This is a Lecture transcript of the spiritual discourse given by a saint at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi
I request all of you to close your eyes and concentrate on the beautiful verses from the ancient scriptures in glorification of the Supreme and thereafter I will begin my talk.
Eternal seekers of divine bliss!
The subject for the talk today is very challenging and very controversial. To discuss a subject like this in just a period of one hour is a herculean task before me. Nevertheless, I assure you that if you listen very carefully and with an open mind, then you will leave this hall with a new and positive understanding about this question, “Why me?”
Let me tell you a true story. A young New Yorker named Glen Chambers had this lifelong dream to spread the word of God in the country called Ecuador in South America. On the day of his departure at the airport, he wanted to send a note to his mother but he had no time to buy a card. He spotted a piece of paper on the terminal floor and picked it up. It happened to be an advertisement with the word “Why?” spread across it. He quickly scribbled his note around this “Why?” and sent it to his mother through a friend. That night, his plane exploded into a 14,000ft. Columbian peak called El Tablazo. When his mother received the note after the news of his death, the question burned at her from the page, “Why?” I’m sure that some of you sitting here must have similar incidents to share. We are consistently confronted by suffering of different kinds throughout our life on this earth.
Firstly there is global suffering. You have natural disasters like earth quakes, floods, famines and tsunamis and we also have small and major wars all the time which result in suffering that is pervasive. Secondly, we have communal tragedies. Every day you read or hear about a plane crash, a ship sinking, a train accident and many other such tragedies. Who can forget September 11, 2001 when there was an attack on the World Trade Centre. 3,000 innocent people were killed including 346 firefighters. This incident not only shook the foundation of one city, but the entire world! Even after that, we have been shocked time and again by such tragic incidents that are part of our lives.
Lastly we have individual suffering. We all go through it to a greater or lesser extent. Suffering is an inseparable part of our earthly existence and it comes to us in an endless variety of forms i.e. poverty, disease, broken relationships, unhappy marriages, loneliness, depression, prosecution and so on and so forth. Whenever we have to go through some such tragedy, we wonder and cry out “Why me?” I am sure some of you sitting here have already asked a question like this in your life. Theologians, philosophers, psychologists and ordinary men through centuries have wrestled with this question of suffering and hardly anyone has come up with a simple and complete answer.
Today I am here to share with you the precious and invaluable wisdom that I have learnt and experienced through my divine master and I am sure that it will make a difference in your life as well.
The first question is - what is the reason or the cause of suffering in our lives? Is it something that happens by chance or is it something that God whimsically inflicts upon us without any reason? The answer is that it is neither. We ourselves are responsible for all the pain and pleasure we experience in our life. You must have heard the saying, “What you sow, you reap.”
This is called the law of cause and effect and is referred to as the doctrine of karm. Each human being has a freedom to perform action and every action that we perform produces results or fruits. We have to work out, go through the fruits of these actions whatever they may be - good or bad.
Some of these actions, due to their inherent nature, bear fruit maybe in this life itself and some are like ‘term deposits’ with long maturity dates. They pass on to other lives. This is destiny. Destiny is nothing but the result of our own actions which we performed with a freedom of will. In other words, we are products of the past and producers of the future. Do you want to know what your future is? Your future is the past modified by the present. Fruit arises out of action and action out of fruit. We get what we earn, no more and no less. Therefore to cry out against some apparent injustice is only ignorance of this law of karm.
To be born a cripple, an athlete, a beggar or a king is just the sum total of our own actions. God is no way responsible for the pleasure and pain we experience. This is the law of karm and it is this chain that ties us to the wheel of birth and rebirth which is called the doctrine of reincarnation. I am sure you have heard of all these terminologies. More and more people in this world are beginning to accept both the law of karm and the doctrine of reincarnation because this is the only thing that makes life meaningful.
What I am telling you today, would take months to explain and years to understand. That is why you have to excuse me if I only refer to these points briefly as we have to come to the main point.
I’ll put to you some beautiful words by a western philosopher called William Jones which he said two centuries ago. He is the one who introduced Indian philosophy to Europe. He said, “I am no Hindu but I hold the Hindu doctrine concerning rebirth as incomparably more pious, more rationale, more likely to deter man from vice than the horrid opinions inculcated by the Christians about punishment without an end.”
