00:02 there is so much suffering in the world 00:04 and this email comes from SAP Tashi who 00:07 is 19 years old he has been a student at 00:11 the Narendra paramah krsnah mission 00:13 vidya lie in Kolkata and is currently 00:17 studying at a Medical College where in 00:19 the hospital he is regularly confronted 00:21 with sorrow and death and as he says he 00:25 has seen the heartbreaking cry of a poor 00:28 loving mother who lost her nine-year-old 00:30 son to disease so he asks if there is 00:34 suffering because we do not know how 00:36 true nature is Brahman then why did 00:39 Rahman deliberately manifest this world 00:41 of Maya where suffering exists or does 00:45 suffering exists because as Tucker said 00:48 this is the leela of the supreme or god 00:51 if so then what kind of God is he or she 00:56 who likes creatures to suffer is this 00:59 God mad or insane or cruel who likes to 01:03 hear the cry of people and then wants to 01:05 search for him or is it because God is 01:09 aware of the fact that oh these little 01:11 creatures do not matter because 01:13 everything took birth from me and 01:15 eventually everything is going to end in 01:17 me the whole creatures the whole 01:20 creation is going to end let them cry so 01:23 what and we also had a similar email 01:26 from de-pants who asks if there is no 01:33 it's there is no external god as such 01:38 and it's all within ourself our own self 01:41 then whom to pray to and seek protection 01:45 from adversities and danger if there is 01:50 an external God to whom the majority of 01:53 the world's population pray why is there 01:56 so much turmoil innocent killings 01:59 heinous crime happening all over the 02:02 globe and God doesn't stop them or save 02:05 the innocence when Humanity is self is 02:08 being devastated is this all unless then 02:13 all right real heavy stuff to start off 02:16 with yes but it's a very serious 02:19 question and sure all of us we have had 02:23 this question at some time or the other 02:25 we had this question all the time why is 02:27 there suffering in the world if God 02:29 exists now I'll give you two answers 02:32 first a detailed discussion and directly 02:34 respond to the question and then a 02:37 deeper answer the second one later on 02:40 first of all this question itself why is 02:44 there suffering in the world if God 02:45 exists why is there evil in the world it 02:47 God exists this question has been asked 02:50 by people throughout the ages and it 02:53 continues to be asked and theologians 02:55 and philosophers in all cultures in all 02:57 religions have tried to respond to this 02:59 notice one thing here our idea of God is 03:04 that God is all powerful and all good so 03:09 God is all powerful and all good God 03:11 loves us and God is good then suffering 03:14 should not be there if one of these 03:16 conditions are not satisfied then there 03:19 can be suffering actually imagine a God 03:21 is all-powerful but not all good 03:23 a cosmic dictator in the sky extremely 03:28 powerful can do whatever he she or it 03:30 wishes the riddle to ask why there is 03:33 suffering you would say yeah because the 03:35 big guy up in the sky is is a dictator 03:38 so that's why we are suffering and it 03:42 was so in a certain phase of human 03:44 history I was very interested to find 03:47 out that the old story of Noah's Ark 03:50 there was a great flood there's a flood 03:52 myth in many ancient cultures of the 03:54 world so there was a great flood and you 03:56 know why the flood was there because God 03:58 found a lot of unrighteousness in the 04:00 world and so sent a flood to wipe out 04:03 all this unrighteousness and to restore 04:05 justice and order in the world now 04:08 that's a good God I wrote you Scott but 04:12 the same still exists in a more ancient 04:15 culture in Babylon and it still is 04:19 slightly different in one very 04:20 interesting detail there's in the story 04:24 God is there all 04:26 powerful but only all-powerful the idea 04:29 of being just or good is not there just 04:32 God is all-powerful then what happens if 04:35 God is disturbed by the noise that 04:38 humanity humanity makes God's desk let 04:42 the step because human beings are very 04:44 noisy so you decided I'll wipe them all 04:46 out I drown them all and there is this 04:50 righteous person whom he selects dislike 04:52 nor the names are different and 04:54 difficult names are forgotten the names 04:55 but he gives them an arc in which to 04:57 take animals two by two and preserve 05:00 them until the flood tides go down and 05:02 then the all life can be restarted and 05:05 hopefully it will be quite a next time 05:08 there is no concept of goodness or 05:11 righteousness or fairness or justice 05:13 there it's just power then you cannot 05:17 ask why are we suffering because God is 05:20 all-powerful God can make us suffer but 05:22 when the idea of justice and goodness 05:25 was added as it happened in Judaism next 05:28 the same story you see how it takes a 05:30 turn now you cannot say God drown people 05:33 because they were noisy we will be 05:36 worship such a god so the idea of 05:39 concept of God as fair as just comes in 05:43 there you can see an evolution in our 05:46 concept of God God is not evolving our 