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bwycncc@nms.otc.com.au (Broadway CNCC) wrote:
>In article <3osevu$7v@mirv.unsw.edu.au>, Haonan Teng <s2104944> writes:
>> Hello all.
>> How are you?
>> From the Bilbe, Jeuses is the Son of God. So we know that Jeuses is from
>> the God and Goddness. But where is God come from?
>> Can anyone tell me that? Where is God come from? I'm not saying there
>> is no god, but where is he? where is he from?
>>
>> Thanks guys.
>From where I stand, God came from someones imagination. Sorry guys but
>the world is just too fucked up for me to believe your God myth.
>But I do hope there is something.
So many people, it seems, think there could be not be a God because
this world is so messed up. I saw hundreds of postings after the bomb
in the states that killed some children in a kindergarten. They were
saying, "If there is God, how could He have done this?"
This reaction is a result of the relatively new Christian idea of an
"all-loving God". They say an "all-loving God" wouldn't have Hell, He
knows we are not perfect so He won't punish us for our sins... But this
is nonsense. It is not what Christians believed thirty or forty years
ago either.
God is a loving God, but love means He cares about us so if we stray
from the path of spiritual life a loving God will arrange to correct
us, to get us back on the right path.
All the confusion stems from a misunderstanding of what this world is
for. We don't belong here. We have come here to try to be happy
independently from God. We want to be the controller, we want to be
god. To full our independent desires God has created this world, but
it's created in such a way that we can enjoy here but all our enjoyment
will end in frustration. It's actually created as a place of
frustration. If it was all "peaches and cream" we would never
contemplate leaving this place...
Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita (8.16):
abrahma-bhuvanal lokah punar avartino 'rjuna
mam upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate
"From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all
are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one
who attains my abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again."
So this is a place of misery! [And every time I say this people jump up
and down... but what can I do? It is a miserable place!]
There is pleasure here and there is certainly beauty here but it is not
permanent. That is the source of the misery and frustration. We, the
spirit souls, are eternal living beings but currently we are covered by
these material bodies. When we accept our material bodies as ourselves
and work on the bodily platform we are working for temporary things.
Even if we achieve these temporary things [and some temporary
happiness] in time we will loose them again and become distressed.
So happiness and distress is coming and going like the waves of the
ocean, but a self realized soul is not attached to happiness nor is he
disturbed by distress. He knows both are temporary manifestations
caused by his past activities [karma] in this life and previous lives
and that he can't do anything about it. His allotted happiness will
come and so will his allotted distress.
Nobody works hard for distress, but distress still comes, so even if we
don't work for it our allotted happiness will also automatically come
to us. We can't change it by working very hard. It's caused by our
activities in the past, we can't change our activities in the past...
Some people, due to their good karma, do indeed enjoy happy lives here
while others, due to their bad karma, suffer like anything. THIS IS NOT
GOD's PARTIALITY. It is the result of OUR actions in the past. God
doesn't kill children in a bomb. Those children did something in their
previous lives so as a reaction they had to be killed in the bomb
blast. It's a result of their own activities...
A devotee takes distress as Krishna's mercy and as an impetus to take
spiritual life more seriously.
When Krishna was personally on this planet [5,000 years ago in India]
due to the intrigues of the Kuruvas the Pandavas [Krishna's friends and
devotees] were put into great difficulty. They were forced out of the
kingdom which was rightfully theirs, they had to live in the forest for
twelve years and they faced so many difficulties. There is a very
beautiful section in the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam entitled "The
Prayers of Queen Kunti". Kunti was the mother of the Pandavas and she
has given so many nice prayers:
"My dear Krishna, Your Lordship has protected us from a poisoned
cake, from a great fire, from cannibals, from the vicious assembly,
from sufferings during our exile in the forest, and from the battle
where great generals fought. And now You have saved us from the
weapon of Asvatthama.
"I wish that these calamities would happen again and again so that
we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will
no longer see repeated births and deaths.
"My Lord, Your Lordship can easily be approached, but only by those
who are materially exhausted. One who is on the path of [material]
progress, trying to improve himself with respectable parentage,
great opulence, high education and bodily beauty, cannot approach
You with sincere feeling.
"My obeisances are unto You, who are the property of the materially
impoverished. You have nothing to do with the actions and reactions
of the material modes of nature. You are self-satisfied, and
therefore You are the most gentle and are master of the monists.
"My Lord, I consider Your Lordship to be eternal time, the supreme
controller, without beginning and end, the all-pervasive one. In
distributing Your mercy You are equal to everyone. The dissensions
between living beings are due to social intercourse."
(Srimad Bhagavatam 1.8.24-28)
So God is not responsible for our suffering, we caused it ourselves. In
times of difficulty a devotee takes shelter of Krishna, he turns to
Krishna, but in times of material prosperity and happiness there is a
chance he may forget Krishna. So Queen Kunti is praying, "Let the
calamities come again... for then there will be no chance we will
forget You."
Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita 2.14:
matra-sparsas tu kaunteya sitosna-sukha-duhkha-dah
agamapayino 'nityas tams titiksasva bharata
"O son of Kunti [Arjuna], the non-permanent appearance of happiness and
distress and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance
and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense
perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them
without being disturbed."
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Thank you. Hare Krishna!
Madhudvisa dasa
(madhudvisa@krishna.org) /sudarsana
All glories to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada!
Sudarsana Home madhudvisa@krishna.org