Let us come to the next point, “What is God’s role here?” in this picture we are talking about because you need to know the facts properly. Most people, whenever they go through any kind of tragedy or accident, end up blaming God, accusing Him and even cursing Him! So before we waste our time blaming God, let’s find out the facts.
The first role of God is He gives us the power to perform actions. That is why it is said, “Not a leaf stirreth without the will of God.” God gives us the power to do. We have beautiful verses in the Vedas,
(Kathopanishad 1.4-1.
What are these verses saying? It says here, “It is God who gives the power of speech to the tongue.” The tongue has a double function, the only sense organ that has two functions: taste and speech. It is the most dangerous of sense organs because 99% of unhappiness in this world is due to this tongue; what we speak. We have a lot of trainers - lion trainers, snake trainers etc., but unfortunately there is no tongue trainer. God gives the power of seeing to the eyes, the power of hearing to the ears etc. He empowers us to do but does not interfere in our freedom to do. He gives you the power and you are free to do. Free to see what you want, free to hear what you want, free to say what you want but the power is His. He does not interfere. He says in this great book of scripture, the Bhagvat Gita: (Chap 5, Verse 14 & 15)
After giving us the power to do, what does He do after that? He takes note of each and every action that we perform each and every second. Every action! What a master computer there must be! You cannot imagine. Every human being, all actions are recorded. This is the second role of God.
Thirdly, after recording all those actions of ours, He gives the fruits. He is the one who dispenses the fruits of the actions. Now, I am sure a lot of you know and accept, even villagers in India accept that the misery, the cruelty, the suffering that we see and experience in life is our own doing. But our question is, “We do not have any objection to God rewarding us for our good actions but why does He punish us for our bad actions?” This is our problem.
It is said that God is the loving father – all religions – (Hindi) i.e. “Our father who art in heaven…” Not only that, the scriptures talk about many other relations.
“He is not only the father, He is the mother, He is your child, He is your friend, He is your beloved. He is your all-in-all.” You know the verse, you have taught your children. (Tvameva mata……………tvameva sarvam mama deva deva) “You are my all in all.”
What is the point of this eternal, all-in-all relationship if He is not going to do anything about our suffering? Would a father in the material world just watch his own son suffering and say to him, “My child! This is your own karm, it is your problem!” and just sit back and watch silently. Would a father in the material world do this? Definitely not! Then how can we accept God as a loving father, someone we are so closely connected to, if all He does is take note of all our actions, dispenses the fruits accordingly and watches us suffer our own past actions and do nothing about it? Scriptures say He is a witness, He resides within you, He accompanies you life after life. (Svetasvataropanish ad - 6/11) What is the point of accompanying us life after life and watching us? He does not take His gaze away from us for a fraction of a second. The answer is that He watches us constantly with the hope that we might turn around toward Him and surrender. He is waiting to grace us with His infinite divine bliss, and not only that, eternally free us from all the suffering that we are going through. The root cause of all our pain and suffering is alienation from God.
Do you know that a renowned psychologist (20th century), some of you may have heard of his name, Carl Jung. He diagnosed the sickness of man, the suffering to be due to this alienation from God. Man is sick because he has cut himself from the source and sustainer of life. The more we turn away from God, the more we will be restless and disturbed. Now, what does God do about this? Do you want to know?
The first thing that He does is at the beginning of every creation, He reveals spiritual knowledge and a code of conduct for us to follow through the Vedas. There is an elaborate account of the do’s and do not’s. This we have in not only what we call Sanatan Dharm but in every religion. Christianity has the Old Testament stating all the do’s and do not’s. The purpose of all this instruction and knowledge is that we make ourselves eligible to receive divine grace and get out of this bondage of karm forever.
Now obviously you would say that you don’t know anything about the instructions in Sanskrit – you have a lot of things to say about that – as I said, this talk would take days to give. But it doesn’t matter, I am coming to the point.
The next thing that God does is - send His Saints to us to inspire us, to guide us and give us a simplified version of all this spiritual knowledge. When we turn a deaf ear even to the Saints, then He (God) punishes us.
Just as there is a written law in the world. Disobedience of law results in punishment. Even a father in the material world punishes a son for being disobedient but that punishment is an expression of the love and care of this father towards the son, is it not? In the same way, when God punishes us it is not out of enmity, it is out of His love and grace. But unfortunately we do not understand that and we end up blaming Him.