05:50 concept of God is evolving we are 05:52 understanding more and more and then the 05:54 question can arise 05:55 why is God there so much evil and 05:58 suffering in the world if God is 06:00 all-powerful but also just and the 06:02 problem becomes even more complicated 06:04 when you say God is all loving right it 06:09 may be that we deserve suffering so it's 06:11 just to punish us but a loving God would 06:15 not want us to suffer imagine parents 06:17 you love your children so much you would 06:19 never want your children to suffer the 06:22 only reason children suffer is because 06:24 human parents are not all-powerful they 06:26 cannot prevent that suffering Jesus 06:30 mentions a human a mother crying because 06:32 she lost her child disease if she could 06:35 actually definitely save the child she 06:37 can't so we 06:39 combined omnipotence with benevolence 06:42 then this question arises really God 06:46 lobsters okay and really God can do 06:48 everything then why do we suffer and an 06:51 answer is necessary otherwise it shakes 06:53 faith in fact one of the arguments 06:56 against the existence of God is the 06:58 existence of evil the portal is called 07:00 the problem of evil in theology 07:01 different religions of the world is to 07:03 call the problem of evil and we want an 07:07 answer where I will tell you what not 07:10 one answer but 23 don't worry I will not 07:13 lift up all the 23 answers there's this 07:16 book the problem of Google in Indian 07:20 thought by Professor Arthur Harmon 07:23 Arthur Harmon you can find it online 07:25 also what this gentleman done is not 07:29 lonely limited himself to Indian thought 07:31 but he has taken a survey of this 07:34 question and the answers to it in 07:36 different religions of the world not 07:39 only religion in philosophy in 07:40 literature and he has come up with a 07:42 list of 23 answers 07:45 23 answers to this question why do we 07:48 suffer in this world and you twisted 07:50 those answers I'll tell you some of them 07:52 I mean looking at me is 23 answers I 07:55 thought the question was not answerable 07:56 23 answers yes I'll tell you some of 07:59 them prepare to be underwhelmed now you 08:04 will notice one thing about the answer 08:05 some of them are simple maybe a little 08:08 silly some of them are very clever but 08:10 all of them have one thing in common 08:11 they are not satisfied for example there 08:16 is a one answer is God is testing us 08:19 these are actually serious theories put 08:21 forward by some thinkers at some time in 08:23 human history God is testing us but then 08:28 the same question will arise what kind 08:30 of a test is it to make a baby suffer 08:32 what could what can the baby to look at 08:35 the enormous suffering in animal kingdom 08:37 what can they do except suffer what 08:39 tests in the past so there are 08:41 objections to these theories this is a 08:43 similar theory which says another answer 08:45 it's a called a soul making theory God 08:48 is building up our character by 08:50 suffering it might work for an 08:53 that person who is responsible who is 08:55 conscious and who can change but again 08:58 the same objection will arise how do you 09:00 account for the suffering in Norma's 09:02 unchanging suffering in the animal 09:04 kingdom for millions of years and if 09:06 nothing that you can do is stop it when 09:08 a lion jumps up on a deer and eats it 09:10 when a lizard a gecko catches an insect 09:13 no matter what you may say if you look 09:16 at the insect struggling you feed 09:17 suffering them how can you stop that and 09:21 how is that building up anybody's 09:23 character the Holocaust remembers Enix 09:31 clear you cannot explain that kind of 09:33 suffering when millions of people are 09:35 killed just massacred so how is it 09:39 building up character in any way so 09:42 there are doubts about this kind of 09:44 theory also and there are never many 09:46 other theories all of them have some 09:49 problem or the other and this professor 09:50 discusses each of them and shows the 09:52 problems with these theories the theory 09:54 that God has given us free will that's 09:56 one big theory God has given us free 09:58 will and God will not interfere with our 10:00 choices and it's our choices that lead 10:02 to suffering but you will there we have 10:07 these dispositions which lead us to to 10:10 slip and make mistakes and commit error 10:12 and evil and what kind of a responsible 10:16 parent is it who gives a loaded gun to a 10:18 toddler we will I will not interfere let 10:20 the toddler do what it wants with the 10:22 gun 10:22 the end will not be good so while give 10:27 us free will and a set of dispositions 10:29 which almost all the time we tend to 10:31 misuse the tree will and again it does 10:33 not explain suffering and animal kingdom 10:35 or even for helpless infants and 10:37 children so all these theories one more 10:41 theory which he considers very good the 10:43 professor he says the law of karma 10:46 causation cause and effect cause and 10:50 effect if we consider ourselves as 10:53 conscious beings traveling from life to 10:55 life and enjoying and suffering the 10:59 results of our past karma generating new 11:01 karma and enjoying the suffering results 