Why do bad things happen to good people?

[Gauracandra]

This week’s Srila Siddhaswarupananda television program answers the question “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

 

Let me read a letter from a woman whose 8 year old son died of cancer: “You teach that we should love God, but why should I love God when he causes my son to suffer. I must question if He exists, if He is all powerful, all wise, and compassionate.”

 

We all experience this. We have certain reactions to God in the face of bad times. What are some these?

 

Audience member: There is no God.

 

Srila Siddhawarupananda: The most common reaction is that there is no God. Most atheists use this argument. If God exists how can there be so much suffering in the world. What other ones?

 

Audience member: That God is cruel.

 

Srila Siddhaswarupananda: Yes, that God doesn’t care or that He likes to see us suffer. This lady is writing sincerely. If He felt love how could he care and still let this happen? “God, how could you let this happen?”

 

We experience compassion when someone suffers. So we wonder how come God doesn’t care. You start to believe that you are more compassionate than God, that you love this person more than God does. We consider God’s attributes and conclude that He doesn’t care. Any others?

 

Audience member: Maybe God isn’t all powerful. Maybe he can’t do anything about it.

 

Srila Siddhaswarupananda: One Jewish scholar concludes to this theological problem that God loves us but He is not all powerful. So even though He would like for bad things not to happen, there is nothing He can do about it. In this sense there is no God. He may care and love but lacks that power. That isn’t God. Another possible reaction is that maybe He is not all wise.

 

What are all of these reactions based upon?

 

Audience member: This world is for our enjoyment.

 

Srila Siddhaswarupananda: What is our relationship with God? Why do you exist in this world? What is the relationship between you, the world, and God? Why did God make the world?

 

Most people think that God created this world so that we can enjoy it. God’s purpose then is to help us enjoy. Thus when we aren’t enjoying it must be God’s fault. God screwed up.

 

We believe we are the body. And yet our body keeps suffering. Your body is destined for death. Every body has died. It is built into this creation.

 

Why are you so confused about suffering in this world? Because you think this world is meant to be enjoyed. You think that this is your home. Thus, good means you can live here, and bad means you can’t live here.

 

But in the end we all get smashed. We experience disease, old age, and death.

 

So God must be a lousy creator. Either that or He is too stupid or else He allows suffering for His enjoyment.

 

This is all based on ignorance. In reality you are spirit. You are not matter. This place made of matter is not your home. This is not your eternal habitat. Your real world is the world of spirit – the Kingdom of God.

 

What is the real purpose of this material dimension? And what can you do about it? Your true essence is spirit and you belong in that spiritual world to experience natural happiness. God lives in His kingdom eternally and everyone in the spiritual world loves to serve Him.

 

However, because you experience envy of God, because you desire to be the Lord, therefore you are place in this material world. You come under the laws of cause & effect, becoming bound to the wheel of birth and death.

 

This world is a place of suffering because it is meant to be temporary. We experience birth, getting old, disease, and finally being kicked out of this body at death. Since we are spirit and not matter, this world of matter has built into it an amount of suffering. But pain and suffering has a purpose to make us question if this is our real home.

 

Pain is not always bad. If I didn’t have the sensation of pain, then I could put my hand in a candle flame and cause lots of damage. Pain is part of this world and can be a learning experience.

 

The purpose of existence is to develop love for God, not to enjoy this temporary world.

 

Audience member: Does that mean He is not responsible for the good that happens to you?

 

Srila Siddhaswarupananda: Yes. Sometimes you strike it rich. It is not that God is favoring you. Each of us sow and reap. Don’t think that God is arbitrary.

 

Audience member: Can meditation free me from this cycle?

 

Srila Siddhaswarupananda: Yes. Meditation means focusing your heart on the Supreme Lord. If you are not attached to this world, then you will never return.

 

Audience member: Can a person still be happy while here?

 

Srila Siddhaswarupananda: Yes. If you develop love for God. God is a person and you are a person. If you taste this love for God then you will have real love. Don’t be in the illusion that God is not perfect. He is the perfect friend and you will be happy now if you establish a relationship with Him. Then at the time of death you will return to Him.