Question: I would like to ask the reason why some spiritual figures like Christ have healed sick people. It is said that every sickness that appears in the body comes from the region of the mind, and that it is one's karma that has to be worked out. Now, is it possible that the healing done by these Masters takes away the results of karma? What is the reason that some persons are healed and others are not? Does it not interfere with the law of karma?

Sri Chinmoy: To begin, let us start with the Christ. He definitely cured people in accordance with God's Will. As you said, He cured so many sick people. Now, I wish to tell you that the first thing is to know what God's Will is, whether God wants a particular person to be cured or not. Nobody is more compassionate than God. If someone says that he has more compassion than the All-loving God, he is not right. However, there are some people who have occult power or spiritual power. They start using their occult power or spiritual power on the vital plane in order to show off or remain on the stage of people's attention. They do not care for God's Will. They do not have the time, they do not have the aspiration, they do not have that kind of dedication to God, to know whether God wants a particular person to be cured or not.

Now, there are other people who only want God's Will to be fulfilled. First they enter into their own inner consciousness or into their highest meditation to get the answer from God. If the answer is "Yes" (that God wants a particular person to be cured), then immediately they will use their own power to help that sick person.

Now, you asked something else in your question: "Does it not interfere with the law of karma?" Every sickness is a kind of imperfection. Sickness is always preceded by some imperfection either in our inner life or in our outer existence. It usually does not come into existence for any other reason. It is due to some inner disharmony from which it is manifested. Now when somebody is sick, it means he has done something wrong. That is why he is suffering. One can say that this is the law of karma operating. In either his past incarnation or in this incarnation, he has done something wrong and that is why he is suffering.

Possibly he has not taken proper care of his health. If one neglects one's own body, this is also a kind of inner crime, an injustice to the body. The body is a temple. Here in the body, God exists. So in neglecting the body, we are doing something wrong, and the penalty for this is sickness.

Here I want to say one thing. Why does God's Grace intervene sometimes? We feel that if someone has done something wrong, he has to accept the suffering. But no: although God is Justice, He is also Compassion. If we take Him only as Justice, naturally we shall have to go through all kinds of suffering as human beings. But if we take God as Compassion, if we approach Him through His compassionate Aspect, then God Himself can nullify His law of karma.

Again, it may happen that because of their tremendous love and compassion for their disciples, some spiritual Masters have taken upon themselves the diseases and sufferings of their disciples. Here the Master nullifies the law of his disciples' karma. Needless to say, the spiritual Masters do this only after taking permission from God. Then God Himself nullifies His own cosmic Law.

So a spiritual person, when he heals a sick person, enters into the compassionate Aspect of the Divine, of the Supreme, and then he effects his cure. God has infinite Aspects. Here His compassionate Aspect overrules His Aspect of Justice. If a spiritual person identifies himself with God's infinite Compassion, he can cure someone and, at the same time, he is not violating God's karmic Law.

So the first thing is to realise God's Consciousness. The next thing is to identify oneself with God's compassionate Aspect. When one does that, one does not violate the cosmic Law at all, because one is fulfilling God in a spiritual way, in God's own Way. He is actuating God's Compassion.