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<\/a><\/span>Q: We are taught that God is sarva-jna, the knower of all things, and that He is Bhagavan, all powerful. But where was God when the terrorists were attacking? Why did He allowthis to happen? Why didn’t he stop this? <\/b> <\/p>\nA: At times like this, it is natural that many doubts and questions will emerge in our minds. What kind of God is this that allows innocent people to be slaughtered? Maybe God isn’t good, or maybe He is good but not all that powerful – there’s nothing he can do about these things, so who really need him? Or maybe, there’s no god at all. <\/i><\/p>\n
It is natural to feel such things; even if we weren’t directly affected, a devotee is softhearted and cannot bear to see others suffering. At the same time, we can also turn to the knowledge that philosophy provides to try to put things in perspective. Philosophy is very important to maintain a strong foundation for our devotion. Especially when storms come, either personally or around us, we need to have a strong foundation. If you build a house on a strong foundation, no storm can knock it down. But if we build it on sand, any storm can demolish and destroy it. So, our faith and devotion is very much in need of a strong solid philosophical foundation to withstand onslaughts of this world. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nSo how do we understand this philosophically? Did God sanction these
\nattacks? Well, in one sense, yes, not even a blade of grass can move
\nwithout God’s sanction. But it is sanction in the sense that God gives
\nfreewill. He tells us – through the sacred texts, through the
\nteachings of great saints, through our own conscience and morality –
\nwhat to do and what not to do, but then gives us the freewill to do or
\nnot to do. That is the sanction. In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna tells us
\nwhat is the demoniac nature, what is the mentality of someone who
\nexploits and hurts others. And he forbids us from acting in that way.
\nBut still he gives us freewill; it doesn’t mean that he wants us to
\nexploit and hurt others. He wants us to choose for ourselves, how to
\nlove and serve others rather than hurt and harm them. So when one human
\nbeing commits an aparadha<\/i> (offense) to another – yes, by giving
\nus freewill, God sanctions it. But we should not think that this is
\nwhat the Lord wants. God gives us a choice at every moment, and
\nsometimes human beings make a mess of things. We are sanctioned by the
\nLord, ultimately we are responsible for our own actions, for our own
\nchoices. We should not think that God was the cause of this terror
\nattack; that’s not what sanction means. Bhagavan gives the sanction by
\nwhich we can choose to love God, to hate God, to reject God, to
\ndedicate our lives to prove that God doesn’t exist, to do great harm in
\nGod’s name. We have freewill to do it. At the nd of the Gita, Krishna
\nsays: “I’ve told you everything, now you can follow or not…” God
\nwants us to love him and to love all his parts and parcels, all beings,
\nbut he will not force us to. Force is not love. He wants for us to make
\nthe choice freely.<\/p>\n
But in every situation, he is there for us. Even if someone does
\nsomething wrong, he is there for them if they turn to him. I truly
\nbelieve that he was there for the victims. Of course we don’t know, but
\nwe can consider that many of the people who were killed in these
\nattacks, in the intensity of that traumatic situation could have become
\nso God conscious that they gave up their bodies thinking of God and
\nwere liberated. So some of them, perhaps many, could have given up
\ntheir lives thinking of God and been liberated.<\/p>\n
But I do not think we can give a simple answer. The more one
\nunderstands, the more things make sense, and to really understand takes
\ntime. It takes hearing and questioning and discussing.<\/p>\n
Q: The terrorists also claimed to be doing God’s will. How can we understand this?<\/b><\/p>\n
A: Real religion is not a sectarian concept. The Bhagavata Purnana<\/i>
\ngives a very nice, very broadminded definition of religion: “The
\nsupreme occupation for all humanity is loving devotion, and such
\nservice must be unmotivated and uninterrupted.” Whatever religion
\nteaches people to actually love God, that is good. Ultimately, this is
\nnot a sectarian concern. It is not a matter of what family you
\nhappened to be born into or what you were taught as a child. Those
\nthings are important too, but ultimately real religious principles
\ntranscend them. Real religion doesn’t mean saying “I am a Hindu,” or a
\nMuslim, or a Christian, or a Jew, or a Sikh, or a Zoroastrian; it
\nmeans humbly serving in a spirit of love and devotion. This is what all
\nreligion is meant to teach us.<\/p>\n
But when, envy, and ego, pride, anger, greed – when these enemies
\nbecome prominent in our heart, then we even interpret our religion to
\nfulfill their dictations. <\/p>\n
So we do not hate any religion, we hate the enemies within ourselves.<\/p>\n
And the world should unite – those who want to apply God’s will to
\ntheir life – but we should know that God’s will is never to harm or
\nexploit or destroy innocent lives. God’s will is to show compassion.
