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THE MOTHER QUESTIONS FOR THE QUARTER

Questions by readers- Answers by The Mother! These answers are in no way definitive; nor do they make any claims to authenticity. These are supposed to answer the seeking. The insights contained in these answers issue from patrons of The Mother, among who are saints, holy men, scholars and advanced seekers. To submit a question, send email to editor.themother@gmail.com. Do not feel disappointed if The Mother does not publish the answer to your questions. The Editorial Board will choose questions to be published in The Mother depending upon its significance and service to the spiritual seekers at large. However, we will strive to answer most queries and personally communicate the answers to those who put forth genuine queries. Editor.

Q.

“Why should we love Krishna? What is the difference between loving Krishna and loving a human being?

Ans.

The difference is, through our intense love for Krishna, we love the whole world, for Krishna pervades the whole world! Inside out! 
When we love a human being unconnected to the Divine, we separate ourselves from the rest of the world.
Loving someone is the first step toward expansion of our vision of who we are; but a baby step indeed!
The path is long and there is every danger of forgetting others!
Loving Krishna on the other hand is embracing the ocean, the sky, the earth and everything therein!
"मन: ! कृष्णं भज ,कृष्णं भज, कृष्णं भज!
 कृष्णमयं भव, कृष्णैव भव !"

Q.

Taking up from the previous question, is it not right to suppose that if we increase our love for human beings, I mean love more and more people, we will eventually love God?

Ans.

We can try to see this like a mathematical theory: if we were to love one person today, ten in a month, hundred in year and so on increase the number...we would end up loving more number of people indeed.

But the flaw here is this: we cannot be sure we will be able to love ALL at the end of all our increase, though we may progressively love MORE.

All the additions in the world cannot add up to God.

More love does not lead to Universal Love. Just as any addition can only gloat the number into some humongous number, but never infinity.

In other words, infinity is nowhere on the road of units...we’ve to be content with only a bigger finite.

But, if we were to love God, we become capable of loving all.

So, what we learn is not loving but becoming love.

From infinite to Infinite, through finite. Never from Finite to Infinite.

Q.

May I take the liberty of asking a question? Indeed I shall be obliged if you could enlighten me on ‘Maya’.

What is Maya? Why Maya? What (useful) purpose does it serve? Do we benefit from Maya or is it a hindrance and must be got rid of. In our world, the world of lesser mortals, we try and hide our hanky-panky, our nakedness, our falsehood. What is it that God wants to hide? Why? Any other thing on/about Maya?

Ans:

The world has the tendency to delude us into thinking that it is all, that it is self-dependent, and this delusive character of the world is also designated maya in the sense of avidya. When we are asked to overcome Maya, it is an injunction to avoid worldliness. Let us not put our trust in the things of this world. Maya is concerned not with the existence of the world but with its meaning, not with the factuality of the world but with the way in which we look upon it. - Dr S Radhakrishnan

Maya is an intricate concept. Here are some links which will help you understand.
Paste the following links in the address bar and explore:
Maya in Shaiva Siddhanta
http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/disc/disc_152.html
Maya in Moksha Gita
http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/moksha/moksh_03.html
Maya in Vedanta
http://www.vedanta.org/wiv/philosophy/maya.html
Maya Algebraically
http://www.kamakoti.org/acall/ac-concept.html
Maya in Vaishnavism
http://www.saragrahi.org/Header%20Links/Articles%20By%20Author/
Bhakti%20Anand%20 Goswami/977%20The%20Real%20Meaning%20of%20Maya.html

Q.

How free are we to act as we like, i.e. how much free will do we have? To what extent are we responsible for the actions by us? It is well known that certain actions are impelled by hormonal changes in the body, e.g. the urge to mate after reaching puberty. In case of animals, during the ‘season’, the sexual urge overrides everything else and some animals will fight challengers even to death. Recent studies have drawn positive correlation between violence that a person indulges in and specific elements in their DNA. Would that mean that man is just a prisoner of destiny, compelled to act as per his genes and environment? What about his intellect and his will? Can they overcome these base, animal tendencies dictated by his genes? If so, to what extent?

Ans:

We have tremendous amount of free will. But the free will, to begin with, is in choosing our responses to situations, not choosing our situations. Our responses in time become our situations. If we are conscious of the responses we have made, and if we control and direct them, favourable situations arise. Free will and Determinism/ Predestination has been a debate that is going on for centuries. What is amazing however is that though these two are distinguished, the two are identical essentially. The difference is only of time. Of these two, Free Will is a greater force because it precedes predestination, our predestination or what we'll be destined to do is a result of Free Will exerted at an earlier time. Free Will is the cause, Predestination or Determinism an effect. In this sense one can safely argue that our destiny is totally in our hands. Man is certainly not a prisoner of destiny. With effort and industry, perseverance and courage, man can overcome every single animal instinct. Genes can be rewritten, lines on the palm erased, all tendencies sublimated. The attainment of moksha is based on the premise that everything can be overcome and destiny can be challenged and altered.

 Shri. Ramakrishna the great saint of Bengal used to give a very insightful answer to the question of fate.  He gave an example of a cow tethered to a pole with a long rope attached to her neck.  He said that the cow feels she is free to roam anywhere but the perimeter of the area in which she can move is fixed. Shri. Ramakrishna said that similarly every human being has a free will but the length of rope is governed by God.

 But there will come a time when the cow with an all-powerful tug, break the rope and be free. That is the time, ego of the person is completely gone. The length of the rope is directly proportional to the ego of the person.  We are bound by the sense of “I”, we keep thinking we are the doers. As long as we do that we are divided from God’s Will. We are circumscribed by our own sense of selfhood and we undergo the fruits of all our past actions. When the sense of “I” goes away, and our sense of doing falls apart, when we act without expectation, our will merges with the Divine Will and we become unrestricted—really Free.