Posted on: 30 Jun 2021
1. Why do people believe that buildings are the church when scripture says in Matthew 18:20 “Where two or three gather in My name, there am I” and what can be done to correct this misconception?
Swāmi replied: There are always two levels of devotees:- 1) primary level and 2) final level. For primary level temples, churches, mosques etc., are needed whereas for the final level the spiritual conversation called Satsaṇga itself is the temple or church or mosque. Don’t think that lower level is wrong. The lower level after sometime becomes higher level. The levels remain as they are and only people are moving from one level to the other. You have passed high school and entered college. Will you say that the high school shall be demolished? The lower-level high school is always stand as it is welcoming the students of lower standard.
2. Why was Jesus not allowed to have relations with a woman in a physical way or did not marry?
Swāmi replied: The preaching of spiritual knowledge has nothing to do with the physical relationship or marriage. There are so many teaching institutions catering excellent knowledge to various levels of students. Is there a rule that the teacher in every institution shall be bachelor without marriage? Sex is a biological need like hunger, thirst and sleep. Will you put a rule that the spiritual preacher shall not eat food, shall not drink water and shall not sleep? Will such rules improve the efficiency of preaching? God Kṛṣṇa is considered to be the topmost spiritual preacher and He married 16,108 girls and generated 10 sons and 1 daughter through each wife! Not only this, when sage Nārada asked God Brahmā to give the name of a true bachelor (celibate), God Brahmā gave only one name and do you know what is that name? The name is KṚṢṆA! When you are going to a lecturer to learn Chemistry from him, your concern must be about the excellency of his teaching the lessons of Chemistry. Why should you worry about his personal matters? A spiritual preacher at the level of Sadguru can’t be understood by you because He is God, who came down as spiritual preacher. Sometimes, He tests your faith in Him through abnormal behaviour. Shirdi Sai Bāba smokes and neither you should smoke nor you should criticize Him.
3. How can I make my faith in Jesus stronger? I have a massive relationship with Father but it’s hard for me to get one with Jesus.
Swāmi replied: Then, I can compare you with a mad person, who loves his wife in silk sari and hates her in cotton sari. The collector is in cotton dress and we are also in the cotton dress. We don’t respect the collector because of the same quality of the dress. His peon came in silk dress and we prostrate to him because the quality of his dress is far higher than our dress. The cowherds wanted to worship Indra, who is an energetic being, but could not recognise Kṛṣṇa, the God in common human form. Father of heaven is the unimaginable God present in energetic form. The same Father of heaven is wearing a human body externally because the same Father of heaven merged with Jesus. Now Jesus is the same unimaginable God wearing energetic form (Father of heaven) and wearing human form above the energetic form. You put your eyes on the inner most unimaginable God and all other things are only external media. You are respecting your father wearing a shirt (energetic incarnation), but, you are neglecting your father wearing a coat above the shirt (human incarnation). You are thinking that the shirt is your father and the coat is son of your father. Is it not meaningless? In both, only one person is there, who is your father.
4. If the Kingdom of Heaven is supposed to be in "Heaven", why did Jesus say, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven"?
Swāmi replied: Heaven means the abode of God, which is not used by Jesus in physical sense as the upper world. Heaven means the divine abode of God and wherever God exists that is heaven. In fact, this is the correct concept. Here, we have to understand the unimaginable nature of unimaginable God. Then unimaginable God, who is beyond the creation became Father of heaven (first energetic incarnation) in the upper world called heaven, the unimaginable God existing beyond creation did not disappear. He existed in the original place, which is beyond creation. He exists above the creation and exists in the heaven as Father of heaven. This Father of heaven merged with a selected human devotee on earth to become human incarnation. Again, here, we have to understand that Father of heaven exists in the original heaven as energetic incarnation and also exists simultaneously on earth as human incarnation. Hence, the abode of unimaginable God is beyond creation, the abode of unimaginable God as first energetic incarnation (Father of heaven) is the upper world called heaven and the abode of unimaginable God as human incarnation is the earth. These three abodes exist simultaneously and the same unimaginable God exists in these three abodes simultaneously. If this is understood, such doubts will not come.