Part IV — Professor K.R. Sundararajan

PCG 4-5. Department of Theology, St. Bonaventure University, Olean, NY

Professor KR Sundararajan: The notion of the goodness of God, which all theistic forms of Hinduism affirm, runs contrary to the human experience of evil and of the unmerited suffering that one experiences in life. It may be that the Hindu doctrine of karma enables one to explain them. Even so, how can we explain these experiences, especially when we try to emphasise the Love and forgiving Grace of God?

Sri Chinmoy: My esteemed Professor, everything depends on the planes of consciousness in which we live. There are many planes of consciousness, as you know from studying Hindu philosophy: physical, vital, mental, psychic, to name only a few. On the physical plane, when we see that the world is full of misery, suffering and cruelty, we find it very difficult to believe that God the Creator could be loving or compassionate.

Hindu philosophy believes in reincarnation. Because of our ignorance and limitation, we do not know what we did in our previous incarnations. It may happen that we are very good, kind and virtuous in this lifetime, but during a previous incarnation we did something very bad, and for that we are paying the penalty now in the form of suffering which appears to be unmerited. If we dive deep into the Hindu philosophy-ocean and go beyond the law of karma (which we may explain on a very mundane level with the phrase "As you sow, so you reap," either today, or in the near or distant future,) we come to realise that it is God who is having all the experiences in and through us. He is at once the action and the Doer.

The human in us always wants to emphasise the idea of God's Love, God's Forgiveness and God's Grace. We want only God the Compassion-Height to act in our life; we do not want God the Justice Light. But if we truly love God, and if we dare to say, "Let Thy Will be done in and through us," then even the suffering that comes to us through God's Justice-Light will make us happy.

If we want to be totally surrendered to God's Will, we shall pray to God to make us His perfect instruments by utilising His Compassion-Aspect or His Justice-Aspect — whichever pleases Him. There can be no better prayer than what the Saviour Christ taught us: "Let Thy Will be done."