Sufferings Refute Religion?

Back in December 2004, I remember, I was in Kannyakumari on the 25^th, a day before the devastating Tsunami hit the coastal areas and took away so many ‘innocent’ lives. According to our itinerary we were supposed to see the sunrise on the 26^th, but because of the bad weather and the predictions that we might not see the sunrise, we left the place on 25^th. And after that I had only one thing to say, “Thank God! You saved us!” But I wonder why did I say so? Just because I was saved, is it reasonable to thank God? What about those innocent people who lost their lives and above all those who lost the dear ones? They must have thought why God did this to ‘them’ and not others? God is cruel. This leads me to the conclusion that we thank God when he saves us and we curse him in our sufferings. In our happiness we forget him; in our sorrows we curse him!

We doubt the existence of God when we go through extreme pain and sufferings. The God created the universe and that he is the most powerful and has ‘full control’. Then why does he let the innocent suffer? “God doesn’t exist and if he exists why is he so cruel?”- This is what we say in times of pain and suffering. In other words: “Suffering refutes religion”

Recently, Arun Shourie, a former Stephanian has written a book titled- ‘Does he know a mother’s heart?” Arun Shourie has been an economist in the WB and the editor of Indian Express and Times of India. He had a successful career. In this book he talks of his experiences in bringing up his son who is suffering from cerebral palsy (a congenital disorder of childhood which leads to some physical disability.) and his wife suffers from Parkinson’s disease (a disorder of central nervous system). In this book he talks about why there are sufferings if God exists and why God punishes the innocent? But in reality this is not the case. There are sufferings all around, in everyone’s life at some point of time. But what makes Arun Shourie not believe in God or refute religion is the intensity of the suffering that he has gone through and is going through. He is 70, his ‘disabled’ son is 35, his wife is herself suffering with the disease and at this point of time this father worries of who will take care of his son as he exits.

In his book he talks of a situation where a father beats his son, shouts at him, in short inflicts pain and sufferings upon his son (basically referring to his life). Probably this ‘cruel’ father should be prisoned so that the sufferings of child cease. Then Shourie questions: “What if the ‘father’ here is God?”  I don’t have an answer to this but what I would like to say is if ‘the father’ beats the son and shouts at him, doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care and love him. In fact he loves him the most and always wants his well-being. He wants him to struggle and win. And so is the case with ‘the father’ of mankind- God. He gives sufferings to his sons so that they can struggle, work hard and go through bad times, for there is joy in good times but a greater joy when good times succeed the bad ones. There are sufferings and those who are strong ultimately receive what I would say “Eternal blessings” Still many people think that God does injustice to some people, but this is not so. I repeat, there are sufferings in every man’s life. Think of the sufferings of those millions of people who are under the shackles of poverty.

I won’t say that you believe in God, for everyone has a different opinion in this matter. What I would say is believe in the ‘cosmic energy’- The energy, the bond that keeps us moving. The energy, that is everywhere in space and even within you. Discover and multiply the cosmic energy, for it keeps everything in order. If God gives us sufferings, he also gives us the strength to overcome them. We need to discover that strength in order to make our lives better.

Change the way you look at things and you will find those things changing!