Q & A with Swami B. A. Paramadvaiti yesterday

Abhay Charan das: You say we should love everyone, then God will be happy. His message is, we should love everyone. Then why, God sent us to this material world if He really loved us? Why [...] this pain?

Swami B. A. Paramadvaiti: Uh-huh. Now you want to put me into trouble, no? Now you want me to talk about, questioning God and His good intentions with us. Hmm? I think you know it better than anybody else. But the fact of the matter is, that, we have to accept the gifts as they come, and not question their quality, or the meaning of it. If you question your mother, why did you create me? You don't love me, look how ugly my nose is, you know, so, I don't think you love me, you gave me this nose. Is this a nice way to talk to your mother? [Laughter] Whatever way she made you and gave you, that's what you accept, then you be grateful for it! And if there is something you don't like about it, then learn it to do a better job next time. Because you are also involved with this creation process. No? So it's like something, oh I wanna blame him, you know, on top of everything, blaming, why you sent me to the world of suffering, you know, you really could have done a better job with me. Hm? But maybe, ...not maybe, He did all that so that you discover something so much more valuable than you ever thought could be there. But you have to go there, with your full conviction and surrender.

So don't ask me, to question the well-intentions of the Lord with us, his children, I don't think there is a justification for that question. You can ask that question after you paid for all the air you breathed, all the water you took, all the food you ate, all the good things you had in life, after you paid for all that, then you can say: By the way, could you not have given me, supplied me something better, or different, you know? Hm? I think we are surrounded by grace, grace, grace, grace, and then here and there, a little test. [Laughter] And then we complain. Grace is okay, tests I don't like. [Laughter] Just by our conveniences, right? No no nonono. Of course, somebody can argue that, and the atheists are utilizing that. The atheists say, how can I believe in a loving god if there is so much misery in this material world? But by doing that, they are cutting into their own flesh, because the misery is not created by God, the misery is created by us. We are the ones who are such adamant stupid idiots that we create such misery to other people, and, and, and we don't want to learn the lesson, and then, on top of that, we want to blame the creator or the chance, or something like that.

And death, after all death is not a big thing. Death is simply a change of dress. The whole Bhagavad Gita talks about death. So stop making trouble with this death point, because death means, one lesson ended and the next lesson will start. Like you don't publish in the newspaper that your, your pants had holes and you had to throw them in the garbage, huh? Then making a big news out of that, huh? As a matter of fact, we never read in any newspaper that somebody's clothes were worn out. So the body is also worn out and usually they never make a news in the newspaper about that either, except if you're a real famous guy, hmm, then it says, Bo kicked the bucket. That's an American slang expression for dying, kick the bucket. [Pause] So some people have to be born, some people have to die. And the universe is providing that facility. The material existence provides that.