Secrets of God's action!

Question asked by a devotee: I have many questions from the Puranas.  Why did Shree Krishna do the Maharaas?  Why did Shree Krishna leave the gopis and go to Dwarika?  Why did Ram hide and kill Baali?  Why does Shiv ji wear a snake around His neck and a apply ashes on His body?  Why does Vishnu Bhagavan sleep on a bed made of a snake?

Answer from Swamiji: Let us systematically reach such an answer to your question that will resolve all of them simultaneously, and any future ones that may arise.  There are two kinds of personalities in the world: 

1.      Those who have not yet attained Bliss, and are hankering for it.  All of the materially bound souls fall in this category.

2.      Those who are relishing perfect Divine Bliss, and have no need to look for it outside.  God and the God-realized Saints fall in this category.

Now look at their actions. 

1.      The first class of personalities is not yet fulfilled themselves; they are searching for Bliss. The motivation behind their every action will be their own happiness.  Even if they serve others, it will be for their happiness. 

2.      The second class of personalities is already experiencing Divine Bliss.  They have nothing to attain, and nowhere to reach.  So either they will do nothing, or if they ever do anything, it will be for the welfare of others - to help others attain Bliss - and not for themselves.

So the simple answer to all your questions regarding why any Avatar did anything, is that it was for the welfare of the souls.  Now it is a different matter that you may not be able to understand what the welfare in that particular action was.  But that should not be surprising to us!  After all, how large is God's intellect and how small is ours, in comparison?

Suppose a primary school student were to go to Albert Einstein and ask him how he arrived at his equation E=mc2?   Einstein could question him, "Do you polar integration?"

"No Sir!"

"Do you know Calculus?" 

"I have never heard of it, Sir!"

"At least do you know Algebra?"

"No!  All I know is how to count two plus two equal to four on my fingers." 

Einstein would probably say, "In that case I cannot explain my equation of the Theory of Relativity to you."

"Really, you cannot explain it to me?  That means your theory is wrong."  If the boy were to say that, how presumptuous and inaccurate a statement that would be!

Similarly, the Maharaas of Shree Krishna is in the tenth canto of the Shreemad Bhagavatam.  We must begin understanding spirituality from grade one.  First, from the Bhagavad Geeta, we must understand that we are the soul and not the body, and hence we must learn to detach ourselves from the world.  Then, st

art relishing Divine love from the Bhagavatam, for where the Bhagavad Geeta ends, the Bhagavatam begins.  The Maharaas is in the tenth canto of the Bhagavatam, and so it is a post doctoral topic.  If we want to jump straight there without having even understood that we are the body, it will be equally presumptuous.

People ask me about Ram hiding and killing Baali.  I ask them in return that how do they know Ram killed Baali in that manner.  They say it is written in the Ramayan.  I ask them that if they believe what is written in the Ramayan to be true, then they must also accept that Ram is God, since that is also written in it.  And if they do accept Ram as God, there can be no doubt, for Ram cannot make any mistakes.

The best way to derive benefit from the pastimes of God and the Saints described in the Puranas is to not use the intellect in analyzing them.  Simply relish them by attaching the mind.  Use the intellect to understand that there is no happiness in the world, so that you can develop detachment from it.