Question to Radhanath Swami: It is said that God is all loving. But sometimes we find that a father loses his only son, and sometimes a child loses its parents. In the face of such miseries how can one’s faith in God be sustained?
Radhanath Swami : God means the absolute truth. It is He from whom everything emanates. Even great scientists like Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton were very religious men. They understood mathematically and scientifically that the universe cannot be the way it is without a supreme intelligence behind it. Things cannot be happening by chance. So when we are speaking about God, we are speaking the truth.
Now, we have to understand even the truths connected to God scientifically. We have to understand them in terms of laws created by God, the laws of nature. When the spirit soul enters into a body, it enjoys or suffers according to its karmic situation of the past. God made the laws of karma, and the soul made its own karma.
To better understand this, let us take an example. Suppose you get on an airplane to London. But once the airplane takes off, you say, “I want to go to Singapore.” The airline hostess will reply, “What?!!! This plane can only take you to London.” Then you cannot say that she is violating your freedom, your free will. You have your free will, but you could exercise it when you were in the airport. Then, you could have gone to Singapore if you wanted to. But once you get on the plane to London, you lose your free will. Similarly, according to our actions we are going to get certain reactions. We ourselves make our destiny, though God made the laws. According to our actions and words we are making our destiny. If we understand scientifically and philosophically how laws of nature work, we won’t blame God for the reactions we get in life.
