Part XIV — Professor Wes Van Voorhis

PCG 16. Department of Infectious Diseases, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Professor Wes Van Voorhis: Why does God allow bad things to happen to people?

Sri Chinmoy: My esteemed Professor, it is so easy for us to blame God for what is happening in His creation. But again, the creation also has some will of its own. Since we take God's Love as infinite, in exactly the same way we should take God's Power as infinite. Do we pray to God, the Absolute Beloved Supreme, for our daily protection? Do we bring Him into our daily multifarious activities? Do we pray to Him to be with us in the hustle and bustle of life? No, we do not do our part. Sleeplessly is out of the question; hourly is out of the question; alas, not even occasionally do most human beings think of God. Knowing perfectly well that the world is full of undivine forces, why do we expect God to protect us at every moment when we do not keep Him with us consciously at every moment?

Again, if we enter into the deeper philosophy of life, we may come to realise that something infinitely worse could have happened to us than what we are experiencing. Or we may realise that we are now facing the consequences of our past actions, or that God is awakening us to a higher Light through physical, vital or mental suffering. God allows us to have painful experiences not because God wants us to suffer or to be destroyed, but because He feels that this is the fastest and surest way for us to learn, to grow and to become perfect so that we can eventually enjoy the delight of conscious oneness with Him in our day-to-day lives, in all our earthly activities.