for getting any entertainment from the suffering of souls like a sadist. The reason is that we are responsible for our suffering. If the entertainment of somebody goes on without any injustice, such entertainment can’t be criticized. A rich person, starting a college to pass on his time in good path, started an institution. He maintained the institution with utmost justice and lack of trace of injustice. A few students failed because of their negligence to studies. These students criticized the rich man for starting the institution, in absence of which, such critical situation would not have come to them! The entertainment of God is not as cheap as playing chess etc., as observed in souls. His entertainment is very pious and in very high level. His entertainment is only to experience the devotion of top level devotees in the creation.
Science clearly proves that the soul or awareness is a part of imaginable creation only and not even part of unimaginable creator. Soul is a specific work (transfer of information from senses to brain) form of inert energy functioning in a specific nervous system. Hence, the soul need not feel that it had lost its ancestral property (that it is God or part of God). The ancestral property never existed and it has lost its illusion about the possession of ancestral property! God Krishna said in the Gita that He is insulted by other human souls since He is in human form due to repulsion between common human bodies (media). If other souls are God, will God insult Himself? Did God forget Himself like a mad man so that even on reminding, He is not identifying Himself? If He is becoming God on reminding, why is this attainment not practically seen by getting back His miraculous powers like creation, control and destruction of world? Even if the soul is a part of God, at least, it should create an atom of matter or a ray of energy! This proves that it is not God and it has confirmed its illusion due to madness that it is God!
Over-intelligence and ignorance leads to several misinterpretations that result in false criticism of God. God always tried to solve the problems of souls in the best possible way without breaking justice. He is not only the Father of souls, but also, the judge and author of the constitution. Whenever a problem was created by the souls, He solved it and the solution given created another problem due to ignorance or over-intelligence of souls. A criminal said in the court that he killed a person by the order of God since it is said that nothing happens without the order of God. The judge replied that the punishment of death is given to the criminal by the order of same God only!
Let us remember the problems, solutions given by God and further criticisms of souls on God like the opposition party always criticising the ruling party!:- i) Souls had no freedom due to perfect faith in God and were in continuous happiness (situation). Souls developed boredom due to continuous happiness and wanted freedom also (problem). God gave freedom to souls and sins were committed so that there is a break of continuous happiness due to punishments of sins. God also arranged good fruits and punishments in alternative way so that the soul enjoys continuously both like sweet and hot dishes in meals without boredom of one item only (solution). ii) Many wise souls are happy by this arrangement (situation). Without understanding this background, some foolish souls started pressing the divine Father through worships to remove suffering of punishments and grant happiness by giving good fruits (problem). God doesn’t cancel the sins (punishments) without reformation of the soul since punishments were created only to bring at least temporary reformation. Hence, without hurting justice, the punishments were postponed to the future births with increased interest so that temporarily misery disappears. Similarly, as per justice, good fruits can’t be given without doing good deeds. Hence, God drew back the good fruits with increased values placed in the future births and granted those now itself with reduced values so that happiness appears. The soul misunderstood this as permanent cancellation of punishments and attainment of good fruits without doing good deeds (solution). iii) The foolish souls are also happy along with the wise souls (situation). But, in the case of foolish souls, the future life cycles are filled with continuous punishments with increased interests only. Their lives become horrible with continuous miseries (problem). There is no solution to this since God, being the judge, will not disturb the justice. Still, God gave a permanent solution for these permanent miseries by saying that if the soul is reformed and doesn’t repeat the sin, all the present and pending punishments get cancelled since the logic behind this is that any punishment is for the reformation of the soul so that the soul doesn’t repeat the sin again. If the soul is already reformed through spiritual knowledge, there is no need of further punishment (solution). iv) The soul is unable to permanently reform itself through spiritual knowledge and hence, is not becoming eligible for this solution. All such souls are subjected to punishments here and there at least for getting temporary reformation through fear. They started criticising God about His creation of this world for His selfish entertainment! This criticism disappears once this deep analysis is done with lot of patience to understand the truth. People doing this criticism are either totally ignorant of this analysis or totally over-intelligent (even though this analysis is known thoroughly) to throw mud on God to get some relief from God (confused by them) like advocates supporting unjust party (for money) do clever cross examinations of the opposite party having justice so that the deity of justice gets confused by their over-intelligence to give a way for their injustice to win!