SATYARTH
PRAKASH - THE LIGHT OF TRUTH
Weekly Sermon by Acharya Vedshrami,
Resident Priest, Greater Atlanta Vedic Temple
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4
Question: How can the punishment,
that God inflicts on the soul, reform it when it cannot remember its past;
because the punishment could prevent the soul from committing any further sins
only if it were to know that such and such a punishment was meted out to it for
such and such a sin.
Answer: How many kinds of knowledge
do you believe in?
Question: Eight kinds, such as
knowledge through direct perception (seeing, hearing etc.), through Inference,
through analogy, etc.
Answer: Why can you not then infer
the existence of the previous life of the soul form seeing different people
born and brought up under different conditions in this world such as affluence
and poverty, happiness and misery, talent and idiocy etc?
Suppose a physician and a layman is taken ill. The physician at once finds out
the cause that brought on the disease on him, while the layman cannot; because the
former has studied Medical Science while the latter has not. But even the
layman knows this much that he must have violated some law of nature - dietetic
or sanitary, etc., - to bring on the disease, such as fever. Similarly, why can
you not infer the pre-existence of the soul by observing people afflicted with
pain and suffering, or endowed with pleasures or joys of this world in unequal
proportions - results of their actions not in the present life? If you refuse
to believe in the pre-existence of the soul, how do you think it to be
consistent with the justice of God to bless some with riches, power, and
talent, etc., while afflict others with poverty, suffering, idiocy and the like
without their having done anything - good or evil - in their previous lives to
deserve them? God can be just only when He gives the soul pleasure or pain
according to its good or evil deeds done in its previous lives.
Question: God can remain just even by
giving only one life. He is like a Sovereign Ruler, whatsoever he does is just.
He may also be likened to a gardener who implants trees big and small in his
grove, some he trims, others he cuts down, others still he protects (from wind
and cattle, etc.). A gardener can do whatever he likes or dislikes. In like
manner, God can do whatever He likes (with His world). There is no one above
Him who could punish Him or whom He should fear.
Answer: God is worthy of worship
and great, simply because He loves justice and practices it and because He
never does anything unjust. If He were to act unjustly then He is not God and
people will not honor Him. Your example of gardener is also not true. A
gardener who plants trees aimlessly or plants trees in places where they should
not be, cuts down trees that do not require cutting, multiplies those that are
not fit to be multiplied, and does not multiply those that are suitable for
multiplying, is not a good gardener. Such a gardener will be condemned.
Similarly, if God does anything without a reason, He is to be
condemned. It is necessary for God to do just things as He is by nature holy
and just. If He does anything like a layman, He would be prove
inferior to and more disgraced than a worthy worldly king. Does not a judge, in
this world, who punishes the innocent and awards honor to those who have done
nothing to deserve it, merits blame and forfeit his honor? God never does
anything that is unjust. Consequently He does not fear any one.