Posted on: 15 Dec 2013
Shri Anil: A person asked why Lord Krishna preached the Gita to Arjuna in the polluted environment of war? He could have preached in a peaceful situation. Could You please clarify this point?
Shri Swami: For preaching knowledge, the primary factor is the appetite for knowledge expressed by the receiver through a question or doubt. The external atmosphere is only a secondary factor. You may be serving food in a garden with beautiful external atmosphere. If the eater does not have hunger for food, the external atmosphere cannot influence him to take the food. When the person is hungry, he will eat the food even in a bus or train or in the verandah of an office. The quest for knowledge is very important for its assimilation after receiving it. If the quest is not there, either food or knowledge is not received. In fact, this is the message given by the Lord to all the preachers of knowledge whether the knowledge may be pertaining to world (Pravritti) or to God (Nivritti). You should preach the spiritual knowledge only to the people, who have interest in it. Several old retired people often attend the spiritual speeches just to pass the time and their attendance is mainly based on the fear for hell after the death. They don’t have the real quest for the knowledge of God. Their quest is only for finding a way to escape the future hell to which they are near. Therefore, they do not assimilate the knowledge and sit with inactive mood, sometimes even sleep. They become suddenly attentive once the speaker says that God can protect any soul falling in the hell. Their interest in God is only since God is an instrument to save them from hell. Similarly, several others are interested in God since God has the miraculous power to solve their problems and give benefits in the form of boons. Only one in millions is really attracted to God and therefore, has a real quest for the knowledge of God.
When Arjuna expressed the doubt about the fight, the Lord gave relevant answer to his doubt and did not speak anything about God. The Lord replied to the doubts of Arjuna without crossing the limits of scope of those doubts. He spoke about God only when the doubt touched the necessity of knowledge of God. The Lord always tried to clarify the doubts of Arjuna and never tried to pour down all His knowledge. Context and relevance were mainly followed by the Lord throughout His preaching. The way in which the Lord answered the doubts is a guideline for the preachers and teachers.
The sages lived in the forest to maintain constantly the external peaceful atmosphere. The sages also spoke about God to the students only when the students expressed query. They did not speak about God without query since the external atmosphere was peaceful. We find the sage Varuna speaking about God only when Bhrugu approached with a query as found in the Taittireeya Upanishat (Adheehi Bhagavo Brahmeti…). The external atmosphere definitely helps the process of absorption of the knowledge. Hence, the sages constantly lived in the forest so that the second factor is always available. If the knowledge is preached in a peaceful atmosphere in the absence of quest in the student, due to the effect of the second factor, the knowledge may be adsorbed. Adsorption is surface phenomenon. If the quest is there, the knowledge gets absorbed. Absorption is bulk phenomenon. If both factors exist, the absorption will be very deep. For the sake of the benefit of this deep absorption only, sages opted to live in the forests.
Whatever God does is always perfectly correct. Sometimes, we misunderstand God and doubt His ways. One traveler thought that why God gave small fruits to a big tree and big fruits to a small creeper on the ground? He thought the vice-versa should have been wise. Then, he slept for sometime under the big tree. When he awoke he found several small fruits on his body fallen from the tree. Then, he understood the wisdom of God. Sometimes, you may not realize the reason in the actions of God. But, you should not be hasty to comment on God. A doubt can be expressed to find out the reason. But, a concluding remark should not be passed on God. That is the reason why a real devotee never criticizes God since criticism is always after conclusion.
Shri Anil: Some people feel that they are very pure and still they are punished by God. Would it not be proper for God to give them a ‘flashback’ of the sins committed by them in the past, so that they can realize that God is justified in punishing them?
Shri Swami: You are putting this suggestion to God forgetting the human psychology. Even if the flashback is created in them by God, some of the human beings will interpret their sins as good actions only and those were misunderstood by God as sins. Some others think that their sin was small and the punishment is unnecessarily big. Knowing this human psychology God stopped giving the flashback. Such a human psychology will never give them a chance to realize and develop towards the path of justice. When the punishment is given, you should immediately infer to an equivalent sin committed by you in the past. Then only, you are the real devotee accepting God as the best judge. Therefore, a real devotee never expresses even a trace of criticism on God even in the dream. When Sita was sent to forest, she thought that Rama will not do injustice to anybody and the punishment given to her must have been due to some unknown sin done in the previous birth (Mamaiva Janmaantara Patakaanaam—Raghuvamsha). In fact, we forget the sins done by us in this very birth itself since we do sins and misinterpret those sins as good actions. We always get convinced and such conviction is the reason for our forgetfulness. Lack of right analysis is the reason for such misinterpretation. Sometimes, we know the sins as sins, but we misinterpret them as good actions due to the power of our perverted intelligence. Hence, such misunderstanding of our own actions is the reason for such unwise thoughts. A real devotee never blames God in any of His actions but waits patiently to get his doubts clarified from a Divine Preacher. Sita represented an ordinary human being, who forgets the sins done in past in this birth itself and thinks that the sins might have been done in the previous birth since he or she is very pure in this birth. Sita committed the sin of criticizing God by insulting Rama several times in the past life of this birth itself. For example, when Rama refused to take Sita along with Him to the forest, Sita insulted Rama by saying that Rama is a woman in the form of a man, who fears to protect her in the forest (Striyam Purushavigraham – Ramayana). Even according to Pravritti, the wife should not comment on her husband like this. Now, Rama sends her alone to the forest since she suspected Him inefficient to protect her.
In fact, the fruits of actions done in this birth only give the results in this birth. Only the qualities come from the previous birth, which provoke the aims according to their nature that are responsible for the present actions. In this way, the previous birth makes an indirect contribution. The direct contribution is in only from the aims and actions done in this birth only.