Suppose in the material world a child goes to school and steals a pencil; he comes home and proudly tells his mother, “I have stolen a pencil” and she smiles at him and lets him go. What is going to happen? He is going to steal again and again and he may grow up to be a thief. So when he steals for the first time, the mother naturally will scold her child, “That is the wrong thing to do, don’t ever do that again!” And suppose the child does steal again, what is she going to do this time? She is going to punish the child severely because he has not listened to her the first time. Now, after the scolding and severe punishment, the child learns its lesson and does not steal again. But when did this happen? After the mother had scolded and punished the child. So is the mother the child’s enemy? Definitely not! The mother’s action is an expression of her love and care for the child. In the same way, when God punishes us for our wrong karm, it is only an overflowing of His grace and compassion for us. It is not punishment. We take it that way but it is wrong to do so.
There are courts, police and prisons in the world, aren’t there? These are there for maintaining law and order and punishing the wrong doers. Do you know how much public money goes into maintaining this structure? An enormous amount! And just suppose that for 24 hours, all this were shut down completely, what do you think would happen? The result would be disastrous; murders, rapes, theft, mugging and looting. Today, in spite of all this structure, there is so much crime so just imagine what would happen if they all were to be shut down.
So I am sure you can understand that even in the material world, punishment is for the betterment of man. It is to deter a person from committing a crime again. That is what it is for.
Now, if a person has committed a murder and he goes to the court himself and accepts his crime and asks for forgiveness, “Please, please forgive me. I promise that I will not commit another crime again if you forgive me. And should I commit the smallest of crimes, I am ready to undergo the worst punishment you can give me.” Will the court forgive him for his humility and his right resolution? The judge will say, “You have to go through the punishment. There is no pardon or concession. We will see next time.” But there will not be a next time because he will be hung before that.
Now let us come to the spiritual court. I was talking about the material court. There is a vast difference between the two. There is both justice and mercy in the spiritual court. The mercy that there is, is unimaginable. Suppose a person has committed not one but thousands of murders and he asks for forgiveness from the bottom of his heart, then what happens? He is not only forgiven for those thousand murders but at the same time, for his countless past sins. He is eternally freed from all suffering. This is the promise, the promise in a wonderful verse of the Bhagavad Gita (Chap 18, Verse 66):
“Arjun! Come and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you eternally from all sins and liberate you.”
God cares for our betterment more than a material father. Whatever He does, it is only for our welfare and He hopes and expects that when we suffer in the world, we will turn to Him through surrender and He will then eternally free us from all bondage of karm and not only that, He will give us eternal, everlasting bliss. As I addressed you (at the beginning of my talk), ‘eternal seekers of divine bliss’, that is what we are searching for and nothing in this world has satisfied us till today.
Do you know there is an example, a unique example, of a lady named Kunti who asked Lord Krishna for a very strange favour. She asked for suffering! We would never dare or even dream to ask for such a thing. Do you want to know the reason? The reason is that she did not want to leave any room for pride and worldly attachment. When there was nobody she knew that He would be there. God, the all-powerful, all-knowing personality would be there all the time with her, through thick and thin.
(Bhagavad Puran 1-8-25, 1-8-26)
You will never understand that God is all you need until God is all you have.
That is why Paul Brunton, a great philosopher said, “The sufferers of today are the seekers of tomorrow.” Human suffering is not a sign of God’s anger with man, It is man’s ignorance of divine law. God brings you into hot water not to burn you but to cleanse you. Look at the difference. A thief holds a knife to kill. A doctor also holds a knife, but to cure. The purpose is cure. The main thing is the purpose. “How do you have your tea? Do you put it into hot water?” Yes, that is when the colour comes out. Do you know that a goldsmith puts gold into fire, why? To purify the gold. A diamond can never be polished without friction nor a man without trials. Failures are often better teachers than successes, remember that sometime in your life.
Listen to the words of the mother, “Be thankful for the ordeals, for they are the shortest way to the divine.”
There was once a blacksmith. Do you know what a blacksmith is? An iron monger. His trading is in iron. So this blacksmith had great faith in God but his life was full of ups and downs. You know your question, “Why do good people suffer?” He was asked the same question, “What’s the point of your belief and faith in God that you have to go through so much suffering? What is God doing about it?” The blacksmith smiled and said, “Look, can you see those bits of iron in that corner? You know, when I do my work of molding iron there are certain bits that do not mold at all, so what do I do? I just throw them to the corner as scarp. I do not want to be scrap for God to just throw me away. I am ready to be molded.” For molding, as I said, to polish a diamond it takes friction, so he has got that faith.