11:04 they are all so we are 11:07 building our own light we're the kind of 11:09 says there was never a blow that was 11:12 undeserved unkind thing to say but let's 11:16 take responsible for our own 11:17 responsibility for our own lives you can 11:20 even see how that can the global kind of 11:23 thing you know the cause and effect 11:24 causes have effects actions have 11:27 consequences that can actually even 11:29 explain the suffering scene where you 11:31 are helpless 11:32 say somebody said what karma can a 11:35 butterfly do nothing it can only 11:38 experience the results of past curlbox 11:40 you can only do conscious Karma when you 11:42 come to a human birth but if this cause 11:45 and effect can actually explain 11:47 suffering and experience in animal life 11:50 in any kind of conscious life so past 11:53 karma is giving results sometimes it may 11:56 be inhuman bird sometimes I may be an 11:57 infant sometimes I may be an insect in 12:00 the mouth of a gecko which is all past 12:02 karma little more clever answer this 12:06 time this answer is in fact the 12:09 professor says this is the best possible 12:10 solution you can a whole chapter on the 12:12 defects of the law of karma whole 12:15 chapter and it says in spite of 12:16 beautiful there's nothing as that comes 12:18 close to the law of karma even then it's 12:21 not a perfect theory sri ramakrishna was 12:26 asked this the one of the question as 12:28 mentions the theory of lilith 12:30 Ramakrishna says it is the leader of God 12:32 somebody actually Ramakrishna why is 12:34 there so much suffering in the world if 12:36 God exists the same question in the 12:37 gospel you will find this question and 12:39 three Ramakrishna gives the answer which 12:41 this young boy has given that it is the 12:43 leader of God into the play of God what 12:45 can we do and the devil to ask this 12:48 question did not take it well his reply 12:51 was it may be the leader of God but it 12:55 is dead to us in Bengal he said pastor 12:57 alarm Romani it may be the divine will 13:01 of God it's play for god it's dead for 13:03 us then Sri Ramakrishna gets the VLJ 13:06 plan on coming to the real reply which I 13:09 would like to give when he says it's 13:12 death to us Sri Ramakrishna said just 13:14 one little thing after which there was 13:17 no no further questions 13:18 Sri Ramakrishna said death to us you say 13:22 but who are you do you know who you are 13:26 we enroll by if you did investigate who 13:29 you are that's what they wanted us what 13:31 would you find you are one with God the 13:35 same God will manifest this universe you 13:37 knew yourself what we thanks at Timmy I 13:40 am an anthem grandma you are that from 13:42 that point of view knowing if it touches 13:44 you or anybody else think about it 13:47 Advaita self Delma satyam jagat mithya 13:50 Jeeva Brahm Haven author brahmand accept 13:53 EMV anima anthem gramma infinite 13:55 existence consciousness is the only 13:57 reality the world of appearance and 14:00 suffering is an appearance it's false 14:02 then what about me am i real or false 14:05 you are one with drum and you are real 14:06 you are real as well money and asked you 14:11 a question 14:11 the greatest of tragedies the worst of 14:15 things worst of suffering it's 14:17 permissible in only one case it's even 14:20 enjoyable in one place one case when 14:23 think about it when is the only time you 14:26 would not be upset with suffering when 14:28 you would even say it's good it's great 14:31 unison in art in a story in fiction if 14:37 it actually did not happen in a dream 14:40 when you wake up from that image your 14:41 thank God it was a nightmare if it 14:43 actually did not happen then you would 14:46 not be outraged isn't it 14:47 we might even enjoy it you might even 14:50 enjoy it but only from a point of from a 14:53 place of security from place of safety 14:55 when you are not being touched by that 14:57 suffering so the real answer is here no 15:03 clever theory will ever satisfy your 15:05 question in the question which you have 15:07 is suffering I may give you the 15:09 cleverest of theories the professor good 15:11 professor gives a law of karma which is 15:13 great either beyond the law of karma 15:15 explanation given by vedanta Maya that's 15:18 the even better explanation I think even 15:20 that will not satisfy you you know what 15:22 will satisfy you 15:23 this answer to this question will be you 15:26 will get a satisfied satisfaction only 15:28 when you 15:29 same suffering and the only way you will 15:32 transcend suffering is by 15:34 self-realization by realizing that you 15:36 are one bit card moksha Nirvana whatever 15:39 you call it the open ocean says Tarot to 15:41 show come math mobit the knower of the 15:44 self of Atman transcend sorrow that's 15:48 the only way of expressing sorrow 15:49 these questions are good answers are 15:52 worth exploring you can go and look at 15:54 those 23 answers and select the one 15:56 which appeals to you the most still you 15:58 will be underwhelmed you will not be 15:59 satisfied by that the only thing that 16:01 will satisfy which are satisfied anybody 16:03 else in the world is realization finding 16:07 God self-realization enlightenment 16:09 whatever you call it