Some people who were simply lucky enough to escape death called it a miracle. Isn’t that rather meaningless and foolish? If that was a miracle, then what about all the others who did not survive?
It also makes me wonder sometimes why such suffering is taking place all around the world because of wars, natural disasters, and the immense problems caused in the lives of ordinary people. I mean, I simply can’t say that they lost their lives because they were not sincere or spiritual. That would be cruel and merely my ego speaking, wouldn’t it?
The other thing I could do is simply turn a blind eye to everything disastrous that is happening around me and carry on with my life. But I just get shaken by disbelief. Even as a believer and follower of the Mother’s teachings, I sometimes wonder whether the idea of God is actually lame or vague, or whether human beings created it to exist simply so that they could have something to rely on in times of suffering.
The idea and experience of God, as well as natural disasters, even catastrophes, calamities, have existed side by side since the very beginning of humanity and, in fact, even much earlier. If we are to believe in what Science as well as Scripture tells us, the world has been nearly destroyed through pralaya nearly 6 times. And yet even through it all, there has been going on a palpable evolution from dust to man and through several layers of humanity, at least 9 subtypes of prehuman or humanoid ancestors, all destroyed, to the present humanity.
We can look at all this as bad, evil, or suffering as some terrible act of God, try to explain it by questioning God or justifying Him through rudimentary, rather childish ideas of good and bad, virtue and sin. But the facts stare at our face that when calamities take place, it is not a question of good and bad, nor even of believers and non-believers, but something else.
The difficulty is that most human beings do not question the validity or limitations of their own ideas or the limitations of their thought, which is largely conditioned by our beliefs rather than a reflection of Truth. We do not care as to how the Divine sees it all, or to enter into contact with His Consciousness and understand things the way He sees them. Let us take a few examples.
Imagine a situation where a choice has to be made between a believer whose life is otherwise driven by ego and desires vis-à-vis a non-believer who is moved quite selflessly in his actions. What do we think the cosmic agencies should do or would do if a choice has to be made? The answer is not simple, isn’t it. So let us step out of the zone of believers and non-believers.
To take another example. Ravana was a great Shiv bhakta as well as a king who kept his subjects happy. He was also well verse with the Vedas and, in fact, did a lot to spread these scriptures. Rama had yet to prove himself as a king or as a great Shiv bhakta. Yet destiny has chosen that Rama must win and Ravana fall to the ground.
But the problem is even more complex. The Pandavas, chosen ones of the Divine, had to undergo plenty of hardships despite being ideal in every way. Some of them, including Abhimanyu, died treacherously at the hands of the enemy. These are not mythologies but prototype stories with archetypal characters and universal dilemmas: the significance of choices and the results.
In other words, we have a role to play. Our inner state, our choices are all part of our evolutionary journey. I am personally aware of several instances in different contexts where, in the face of an imminent catastrophe, a person instinctively the right inner gesture, a sudden call for help, an inward turn, a leap of faith or just a state of complete surrender. These people were saved. I even wrote articles on two such tragedies with few such instances in the case of the Delhi Upahar cinema tragedy as well as in the earlier Mandakini river flood that afflicted pilgrims of Kedarnath. It was an interesting observation that I had made. Five of my cousins who survived the carbon monoxide poisoning just surrendered themselves each to Sri Krishna, whereas the one who died was calling out anxiously her child. The child survived thinking of Krishna, while the mother died worrying about the child! I know a number of such instances, including in my own life, where entering the right inner state saved.
The inner state at that moment is of utmost importance, as the Gita explicitly says. In fact, even ‘death’ in a state of Divine Remembrance is itself like a leap. Our sadhana, or otherwise, is tested during these moments of acute crisis. Beliefs and non-beliefs, daily poojas, rituals may or may not help. But the inner state, especially faith, surrender, love for God (which has little to do with daily rituals) are of great importance. After all, the Divine is not a computer who is busy acting mechanically. Though frankly, if one were to look deeply enough, one would actually see many, many instances of the saving Grace which we take for granted and don’t even notice it. There would be too many to recount. But very simply, the story of evolution itself from dust to man and from the animal man to the spiritual man is enough to prove the existence of God.
If we look closely and deeply, then we shall find that material comfort, outer happiness, external success and comforts may be of great value to us. But for the Divine Wisdom, life and death serve one great purpose, and it is of evolution. The real purpose of the Divine is not just to somehow preserve our physical body by any means, but to help our soul grow and progress until it discovers its oneness with God. How else would you explain Swami Vivekananda leaving his body at 39 and his amazing and wonderful Master, the great Kalibhakt Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, leaving his body at 58 due to laryngeal cancer. Preserving the physical body is one thing, but helping the soul to progress and advance is quite another. Physical preservation may be most important to us since we know nothing except the body. But to the Divine the journey of the soul is most important and it does not cease with one life. In fact, it has even been said that dying on the battlefield, during a pilgrimage and in the service of God are considered the best forms of death since the soul takes a leap through them towards a higher state.
Well, I will pause here. Will be happy to answer if you have more questions, especially regarding the existence of God.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
