Inquiries Into the Absolute: Digest 117, Why do bad things (e.g. a

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Digest 117, March 18th, 2005. Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja

**You are welcome to send in your questions to HH Romapada Swami at

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Why do bad things (e.g. a tsunami) happen to (apparently) good people?

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Question Part 1: Right now I don't know if I believe in God or not. I got this

feeling because of recent Tsunami devastations. I didn't quite understand how

God/nature can destroy so many innocent lives when they didn't do any bad

karma, even if there might be few people who had done bad karma. I also

couldn't understand how so many people were destined to die at the same time

even though they didn't have anything in common.

 

Answer: The laws of karma are very intricate. With our limited perception, we

may not be able to discern the exact cause-and-effect relationship in every

situation. Both scripturally and logically, however, we can conclude that every

reaction hints at past actions. Nothing in the workings of nature is haphazard

or due to blind chance; if that were accepted as the alternative explanation to

God, it does not explain very much either, in any case.

 

Truly, many have faced this difficulty in trying to understand or explain pain

and suffering in the material world - how can an omnipotent, all-loving God

allow such suffering? But Vedic scriptures give a very consistent explanation

understanding which, having properly understood, one is not bewildered and

shaken in their faith in God in the face of a tragedy.

 

While the living entity is indeed dependent on God for both happiness and

distress, God is not responsible for either; we are. Under His sanction, our

lives are orchestrated by higher beings (demigods) and each of us is awarded

the fruits of our own past actions.

 

Karma can be individual, or it can be collective, i.e. reactions experienced by

an entire community or large segments of society. Large-scale sinful activities

of society such as organized slaughterhouses or undue exploitation of nature

can lead an entire society to experience mass karmic reactions in the form of

wars, epidemics and natural disasters.

 

Superficially it seems that the hundreds of victims of the tsunami had

apparently nothing in common; yet by the intricacies of karma, and unseen

superior orchestration, they were meant to experience the same calamity. But

that is not the end; the future destinations of those souls are likely to be

equally varied: those who were more pious among them will achieve better

destinations and furthermore, those that took shelter of God in that calamitous

hour of test were sure to have received His personal protection.

 

A deeper lesson for all of us to learn from this experience is that the very

nature of this material world we inhabit is one of inevitable calamities.

Krishna has described it as 'duhkhalayam asasvatam' - a temporary place full of

misery. (Bg 8.15 http://www.vedabase.net/bg/8/15/en) Srimad-Bhagavatam

certifies this world as "a place where there is danger at every step" (SB

10.14.58 http://www.vedabase.net/sb/10/14/58/en), yet there is a place beyond

this material realm, free from all anxieties, and which is our real home, and

our goal should be to return there.

 

(Please note that what we have said here is NOT to 'explain away' and coldly

dismiss the tragic suffering of so many as "just what they deserved". Much to

the contrary, one who fully understands the laws of karma and the spiritual

nature of self and is faithful to God, would naturally feel deep compassion for

the magnitude of mass suffering; and in feeling thus, he/she would see the need

to take deeper shelter of the Lord and encourage others to do so, knowing that

to be the only real solution.)

 

Is God just a concept? Understanding Existence of God

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Question Part 2: I got a feeling that God is a concept which people use to find

comfort during their difficult times. I would really appreciate if you could

answer some of these questions.

 

Answer: God is not a man-made concept nor is His spiritual abode mentioned

above an imagined realm of perfection or a fantasy to make us feel good in the

midst of a meaningless and insecure life. God's existence can be inferred

logically - even by the very precise way everything is coordinated from the

gigantic universe to the intricate living cell; such intelligent design points

to a designer. Furthermore, His Personality can be verified through scriptures

and through scores of testimonies of honest and saintly persons who have

tangibly experienced not only His existence but His personal reciprocation in

their lives as well.

 

If there is a God, it does not help to attempt to put Him out of existence

simply on the grounds that we don't understand some of His actions. How to

understand His actions is also discussed exhaustively in the scriptures, a

glimpse of which we discussed above. Finally, the ultimate test is that He can

be personally known and experienced by each one of us if we take the time to do

so by bona fide processes.

 

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