Q      When miseries affect us, why do we get the feeling that there is no God, hence no use of prayers or visiting temples?

 

A devotee can never hate God. Even his anger springs out of his liberty with God. It is the feeling of ‘O God! How much I pray! I trust you so much. Why are you giving me pain?’ The devotee can exercise this privilege. If someone else raises this question, God will ignore it. But when a devotee questions, God relishes it.

God is unaffected by anything. Your joy or misery does not happen without His knowledge. He creates these pains and pleasures for your own good.

A devotee may have tests, but never a failure. Devotees are tested and rewarded with a better future based on what they learn from the test.

At a distance, fire keeps you warm. As you approach it, its heat is felt more and more intensely. When you throw a log into the fire, how much the log suffers? So also, as long as you keep burning camphor or incense from a distance, it seems fine by you. When you start approaching God, you face tests. The closer you go, the tougher the tests. When you are in the process of actually becoming God, your state is akin to the log of wood thrown into fire.

Appar Swami was always reciting ‘Lord Shiva is my refuge’, even when he was thrown into a limestone furnace and again left to be trampled upon by elephants. He is reckoned on par with the Lord, because of his devotion.

Despite being harassed by his own father, poisoned and thrown downhill, Prahalada repeated the Lord’s name, ‘Aum Namo Narayana’. He is given the prime place of importance in the list of Vishnu’s devotees –- Prahalada, Narada, Parasara, Pundarika.

Remember that those who held on to God, despite whatever misery they were subjected to, were ultimately worshipped. You must also hold on to God, come what may.

( baba's answers to other questions continues next week....)