Here are some questions that often visit a thinking head :
If God is, why does He hide ? Why doesn't He appear before us and reveal the truth ?
If God is good and merciful, and also omnipotent, why is there so much suffering and injustice in the world, especially for people who are good and upright ? Why did the prophets suffer ?
If He is good and kind, but cannot stop this mess, is there another Supreme Being such as Satan / Devil that is more powerful than God, and if yes, who made Satan ?
The origin of the universe : God willed this universe with a thought- 'Ekoham bahusyam' or 'Let there be light'. Then, to manage His huge creation, He put two fundamental laws in force ; these were, as if, computerized, virus-proof laws ! No one could hack or alter them.
The first was, all souls were to be free because as His children, they were made in His own image. Now obviously this was a very sweet, likeable provision : total freedom. The second law, however, took care of the first, and it was : Once we use our freedom to do anything, we are accountable for the results, under the law of karma. We were very active and productive ! We created more good and bad karma than could be redeemed in one life, so there was the need of reincarnation. We took many births in diverse bodies, not necessarily human, and diverse circumstances.
Since God was actually One, Pure Consciousness, to appear as many needed some articulation, some 'falsehood' ; like we cannot make ornaments from pure gold and must add some copper, Pure Consciousness could not appear as a variegated creation, the One could not appear as many. The 'copper' of Maya or Cosmic delusion was added to the 'gold' of Spirit, to make the 'ornament' of creation. Our souls came from Spirit, the bodies came from Maya or Delusion. Between the soul and the body, was mind - that portion of our individualized consciousness that was limited by time and space co-ordinates, and was free to go either way.
In the cosmic play, we became actors on the stage of creation, and had total, unrestricted freedom in the beginning but slowly through karma, it got compromised. There was a centripetal force of God and goodness that attracted us back to Him. This was love. This love became gravitation, pulling things to one another, keeping us glued to Mother Earth, keeping electrons in the orbits within an atom, and planets in their orbits in each solar system.
The role of Satan or Maya : But God gave Satan or Maya great power, and so there was centrifugal force, too, taking us away from God. There were powerful lures of sensory pleasures rooted in Ignorance or Avidya (microscopic counterpart of Cosmic Delusion) and Asmita, or Ego, the psudo-soul that tied our consciousness to the little perishable body.
So, under delusive influence and temptations of the body, we started abusing our freedom. Until long, we did not use the centripetal power of true love, and the innate soul-wisdom that whispered to us as the inner voice of conscience ; we only loved and abused freedom. Love was defiled into attachment.
Our freedom included the freedom to reject anything, including rejection of God Himself, or accept anything, including espousing suffering and self-harm. We erred and fell into miseries ; as stated earlier, we created more karma than could be worked out in one life time, so we were born again and again to work out the remaining karma ; we simultaneously so ruined our health that the bodies got worn out soon.
Does God punish us ? : God does not punish us ; we punish ourselves under the relentless law of karma. He created both good and evil. Satan is His creation. With light alone, there could be no picture ; we needed shadows too. Evil was the shadow. But evil has no real existence ; it was an articulation as we saw above. A shadow has no independent existence ; it is merely absence of light. Evil has no independent existence, either ; it is a 'Liar from the begining'. Evil comes when we negate God, delusion is merely absence of Godliness.
Having given us unconditional freedom, God cannot burst forth and tell us what to do ; He cannot stop us from doing whatever we choose to. Having made the law of karma, he cannot intervene and break the rules, either, so good and bad karma continues to create good and bad happenings.
But He continues to love us, as we continue to hide from Him. He continues to whisper His love through our conscience. As Rilke said, "He made us strong enough to stand but free to fall'. Any time we so choose, we can 'stand up' again and retrace our steps. No sinner is written off for ever - in fact we are all Buddhas in making.
So, now, why do good people suffer ? : As we realize the higher power of good, we start reforming ourselves. My Master, Paramahansa Yoganandaji (author of the spiritual classic, 'Autobiography of a Yogi'), used to say a saint is a sinner who did not give up reforming himself. But there may still be bad karma to work out. Maya does a hard work and does not want us to break free ; our past karma not redeemed yet, is a tool it uses. But in the process, karmic debt gets repaid and freedom draws nearer. People see the suffering, but they don't see this. Actually, people who are truly good, have an unruffled peace within despite the challenges outside. That's their immediate reward. They are sustained by their goodness, by their faith in it. More rewards follow, they gradually break free, from all suffering.
All prophets exemplified this by their lives ; they had no bad karma of theirs to work out, but they took ours. This is why Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, The Jain Tirthankars, Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammed and the Sikh Gurus had to go through so much adversity. Buddhism also refers to the Wheel of Reincarnation. When these liberated Masters came down to earth and incarnated themselves, when they suffered for our sake in order to teach us how to live, in every persecution the physical pain was there but there was no inner suffering, because there was no resistance - there only was total acceptance in peace and humility. Nothing could touch or reduce their poise, their wisdom, their joy and their forgiveness !
We must remember that this earth is a place of action, but not the only place for harvesting the fruits thereof.
Apparently, people indulging into evil actions, may look like having a good time but you don't know what they are heading to. People doing good, may suffer, and others have no idea how much they are progressing towards ultimate freedom. Existence is not about this life only ; we have had countless lives before. Indian scriptures say we go through 8.4 million incarnations, and it is only in the last relatively few births that we live as conscientious, aware humans.
So if you are doing good and still suffering, rejoice and take heart - have patience. There is more to come.
God draws us through two processes : PUSH (pain and suffering eventually push us to God and goodness) and PULL (people who have faith, are pulled back to Him with greater and greater force, until no amount of external suffering can discourage them from that path).
Suffering as a blessing in disguise : It is hard to appreciate sometimes but tests and trials really bring out the best in us, if we learn the lessons. A comfortable and smooth life, my Master often said, is not a successful life. In pain and suffering, we strengthen our psycho-spiritual muscles, just as in the gym workouts we strengthen our physical sinews. Finally, adversities can be tests for us in the school of this world, for further promotion. All we need is faith and patience. Towards the end of Mahabharat, there is the story of Kunti asking the strange boon of constant suffering from Lord Krishna (her nephew by blood relation) - this way, she thought, she would always remember the Lord !
The Mass Karma : Besides the individual karma at the micro level, we also have collective or mass karma to work out - karma that accrue to a whole group of people, a nation, a community or a region, or humanity as a whole. Global warming is a result of mass karma, and we are all accountable for it. As I write these lines, many cities of India including Delhi are having their hottest October ever. The wars, the mindless killing of humans and animals, the bigotry in the name of God, the acts of terrorism, child torture, the rapes, the racial divides and hatred, the inhuman economic disparity... how much can be tolerated ? How much trash can or should Mother Nature (ref Gaia theory) accept from Her children ?
Conclusion : Appearances can be deceptive - in this world of Maya, they usually are !! Those who look happy in their indulgences may just be preparing for their troubles, those apparently suffering, may be preparing to rejoice in supreme blessedness.
It doesn't mean that we should not try to intelligently mitigate the causes of our hardship, but it does mean that if we still must suffer, we should accept it in unruffled peace, serene patience and resolute faith that His will is being done.
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