FAQ
Q1. : I feel that my belief in god is very shallow. How do I find out there is god?
Ans1.: We can learn about existence of God in the same way as we know about the existence of an artist when we see a picture, or about the existence of parents when we see a child. Therefore when we observe nature, her workings and laws – which means there must be a lawgiver – we know that the intelligence of her creator, God, surpasses our concepts and that this God must be a person because only a person has an intelligence.
Q2. : Who is Krishna, then?
Ans2. : When we pronounce the name “Krishna”, it is not any sectarian name. Krishna is God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and primary person. Although He is omnipresent, He does not leave His eternal abode where He lives in His original, transcendental form. Krishna is unlimited, whereas we, living beings, are limited in every way. Krishna is the unlimited source of all living beings and we are His eternal, tiny parts and parcels. He possesses all noble qualities in unlimited measure. He is the most beautiful of all. Because He is the Supreme, His form and personality are also supreme. No one is more beautiful or attractive than Him. Krishna attracts everyone. Therefore His name is Krishna, which means “all-attractive person”. One who does not attract everyone cannot be God. The word “Krishna” also denotes the supreme pleasure and it is confirmed that the Supreme Lord is the source of all pleasure. Living beings have consciousness like the Lord and they desire to be happy. The Lord is always happy and if they associate and cooperate with Him, they will be also happy.
Q3. : Can drugs help us in God realization?
Ans3. : If drugs could help in God realization they would be more powerful than Him. How can we accept such a claim? Drugs are material chemical substances. How can something material help anyone in God realization which is of fully spiritual nature? That is not possible. That which a person experiences while taking drugs is just a certain type of intoxication or hallucination; it is not God realization.
Q4. : If God is so wonderful, why was I sent here to suffer? If He can do anything, can’t He get me out of here?
Ans4. : Yes, it is true that God can do anything. But He will not interfere with our minute independence, He will not impose Himself on the living being. Our suffering in this world is due to the misuse of our own independence. We are going to have to face our own responsibilities in this regard and stop blaming God. The sufferings we are currently undergoing are like the suffering of the dreamer in a nightmare. Ultimately they have no reality nor do they affect the soul who is simply undergoing the dreamlike conditions of material life due to his misidentification of the self with the material body.
One might still say that while the dreamer dreams his sufferings are very real to him. True. But there is another purpose to our sufferings. They are meant to gradually move us in the direction of inquiring into the problems of life and into our relationship with God. The ultimate suffering of the living being is the feeling of incompleteness and dissatisfaction that the part must feel unless it is in proper relation to the whole. We are all suffering in this world due to the fact that we have voluntarily separated ourselves from God and thus we will always feel unfulfilled, incomplete and unsatisfied, no matter how much we attempt to enjoy this world, because we are functioning artificially outside of our loving relationship with God.
Q5. : Is Lord Krishna personal or impersonal?
Ans5. : The impersonal brahman effulgence is one aspect of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna, but it is only a partial representation of the Lord and is ultimately a subordinate emanation from His personal feature. Thus if one stops at the impersonal understanding of the Absolute Truth, his or her knowledge of God remains incomplete.
The Lord has two other features known as Paramatma and Bhagavan. In His Paramatma feature the Supreme Lord exists within each and every atom of His creation and also within the hearts of every living being In this way he pervades and supports the entire universe. This feature of the Lord is also a subordinate emanation from His eternal, original personal form.
The word Bhagavan indicates the personal form of the Lord, which is the ultimate source of all other existences and energies, and all other aspects and manifestations of Godhead. That is why Krishna is described as the “Supreme Personality” of Godhead. This personal feature of the Lord is most sublime and therefore the Lord is known as Krishna, or He who is “all-attractive”.
To deny the Lord His beautiful personal feature, by which He reciprocates in loving exchange with all living beings who desire His association, is insulting because it denies the Lord all of the most attractive and appealing aspects of personal existence. With our tiny brains and limited understanding, we may not be able to comprehend how it is that the Supreme Lord can maintain His eternal, individual form and personality, while simultaneously expanding into everything else. But this poor fund of knowledge is no reason to deny the Lord’s unlimited, transcendental form.