Page 9 - am2018 book
P. 9

done willfully or out of ignorance.

      Anything that distracts our a en on from God is illusory. Such distrac-
       ons  will  occupy  people  in  useless  ac vi es  that  inhibit  a empts  to
      become free from the bondage of birth and death.

      Considering suffering as a message from God that we have forgo en
      Him is the correct way to understand the perplexing reality of misery in
      this world. It is like receiving a $500  cket for going through a red light
      accompanied by a picture of you driving your car taken by a traffic vio-
      la on camera. The driver thought that there would not be a witness
      since he drove through the red light at 4 AM in the morning when
      there were no other cars or pedestrians. He ignored the fact that there
      could be a stealth traffic viola on camera.
      According to the Vedic scriptures there are always witnesses to every
      act we perform whether in private or public:

      The sun, fire, sky, air, demigods, moon, evening, day, night, direc ons,
      water, land and Supersoul Himself all witness the ac vi es of the living
      en ty. (SB 6.1.42)

      Bahk vedanta Swami Prabhupada comments on this verse:
      The members of some religious sects, especially Chris ans, do not be-
      lieve in the reac ons of karma. We once had a discussion with a
      learned Chris an professor who argued that although people are gen-
      erally  punished  a er  the  witnesses  of  their  misdeeds  are  examined.
      Where are the witnesses responsible for one's suffering the reac ons
      of past karma? To such a person the answer by the Yamadutas is given
      here. A condi oned soul thinks that he is working stealthily and that no
      one  can  see  his  sinful  ac vi es,  but  we  can  understand  from  the
      sastras (Vedic literatures) that there are many witnesses, including the
      sun, fire, sky, air, moon, demigods, evening, day, night, direc ons, wa-
      ter, land and the Supersoul Himself, who sits with the individual soul
      within his heart. Where is the dearth of witnesses? The witnesses and
      the Supreme Lord both exist, and therefore so many living en  es are
      elevated to higher planetary systems or degraded to lower planetary
      systems, including the hellish planets. There are no discrepancies, for
      everything is arranged perfectly by the management of the Supreme
      God (svabhaviki jnana-bala-kriya ca)….
                                        9
   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14