Is God the cause of suffering?

Life is not a bed of roses! Nor is it a bed of thorns. It is a mixture of both pain and

pleasure, good and evil ,right and wrong, happiness and suffering. Caught in the midst  of the cycle of birth and death, he is born again and again and enjoys and suffers! He is elated when he is happy and depressed when in misery. That is human nature. In his ignorance he thinks that he is the cause for his success, pleasure, and enjoyment! He blows his own trumpet when he succeeds and celebrates the victory grandly with gusto.He wants to be happy permanently. When life itself is impermanent, how can he be joyful for ever? He forgets that joy and sorrow are twins and that one cannot enjoy without the other. A person in the hot sun alone can realize the importance of shade and rest!

•      The peculiarity of man is to gloat over his success and blame God for all his losses and failures! He throws up his hands, looks up  and says that God has deceived him! He feels sorry that God has no eyes and heart to save him from all his failures and losses! He does not ponder over the nature of his actions,good or bad and fails to think how God can be responsible for his actions. Is man right in his thought about God? God has given us free will and gift of thinking as a special quality! We have to exercise that quality properly to live happily on earth. Misusing that faculty and blaming God for our failures is meaningless and unsustainable!

                     “ God will never make anyone suffer at any point of time.” says Bhagawan Sri Sri Sri Satya Sai Baba. He is impartial, non attached, blissful, transcendent and does not interfere in our actions. He is only the witness--’ sakshibhuta’ of all our actions and thoughts. It is not his duty to make us suffer or enjoy. But he is the protector of all and compassionate. It is sheer ignorance to imagine that God gives us suffering to his own creatures, the human beings! If God does not give suffering, then, what is it that makes people suffer or enjoy? The answer is very simple. It is our actions in this world that bring us success and defeat. Neither God nor the parents, sons and daughters, and siblings or kith and kin is responsible for  a person’s success or failure!

        Man suffers or enjoys through the effect of his past actions,, good or bad. Every action has an equivalent and opposite reaction.He has accumulated the effects of his actions during the innumerable births he had.These effects are now visiting him after every birth in the form of joy and sorrow! We call this as “ prarabda karma” - actions that have become effective already and yielding results! We have accumulated so much in our previous births that the effects cannot be experienced in a single birth of the individual! Hence man has to take endless births till he exhausts the effects of his karma. During the course of his every birth, he accumulates more karma that is added on to the already existing karma! There is a further deposit and he has to experience it's effect also. This is called “ Sanchita karma”. This forms the basis for man's future  experiences and is called “ agami” karma! Man cannot live without action and as his action is endless his births too are endless! This is how the cycle of birth and death operates!

       It is the operation of the law of karma that is responsible for man's s joys and sorrows, pains and pleasures, success and failure! As Bhagawan Baba has said God does not come into the picture. He has framed the laws of karma and he cannot break his own laws! He dispenses justice according to the laws  of karma! He is dispassionate and judges man on the basis of the karma at his karma. Good karma results in good for man and he enjoys. He suffers because of the effects of his bad actions in the past! God does not play any part in the suffering or enjoyment of man. Man is the architect of his own destiny!