Harimedia Forum

Dear Hari!

Thank you for your lectures, for the love you always manifest and expand to the world while sharing your invaluable experience!

I live in a village, and here ordinary people ask, they often ask such questions:
Why do people engaged in spiritual practice, who gave 25-30 years or more of their lives, suffer?
Why do they live in poverty (do not thrive), suffer from poor health? Why does not God help them?
Why God does not give them Their divine energy to overcome all these difficulties?

And they have such an impression that God helps in life even more to the ‘ordinary’ people, although they do not follow any spiritual practice?
They can not understand this, why such sacrifices are required?

Devotees answer most often that it is the karma to blame.
I would like to hear your personal opinion on this.

If you can please answer in the forum or in your broadcast as you find better.

Thank you,

Sincerely yours,

Atindriya

Remember my lecture, "Why Good Things Happen to Bad People?" I addressed this issue in depth there. http://harimedia.net/downloads/lectures ... People.mp3

When we link spirituality with material prosperity, good health or other seeming symptoms of a successful life, we are making an assumption. After all, I am not sure we can point to a "warranty statement" by God that says, "if you are devoted to me then your entire life will be filled with prosperity." Considering the lack of a written guarantee, have we seen this confirmed in our lives? If we have not perceived this to be true, then we should consider that perhaps the idea is not rooted in reality but is rather a product of our desires or imagination. If this is so, and after all, no one can say for sure, then your question is moot.

If this is not so, then we have to deal with the issue of a whimsical God. If God gives good people troubles, then we either have to rationalize that all these troubles are good for us or we deserve them due to our karma. Both of these ideas may be acceptable because they help us become better. But if these ideas are not acceptable, then we have to face a God that does what God wants when God wants to, and our devotion or service is not a significant factor in God's decisions.

If we say that God gives us challenges because we need to have them or must have them, then again we have to take responsibility for our lives and work through it and not load blame on God. If we think that God is whimsical and unconcerned, then we have to question why we bother bringing God into the conversation at all since regardless of our opinion of Him, he does what he wants.