As you have said, God knows what is good and what is bad. He wants to confirm with his disciples if they have understood what is good and what is bad. That is why He tests them.
GOD
Have you seen God?
God has seen me!
What is the way to attain God or see Him?
God is right within us. He is always available within us and waiting patiently for us to turn towards Him within. Easiest way is to surrender to him and chant His Names constantly with an earnest prayer to have His ‘vision’.
How do we know that Bhagavan’s grace is there or not? Do we get any signs? If all our effort will become useless since Bhagavan’s grace is missing, what is the use in putting in the effort?
In order to achieve worldly comforts as well as to attain God, both His Grace and your efforts are required. A farmer who puts in his best efforts by ploughing the field, sowing seeds and manuring, will still not able to do a good harvest, if it does not rain at the right time. Thorough inundation by means of rains on an unploughed arid land will do no good either. A combination of proper efforts (by means of ploughing, sowing and manuring) and grace (by means of rains at the appropriate rime), makes one successful.
Now how do we know that we get the Lord’s grace?
When we say that we need God’s grace irrespective of the efforts we put in to attain the Lord, this is what is meant:
As long as you feel that you are putting in efforts and you are responsible for your Sadhanas, you will not be able to attain Him. The moment, you start to feel that everything is happening by the Lord’s grace; it is He who instigates and empowers you to perform Sadhanas, then you can be pretty sure that your efforts are not in vain.
That feeling is verily the indication that you are a recipient of the Lord’s grace.
My friend had a desire and prayed to Lord for the fulfillment of the same. However her desire is not fulfilled till date. Why did God not fulfill her desire?
The compassion of the Lord is infinite. The Lord may not have fulfilled your friend’s desire as He might have wished to give your friend something better. Otherwise, granting the desire might mean something deleterious in future and hence the Lord wanted to protect your friend. One can never judge His grace with his/her intellect. It is important to understand the underlying fact that God will always do good to us.
I am a misguided man. I don’t want to lose faith in God, but I am afraid I am slowly losing it. I don’t know what to do.
Don’t lose faith on God for the sake of a wrong person or a silly reason. Faith is very important. Whatever happens, it happens only for your good. It is happening according to the will and wish of God, only for your good. We don’t know what is good today and what is good tomorrow. But God knows that and foreseeing that, He does good for you.
Accept your life and all its incidents as a gift of God. Accommodate and adjust your life based on that. Then your living will not only be easy; your life will also be a wonderful one.
Why has God created us?
God has created us to find answer to that very question
Who is God? Where is God?
The absolute pure consciousness is God. He is within you and He is all-pervading; omnipresent. There are no two things in this world. He alone exists and no body else.
Will a mentally retarded person know about God? How do we make them understand this? I believe that they are very near to God even if their birth is deprived of the normal activities.
Those who were born as mentally retarded people in this birth were great sadhaks in their previous birth. In spite of their Sadhanas, due to the wrongs that they might have committed, they are born so in this birth. They don’t accrue any merits (‘punya’) or sins during this period. After having experienced the fruits of their past deeds, they attain liberation.
Our religion says that the supreme God is one and is beyond name and form. Why then does our scriptures talk about so many Devas, Demigods and the like? Some even make fun of this. How come there are so many Gods as per our tradition?
Yes there is no second opinion about the fact that the Supreme is the Brahman which is beyond name and form. But as long as we live and perceive that the physical body and the external world to be real, we take help from so many things in this world.
The tree gives us shelter and fruits. The dog guards the house. The horses and bulls work for us. The cow gives us milk. The bees collect honey which we use. The crops give us grains. We derive various favours from all these beings. Some beings like snakes and scorpions harm us. The same way the Devas and the like are higher beings by pleasing whom we could have our wishes granted. Some may grant us children. Some may bless us with wealth. There are some evil beings that may harm us. Owing to their superior powers and ability to fulfill wishes these higher beings are referred to as Devas and sometimes offered the status of God as is common practice amongst people to call any great soul, rishi or sage as God himself.
But the fact is, the end point of religion is the one Supreme God alone.
