Is God Partial ?

 

 

It is a popular misconception that the trinity help only the Devas.

Fact is – GOD helps anyone who asks for his help.  God assists you by being a catalyst and magnifies your efforts and actions.

 

Devas, Danavas and Daityas are step brothers.  Brahama, their gradsire, has given them what they need to flourish in accordance with their nature.  However, Danavas and Daityas are often covetous of what the Devas have and often want to deprive the Devas of all they have.  This is not because what they have is insufficient for them, or inferior, but because they can not stand to see the Devas happy.  Their happiness is based on unhappiness of others.  Their sole goal is to own EVERYTHING, even if that menas others are deprived of what they need to live.

 

Daityas and Danavas, when they make sincere efforts to request help from the Divine, the Divine helps them out.  They meditate, do the taap, keep the vows and God (Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, Devi) grants them their wishes.  He makes the Daityas and Danavs powerful, rich, strong – and yet – soon enough they start to misuse their power by oppressing others.  Daityas, Danavas, Rakshashas make other people’s lives miserable by snatching away what 'they' have. 

 

God is an optimist.  First S/He hopes the person who was worthy of their boons will soon mend their ways and be worthy of grace again.  When that fails, God sends advisors and sages to bring the errant individual back to the path of dharma.  When that fails, there are various minor punishments and purges to remind the individual why s/he was given the power in the first place – to improve the lot of his people BUT not at the cost of others.  When all else fails, GOD, in whichever form is best suited, comes to punish the wronger doer by taking away what was given to them.

 

This applies equally to Devas as well as Danavas, Daityas and Rakshashas.  We humans have allied ourselves with one side or another in this argument and hence only highlight the miseries caused by the “other” or the “enemy” and praise God’s helps for "our" side.  We  minimising those things that do not fit into our template of what God actually did.

 

For example – the likes of Hiranyaksha, Hiranyakashyapu, Sahastrarjun, Ravan, Banasur, Mahisasur etc gained their extraordinary powers through the grace of the Divine.  They performed amazing tapaas, showed great devotion, amazing amount of patience.  Once they were granted the boons they wanted, these same “Taapas” (people who have performed taaps), instead of being paragons of virtue, teachers of extraordinary intelligence, began to live lives of licentiousness, denying others the right to the same level of consciousness as them.  When those who have been blessed, and are fortunate enough to have been given God’s grace, misbehave, God initially tries to correct them.  Yet, if they continue to misuse their powers, God is forced to come in person and physically remove them.

 

However, divine rewards and punishment are not reserved for Danavas and Daityas only.  Even Devas, if they misuse their powers, are punished.  For example, when Indra becomes so haughty as to insult his own guru and sages, Indra was removed from his role as the leader of the Devas.  Whenever Indra misuses his powers to keep others from fulfilling their spiritual quest, he losses his moral authority.  When Indra abuses his powers and rapes Ahalya, Indra is severely punished and scars of his punishment are left for all times.

  

God helps those who help themselves.  Devas or Danvas or Daityas or even Manvas – it doesn’t matter who you are, if are sincere in your efforts, are active and working towards achieving a singular goal, God helps you.  Afterall, God wants to see everyone happy !  When we misuse God given grace, it doesn’t matter who we are, like any sensible parent, God punishes us for our excesses.

 

By nature, some people are more prone to anti social behaviour than others.  It's not what they have or don't have that makes them behave or misbehave, it's just their nature to be badly behaved.  Such people are more prone to misuse whatever advantages they are given in life.  A bully will misuse his height, or weight, or sharp intellect, or position of power to make the lives of others as miserable as he can.  Not because he needs to, but because he gets a perverse pleasure from seeing others suffer.  Such people will misuse whatever they can, whenever they can.  Even after several attempts, if God can’t reform them, the ultimate punishment is to removing the 'advantages' they were given in the first place. 

 

For example, Kauravas were mean to Pandavs not because of what the Pandavas had done to them but because they simply disliked the idea of Pandavas being alive in the first place.  They did everything they could, including attempt mass murder to remove Pandavas from the earth.  When Pandavas had acquired wealth, position and power on their own merit, Kauravas acted dishonourably and robbed them by deceit.  The reason Krushna allied himself with the Pandavas, is because he could see the manifest unfairness of what the Kauravas were doing.  The evil nature of Duryodhan is laid bare when even at the point of death, he can only think of annihilating the Pandavas.  At no point does he care what happens to the lives of others he is condemning to death.  He doesn’t care about the widows and orphans or even his own aged parents.  All he wants is self-gratification at any cost. 

 

It is because of Duryodhan’s total disregard for the welfare of others that Shri Krushna sides with the Pandavas.  Even at this point though, God does give Duryodhan what he craves – his army.  There is a saying that “Its not what you have that matters, but how you use it”.  Duryodhan had so many advantages in life, but, he was unable to capitalise on his advantages because of his mean spirit.  Though he had great charisma, position, power, army, he was unable to make any positive or lasting impression in history because he lacked a constructive goal in life.  Whereas the Pandavas had the goal of establishing a dharma rajya, Duryodhan’s only goal in life was to be rid of the Pandavas.  Throughout the great battle of the Mahabharata, like a typical spoilt brat, Duryodhan does more complaining and whining than fighting.  He expects others to win his battles for him.  When things don’t go his way, he throws temper tantrums and expects others to pick up the pieces for him.

 

God helped Pandavas because they had a great aim in life – to establish dharma throughout the Arya-Varta – lands where the Aryan way of civilisation held sway.  God helps the Devas while they have a great aim to bringing harmony to everyone’s lives.

 

God helps anyone – everyone – who has an aim to achieve something – anything – great.  But that aim has to be followed through by action.  If you act, God acts as a catalyst and helps speed up your chance of success.  God helps everyone according to their own merit.  Like an impartial judge, God does not take side.  However, if the judgement goes against us, we may conclude God has been partial !!!

Devas vs Danavas

 

© Bhagwat    [email protected]

 

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