\nWhen love of God is applied to the world, it manifests as compassion.<\/p>\n
Q: As aspiring devotees of God, how do we understand the different emotions that we are feeling right now?<\/b><\/p>\n
A: It is not a disqualification to be affected it is natural; anyone
\nwould be affected. It is not that as devotees we have to be devoid of
\nhuman emotions. But we can also learn to see these feelings in relation
\nto our spiritual life. <\/p>\n
These feelings can exist on many levels. For instance, we might be
\nexperiencing anger. We can channel this anger. We can be angry at
\ninjustice, at the root causes of terrorism and evil acts like this. In
\nthe Ramayana<\/i>, Hanuman was not thinking “I’m transcendental so
\nlet Ravana do his thing.” No. But his anger was not based on
\nfrustration and tremendous amounts of false ego like terrorists and
\nothers. He used his anger to help others and to fight injustices.<\/p>\n
We can also feel compassion for all those who suffered. We should do
\nall that we can, internally and through our words or actions. We can
\nmake a tangible difference; however big or small, Krishna sees our
\nsincerity and reciprocates.<\/p>\n
Finally, we can see this tragedy and understand and experience a deep
\nsense of urgency. One of the qualities of my guru, Srila Prabhupada,
\nthat deeply struck me was his sense of urgency. I had heard so many
\nsaintly people speaking very deep philosophy, so many nice social and
\nreligious thoughts, but Prabhupada had the most intense sense of
\nurgency to benefit the world and for each individual person he came in
\nco0ntact with. He was not just asking us, he was begging us, pleading
\nwith us, because he saw our condition and condition of world: “Take
\nthis Krishna consciousness and share it with others.” When he said it,
\nit was so deep, so real, so urgent. He was feeling the suffering,
\nseeing how people were victimized. <\/p>\n
In the Gita, Krishna tells us that this material world is a place of
\nmisery. From the highest to the lowest, from penthouse apartments to
\nslums, they are all places of misery. Not inconvenience or pain; he
\nsays misery. Why? Misery is a very intense is deep graphic experience.
\nBecause the material world is the realm in which people are simply
\ntrying to exploit one another. God gives all the freewill, and
\npractically our whole history is a history of misusing that freewill to
\nkill one another. Look at Europe–a history of wars after war,
\nsuffering and exploitation. Plagues, disease, earthquakes, droughts.
\nHitler–6 million Jews, 2 million others… all just innocent civilians.
\nThey were tortured and murdered. And so many more that suffered among
\ntheir family and friends. Just 60 years ago. Not very long ago. And
\nStalin–20 million people estimated, civilians, tortured and died. In
\nof course, in America – in India, so many of us think, so many think,
\nlet me just go to America and be happy – the same history or exploiting
\nthe natives, exploiting others. <\/p>\n
So yes, we should feel a sense of urgency to help people rise above the
\nenemies of lust, anger, envy, greed, illusion. These are the real
\nterrorists within the heart, driving us all to misuse our freewill and
\nexploiting and killing others. And devotees of God are like commandos,
\ntrying to free the soul who is like a hostage of the enemies of anarthas<\/i>,
\nthe exploitative tendencies within the heart. This is compassion, real
\ncompassion. Whether we die in a terrorist attack or die in a hospital
\nbed or die in a car accident: we all have to die, and quite soon. The
\nonly way to permanently make material world a better place is by
\npursuing spiritual realization and helping others to do so. This is the
\ngreatest need, and we should feel the greatest urgency to do it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At some point during the Mumbai terror attacks, somewhere between the first shot fired on November 26, 2008 and the tragic end on November 29, 2008, the Mumbai police officially declared a state of emergency. In the heart of downtown Mumbai, mere walking distance from where some of the worst carnage took place (and where…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,13,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-krishna","category-quote-unquote","category-saints-and-sages"],"yoast_head":"\n