Tough Answers, part 5

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 9. How Do You Explain Miracles?

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ometimes Lord Krishna performs an act that is impossible for an ordinary soul. An ordinary soul… like me? The closest I’ve ever come to performing a  miracle was getting there in time to turn off the fire before the milk  boiled over.

But Krishna? Five thousand years ago, he lifted Govardhan Hill during a torrential rain and held it up with one finger.

And he miraculously protected Queen Draupadi. Though apparently not present, he mystically supplied an unlimited length of cloth so his devotee would not have her clothes pulled off in public. Her assailants had to give up.

When Krishna came into this world as Lord Chaitanya, he brought a boy back from the dead and made the tigers and the deer sing Hare Krishna and even dance together in the Jarikhanda Forest.

But I don’t know much about how miracles work. So  I’ll ask Srila Prabhupada.

Prabhupada explains: When we do not know how an act is done, we see it as a miracle.

Yes. The stars, those  twinkling pinpoints of light against the black nighttime sky—we don’t usually think of them as huge planets. But I remember an amateur astronomer letting me look through his backyard telescope at Jupiter and its moons. And there it was—not a pinpoint of light but a round planet suspended in the afternoon sky with smaller spheres around it.

I enter into each planet, and by My energy they stay in orbit. I become the moon and thereby supply the juice of life to all vegetables. (15.13)

The moon? I hadn’t thought about this. But the next time I pamper my tongue with asparagus tips, I’ll have to remind myself: They taste good because Krishna, as the moon, has  given them the juice of life. How could I not see it as miraculous?

But when Krishna lifted Govardhan Hill, the residents of Vrindaban, where the event happened, did not see it as a miracle.

And again:

[Govardhan Hill] is not [a] miracle, because in the yoga-siddhi you can make anything lighter than this cotton. So Krishna is Yogesvara [the master of mystics]. So by His yogic power He made the whole hill [as light] as a cotton swab. That is yogic principle.

In summary:

Question 10. What Happens to Those Who Don’t Believe?

The nonbeliever continues to transmigrate in the endless cycle of  birth and death. After the death of the present body he will go from body to body and species to species, sometimes meeting pleasure, sometimes pain. As Krishna explains:

The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil among various species. (13.22)

Prabhupada elaborates:

Some people argue that once the soul attains a human body, he cannot again go down to animal birth. Evolution, they say cannot go backwards. But the soul does not  evolve either upward or downward. He is unchanging. As Krishna explains:

This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, present everywhere, unchangeable, immovable, and eternally the same. (2.24)

So the cat sharpening her claws on the living-room sofa was once a human and will someday be again.  And the same goes for the cockroach slurping up water droplets on the bathroom floor.

But the transmigrating soul may also receive another human body right away though riches are not guaranteed. I remember Prabhupada telling us about such an event.

In the summer of 1966 we were invited to spend the weekend at the country ashram of a yoga teacher just outside New York City. It was a chance for us Manhattan hippies to look at the stars and smell tall grass.

Even today, I remember a night in the fall of 1965, a year before that, when the electricity went out in the eastern half of the United States. No lights in New York City. You could look upwards between the buidings and see the stars,  a rare treat in Manhattan.

And here was another chance.  I wouldn’t get to look at Jupiter through a telescope this time, but pinpoints of  light on a black sky? Too good to say no.

As we gathered in the living room of the ashram that night, Prabhupada told us this story, most certainly true.

Somewhere in India a poor young cobbler would set up his wares in the street in front of the same big house every day. And he would see the owner of the house leave every morning and come back in the evening.

One day the cobbler had an idea. That evening as the sun was setting, he saw the owner coming home, so he walked up to him, palms joined in a gesture of reverence.

“Dear respected gentleman,” said the young man, “I am a poor cobbler struggling just to make a meager living. You are a wealthy man. Do you think you could spare a rupee or two for this unfortunate soul?”

The owner stopped. His eyes narrowed. His face darkened. Then he reached over and slapped the cobbler in the face. The cobbler started to cry, and they began to argue loudly. Soon a crowd of people gathered around them to witness the drama.

Then a sage happened to come walking by and asked a bystander about the argument. He walked up to the rich man and the cobbler and looked at their palms. He laughed. Then he began to speak so everyone could hear.

“This poor cobbler,” he began, “in his last life he was this rich man’s father. He worked hard so he could leave his beautiful house and his fortune for his son. And now, when he asks his son for a rupee, his son hits him.”

Question 11. Why Is Faith Necessary?

This is a silly question, like asking “Why is fire necessary for cooking tomato soup?” How can you answer it?

But I’ll try to explain some things about faith anyway. In the Bhagavad-Gita, Prabhupada tells us what “faith” means:

Faith means unflinching trust in something sublime. (2.41)

And Krishna emphasizes the importance of this faith:

But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God consciousness; they fall down. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next. (4.40)

But for the faithful:

Unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master, all the imports of Vedic knowledge are automatically revealed.” (Svetasvatara Upanishad 6.23)

Arjuna, the hero of the Bhagavad-Gita, showed the example of perfect faith. Before  the battle, he and his enemy, Duryodhana, each had the choice of fighting with Krishna on their side or with Krishna’s army of thousands of warriors, but not both.

Duryodhana chose Krishna’s thousands of soldiers. Arjuna chose Krishna. Arjuna won the war.

Another example of faith is Queen Draupadi, the wife of Arjuna, as mentioned earlier. Draupadi was  married to all five Pandava brothers, an unusual arrangement even at that time. But it was approved by the eldest brother, King Yudisthir, himself the son of Yamaraja, the god of religion.

But there was a plot to steal her. Duryodhana’s brother Duhsasan and their friend Karna falsely claimed her as a gambling win and tried to pull off her clothes in front of a large assembly of men.

What could Draupadi do? She tried to hold on to her clothes by her own  power, but how could she win against two men? So she called out Krishna’s name: “Hey Govinda!” And she lifted her hands in the air.

And Krishna performed a miracle.

Though Krishna was apparently not present, he mystically supplied an unlimited length of cloth to cover his devotee Draupadi. Duhsasan and Karna pulled and pulled, but there was always more cloth covering Draupadi.

Finally they gave up. There was a huge pile of cloth on the floor, and their arms were so tired they had to stop, but Draupadi was still covered.

What did Krishna think?

Thus Krishna answers his devotee’s faith. That’s why we need it.

⁓Umapati Swami, October 20, 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.