A writer named Henry Beecher wrote that troubles are often tools which God uses to fashion us for better things. Bitter people ask, “Why me?” Better people ask, “What do you want me to learn?” This earth is a school and we are here to learn lessons. Now what happens outwardly in your life is not as important as what happens inside you, remember this.
We must learn to have an attitude of gratitude in life. If we change our attitude then God will change our life.
Remember one more important point. God and the Saints, both can only grace and love and they cannot do anything apart from this. If you see them in anger, there is grace behind it, just as father and mother in the world scold or punish a child only out of their care and love. This applies to God and the Saints all the time, to anything that they do. We are so fortunate we can do much more than that. We can love, we can hate, we can be angry, we can be mean, we can be jealous, but they cannot do anything apart from love and grace. Their every action is an act of grace. We may understand this or not but this is the supreme truth.
Once a couple happened to be on a honeymoon, they went for a cruise in the Mediterranean. The very next day there was a very bad storm, the sea became so rough that it appeared that the boat would capsize any minute. The man had belief in Allah and the lady did not. She cross- examined him angrily “You have so much faith and belief in Allah, why is this happening to us?” The man picked up a knife from the table nearby and held it before her as if he was going to kill her. She stood unperturbed. He asked “Aren’t you scared.” She said, “Look, I am not scared because I know that you love me so much, you cannot harm me at all.” This is a honeymoon I am talking about! Not later, anything can happen after that! Her husband then said, “My dear, this is exactly my case with Allah. These waves may be very dangerous but I have faith in Allah who is moving them. I believe He is kind and merciful and that is why I am not scared.”
So don’t be worried about whether God is on your side. He always is! Be concerned as to whether you are on His side. The words of Barbara Johnson might help you. “If you believe that all that comes to you, comes from the heavenly father, then suffering will begin to make a little sense. Not much, I admit but a little, and that is all that God needs to work in your life. A mustard seed of faith.”
I love the words of Kandy Ploughman, “Life is fragile. Handle with prayer.” Sardar Vallabhai Patel said, “One who has faith is never perturbed by the ups and downs of life, whereas one who is faithless becomes hapless and helpless.”
So the best attitude toward suffering – all pain and suffering – is to consider it as a pain of separation from God. Let me tell you a very appropriate story. I’m sure some of you must have read it. A man happened to be at a barber’s shop and it is usually a 10-15 minute job (having your hair done) He got into a conversation with the barber and they started discussing various subjects and then it came to God.
The barber said, “I don’t believe God exists.” The customer said, “What makes you think that?” “If God existed, there wouldn’t be so much sickness in the world, there wouldn’t be any abandoned children, there wouldn’t be pain and suffering at all.” The customer thought that there was no point in saying anything to this man as it would no doubt end in argument. So, he did not reply to this and after – he had his beard trimmed and his hair cut – he walked out.
The moment he walked out, he saw a man with long, dirty unkempt hair and a long beard. He walked back into the barbers shop and said, “I don’t think barbers exist!” “What are you saying? I am here! I am a barber and have just worked on you! How can you say that?” “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there wouldn’t be this man standing here with long dirty hair and his beard all unkempt. The barber said, “Oh! Barbers do exist! That man is like that because he did not come to me.” “Splendid! God too exists. He exists and those who do not go to Him, who do not have faith, nor surrender to Him, then they will also be like this, thus will go through pain and suffering.
So He is bliss – you say God is love don’t you? He is bliss, He is love. If you do not go to the reservoir of bliss and love, (Taittiriyopanishad - 3/6) then you are bound to suffer.
It is only in human life – remember this important point – it is only in human life that we can rectify this error and turn to God in surrender. That is what all the scriptures unanimously advise us to do; surrender.
Surrender is not the best way to live it is the only way to live. Once you learn this truth then your life is going to change, your words are going to change. You are no longer going to say, “Oh God! I have a great problem!” Now you are going to say, “Hey problem, I have a great God!”
So let me end this talk with some beautiful words from our ancient scriptures, the Kathopanishad mantra 1/3/14, “Awake! Arise and set forth immediately to seek the company of Saints and attain your goal.
Boliye Vrindaban Bihari Lal Ki Jai!
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