If God Exists, Why is there Suffering? | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] this is a question from the teenager from our Joe who is 14 alright 14 thanks good the basis of my question lies in the argument that supposedly God grants happiness to all those who try to attain him or her and that God is the one who created us you have said that one way of reaching God is to help the poor and the needy but they too are a creation of God is God therefore biased enough to let them be a test for our so called goodness and therefore allows them to lead a life of utmost suffering at the end of the day they also are trying to seek happiness and comfort and a life without struggle and shouldn't God try to grant that isn't this contradictory so I'll just put his finger on one of the oldest problems in religion this is called the problem of the problem of evil if God exists why is there suffering now very difficult to answer this in a couple of minutes but first we must see the problem how he has put it is a variation he has come apart upon it himself but the general form of the problem is this God is all-powerful if God exists God is all-powerful omnipotent God is all-knowing omniscient if God is all-knowing and all-powerful then God knows the sufferings of everybody and God is all-powerful so God can do anything can remove the sufferings of everybody add to this God is loving so a loving powerful knowing God why does he not remove the sufferings of people do you see the problem if God was not powerful see human parents human parents are loving you would not want your children to suffer but you as human beings we are limited we have limited power human parents have limited power you do your best for your children but that's not enough because we don't human beings do not have that kind of power so we want that the children should not suffer but we don't have the power but suppose the human beings had the power to do everything good for the children wouldn't you do it of course you would do it now the Heavenly parent Heavenly Father or mother why doesn't he see it who is loving and powerful and knowing but doesn't it remove suffering that's the question the problem of evil and many many answers are there many many answers if I told you told you some of them you would be underwhelmed there are none of them are very convincing there is one answer that it is character-building suffering makes you stronger but immediately you can immediately object how does this happening of a baby make it stronger a disease or a starving child dies in some underprivileged part of the world how did it become stronger all the suffering of an animal how is the animal becoming stronger by suffering I mean in general sometimes it does the classic example is that the pupae caterpillar which breaks out of the cocoon and becomes a butterfly so some experiment I heard I don't know how true it is that if you help it if you remove the covering then it will not be able to fly because its wings require that exercise to come out so then argument is given those who support this theory like that we need this struggle suffering so big up to become spiritually stronger may be in some cases it is true may be in other case is not not true it is it is a no important theological argument in fact there is a whole branch of theology called theodicy justifying the ways of God to man explain God will not explain so on behalf of God we have to we have to charge God and we have to also provide the defense counsel also so God is absolutely unconcerned and many other theories are there why is there suffering what is the theory in Hinduism one common theory the standard answer in Hinduism Jainism Buddhism is the law of karma it's not God's fault whose fault is it it's yours it's ours so how is it our fault law of karma is cause-and-effect consequences actions have consequences so if I'm getting consequences now pleasant or unpleasant usually I don't ask too many questions when the consequences are pleasant win a lottery I don't ask questions did I deserve to why did I win this lottery oh no on the other hand is something unfortunate happens unpleasant happens why do I deserve this yeah I just never made sense to me people there's so many wonderful people loving people I have lost faith in God I especially sometimes a beloved person went through so much suffering I prayed and prayed and prayed nothing happened I lost faith in God I this kind of thing I understand the emotional content behind it but what does not but does not gel with me is is that you knew there is tremendous suffering in the world just because in your own case this you experienced it firsthand now you have lost faith in God in your place I would have said I lost faith in God from the very beginning because there's so much suffering all around not because I or my beloved person suffered that my suffering makes me lose faith in God that argument is somehow do many people make it but it doesn't cut much ice with me Houston Smith the great professor of religion whose book the world's religions it's still a textbook standard textbook he died a couple of years ago he had a very tragic incident in his life his beloved granddaughter was murdered and then afterwards there was a radio interview sometime afterwards and the interviewer asked so Professor Smith do you still believe in God after this the person who told me this is done edited she's a nun in Santa Barbara and she was she knew Houston Smith quite well and she couldn't mimic him very beautifully so she told me that when they asked a question he replied in his characteristic way she replied how absurd the people are died and had murdered all over the world all throughout history just because today it is my granddaughter I should stop believing in God how absurd whether you believe in God or not that's a different thing this cannot be a ground for believing or disbelieving so law of karma is one suppose that doesn't cut ties with you though that is I remember there's this book professor Arthur Herman I referred this earlier also he was a professor of philosophy in Hawaii University he wrote a book the problem of evil in Indian philosophy but there he has collected dancers which I mean answers to this question he has collected the answers 23 answers I gave only two answers now 23 answers he has collected two why there is suffering in the world if God exists 23 answers none of them are very convincing so don't be into in a hurry to find out what are the answers but there are different answers he has collected it from the different religions of the world philosophies of the world literature of the world has collected those answers one more answer let me see if it if you like it Buddha's answer not only law of karma a deeper thing is as he said all compounded things decay everything is transitory in this world so if everything is transitory in this world whatever situation you have which you like is bound to by definition melt away after some time we like certain things and we don't like the rest of it this situation is good this person is good this relationship is good this food is good but only for a time being because it will change the person will change your taste will change body ages the world changes and so the acceptable Pleasant kind of situation which you liked that will change bound to change therefore suffering is inevitable do you see how the transitoriness of the world will lead to suffering inevitably that's an insight that the Buddha got all compounded things decay in the world they'll all things come together and they fall whatever has come together will fall apart bodies fall apart minds fall apart relationships fall apart it was a cheerful guy now actually it is true professor Heinrich Zimmer he said a spirit of unbounded optimism underlies all Indian philosophy why you know what is negativity what is pessimism hopelessness without any solution that is pessimism whereas an Indian philosophy except the chair Walker the materialist all other philosophers all the schools of Buddhism all the schools of Jainism and certainly all the schools of Hinduism Sikhism all of them they all say that a solution is possible so though their prognosis about the world is pretty negative but that ultimate point is that you should be positive there is a solution possible they call it moksha Cavalia nirvana whatever they call it in fact that that's why religion you might consider religion to be gloomy religion is fundamentally positive because it says a solution to the sufferings of the world is possible so this is a general answer to our Jos question now taking his particular particular by the way the audience here also can ask questions when I finish with this raise your hands and I'll invite you to come here and ask the answer to that particular question is did God create people to suffer so that we can help them no suffering is as you saw God has not made people suffer so that you can become a saint rather through the process of your own suffering and helping others one transforms oneself one can only do the best one can once in a sea of suffering do the best you can not that you can you can solve the problems of the world one cannot even the great avatars have not solved the problems of the world the world still is a pretty miserable place but what we can do is as our just understood correctly is that by pursuing by by working for the welfare of others one can transform oneself and to some extent definitely you can help others definitely you can help others [Music]

Channel: Vedanta New York

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Keywords: vedantany, vedanta society of new york, sarvapriyananda, swami sarvapriyananda, sarvapriyananda lectures, swami vivekananda, vivekananda, vivekananda teachings, vedanta ny, vedanta, vedanta lectures, belur math, jnana yoga, hinduism, spirituality, enlightenment, higher consciousness

Id: vn6szyVLUgU

Length: 11min 51sec (711 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 19 2019