Tough Answers, part 3

Naughty Krishna holding a piece of candy

Introduction

July. Warm evening air. But nothing to write about. My mind was blank. Then I saw an article on Microsoft News (MSN).
The title: “Nineteen Tough Questions Atheists Want to Ask People Who Believe in God.”

But the questions were not so tough. After all, Lord Krishna is tougher than any atheist. And I needed a topic to write about anyway.

So I decided to answer the questions with the teachings of Hare Krishna. It will take more than one post, of course. But please bear with me and see if my “tough” answers to “tough” questions are not also logical.

Question 3. What About Contradictions in Holy Texts?

W

hile I sit in my armchair,  mulling over this question, I have to wonder, Have these so-called contradictions ever kept a determined seeker  from finding God? Even one case?

Later, as I stub my toe in the kitchen and drop a spoon, the thought strikes me:  Could it be that the  contradictions actually uphold the scriptures?

How can it be that so many people speak of the same visions, the same experiences? But the differences show that they could not have known each other, separated as they were by oceans and continents, by centuries and millenia of time. No question of a conspiracy.

Oh, but you think there was indeed a conspiracy. Right? Then please answer this question: If Sri Valmiki wrote the Ramayana about a million years ago and Jesus preached 2,000 years ago, where did they plan the conspiracy? Surely not on earth.

They must have sat down together in another world a million years ago. And 800 thousand years later, Jesus, still very much alive, came to earth to preach. How else? And if Jesus could live for 800 thousand years, he must have known something. So your conspiracy theory also validates religion.

But, one may ask, if they have all seen the same Truth, why the inconsistencies?

Truth, it is said, is like a splendorous jewel. From one angle it appears red, from another angle, blue, from another, green. But  it is the same jewel.

Srila Prabhupada sums it up:

Question 4. How Do You Reconcile Science and Faith?

I cannot speak for the others, but in Krishna Consciousness, science and faith are the same. No need for a reconciliation. The problem with modern science is that it ignores the spiritual side of existence.

Vedic science explains things that modern science knows nothing about. Karma for one. That’s why Bill Gates owns millions of acres and  I can barely pay my rent.   And why is Di Caprio handsome while I look like a wrung-out dish towel?

You really think it’s mere chance? No other reason? But there’s so much order in the universe—heredity, the passing of the seasons, the orbits of the stars. And you say it’s all chance.

What about reincarnation? Is Elvis still singing in some other world? Am I saying there is a science that can help me look like Di Caprio and sing like Elvis next time? Well, it worked for them. Why not for me?

Why do I believe it?  What is the proof?

Srila Prabhupada comments:

“But wait,” you say. “Modern science has done wonderful things. Look at computers and space ships and airplanes.

All right, So Edison  invented the light bulb, but does that mean he knew the secret of life? Has Einstein brought happiness to humanity? Look at the shape the world is in: wars, poverty, starvation.

But if I doubt the science of today, why do I like the science of the Vedas? Well, ask the people who follow it. They say that seeing the world from the Vedic viewpoint brings peace and happiness to the individual. Isn’t that what science is supposed to do?

Want proof? The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

See also my post “Who Carved the Grand Canyon?”

Question 5. Why are there so  many religions?

I cannot speak for religions invented by earthly humans for material purposes like bodily health or mental clarity. My specialty lies elsewhere.

I will speak of those religions that aim to bring the practitioner in touch with God and ultimately to eternal life in the spiritual kingdom.

These religions fall basically into five groups: Christianity, Buddhism, Islam,  Judaism, and Krishna Consciousness (Vaishnavism).

Each group is divided into smaller groups like Catholicism and Protestantism. Hinduism is a sub-category of Krishna Consciousness. And these are divided into even smaller groups.

Thus the question of why so many or at least why the different categories?

There is a reason. Krishna has come himself or sent his servants to preach in different ways in different places at different times so that people of different mentalities—Arabs, Germans, Africans— can find their path. Such is the kindness of Krishna.

But in all these religions there is a common thread: one must turn away from the temporary pleasures of the material world to find the eternal happiness of the spiritual kingdom. Isn’t it so?

The Bible says:

I didn’t want this. And in my hippie days, I rejected Christianity and my own Judaism in favor of a life of sensuality. Then I heard other hippies praise Eastern religions. So I thought that Buddhism and Hinduism must encourage illicit sex and intoxication. Otherwise, why would hippies like them?

My eyebrows arched when I opened the Eastern books and saw that they also rejected sensuality, and  strongly, like the Western ones.

Sri Krishna says:

As Srila Prabhupada said in a lecture:

Again, how did people of different places and different eras preach a common principal? What knowledge did they all share?

Again, the diversity upholds the validity.

⁓Umapati Swami, September 14, 2024

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ove it? Hate it? Got a question? Write to me: hoswami@yahoo.com

© Umapati Swami 2024

Srila Prabhupada

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is the teacher who brought Krishna Consciousness from India to the West and then to the rest of the world. He is the founder of the worldwide Hare Krishna Movement as well as the author and compiler of many works of Vedic knowledge. He left this world in 1977.

Umapati Swami

One of the first American devotees of the Hare Krishna Movement, he became Srila Prabhupada’s disciple in 1966. Since then, he has preached Krishna Consciousness in many countries and is the author of “My Days with Prabhupada,” available from Amazon. Now 87 years old, he maintains this blog to share what he has learned.