Why does God allow a Tsunami?

[Guest guest]

Today I was invited to be the Hindu contributor on the BBC Radio 2 Jeremy

Vine programme discussing the theme: Why does God allow disasters like the

recent tsunami?

 

The session lasted for about 15 minutes, with Zaki Badawi as the Muslim

contributor, Rev Gambol (of the Alpha Course) as the Christian contributor

and me as the Hindu contributor.

 

The Hindu response (this included the Buddhist and Jain approaches) was to

say that it is 'not God that is flawed' but the concept of 'God as a

superbeing overseeing this universe' that comes with flaws. The reason

for this is that unlike Abrahamic faiths, Hindus do not say that God created

man in his image. Instead they say that man creates God in his image to come

to terms with his human condition. He imposes superhuman attributes such as

'all-compassion' and 'all-power' on the concept of God.

 

This shows its limitations when we try to answer such questions. One

offshoot of Hinduism, Buddhism, distances itself from the idea of a theistic

god, focusing rather on the issue of suffering and how to resolve it.

Jainism displaces the the concept of God by invoking 'reverence for all

living things'. In response to the question of 'what was God doing when the

Tsunami was taking place?' Hindus say that it is God alone who lives in

every living thing. It was therefore 'God' who was being tossed about by the

Tsunami waves. Hindus do not think God is some Being that lives in a distant

heaven but he is here shining and sparkling in the eyes of not only human

beings but all living things. It is God alone who takes on all these forms

and is sometimes

seen smiling sometimes crying and sometimes suffering here and now.

 

We can safely say that this Hindu response was highly unexptected by the

other speakers and Jeremy Vine....the BBC team was visibly taken aback. You

may be able to listen to the whole programme by clicking on

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/ and then clicking on the 'listen again' icon.

 

When we were leaving, Becky the BBC girl took the other two speakers to the

BBC cars waiting to take them back to their homes. (The BBC sends cars to

fetch and return speakers), so I asked politely, " No car for the Hindu? "

.....and was told I can of course take a taxi home and bill the BBC....I told

her, " I was not looking for travel expenses. "

 

What the Hindu expects and insists on is equal dignity and equal opportunity

to contribute!

 

regards

jay lakhani