God’s love for the created universe knows no bounds; He cannot be held responsible for
the experiences of created beings. God does not punish or reward anyone in a personal way; it is
one’s own actions, sinful or good, that works as the cause of experience here.
As the human being is endowed with moral sense and as he is invested with the
consciousness of doership and responsibility, he imposes this sense of morality and responsibility
of action on sub-human beings also. The defect, therefore, lies in man and not in the animals
which act without any consciousness of ethical conduct, and spontaneously, free from the
responsibility connected with doership or agency.
No action can produce a retributive effect unless it is done with the consciousness of
personal doership and responsibility. Man shall be punished by retributive justice, for man has
the freedom to act and he is responsible for what he does. But animals have not been endowed
with such a freedom and power of understanding and reason; so what they do is just the
expression of the instinctive natural promptings in them and this is included in the scheme of the
universal nature. Nature is beyond moral laws. Moral conduct is only for man, meant to restrict
his behaviour and lead him on to universal consciousness through gradual ascent along the
evolutionary ladder.
All things born must die. And there should be some immediate cause for the destruction
of things. This cause of destruction may be another animal, an earthquake, a thunder-stroke,
flood, disease, storm or any such thing. These should not be clothed with moral and ethical
values except when these are connected with human agency.
From "May I answer that" by Swami Sivananda (1987-1963). More Informations on Swami Sivananda: on the Website of Divine Life Society, Photographs of Swami Sivananda, German Pages on Swami Sivananda
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