Someone asked me recently, 'Why is God so powerful and yet He creates so many miseries?' God didn't create misery, it is our own human heads that have created all these. God does not make guns. God never made atom bombs. It is we who make these with our own hands. So if we stop that, there will be no more misery. It is we who do not share our property with our poor neighbors. It is we who are not diligent enough to spread the Truth, to spread the message of love, of charity, of endurance, of patience, of compassion, for others to listen.

God only makes beauty. God made the flowers for us to look at. He made the sun to warm us, to shine on our world. He made the rain to fertilize our harvest. God never makes destructive things. It is only our own doing, our own negative atmosphere that brings all these disasters.

Once we understand why we suffer, we can change it. It is only when we do not understand that we continue. Similarly, when a doctor diagnoses a condition and knows where the sickness is, he can cure it; but the most important thing is that the patient himself should know how to live his life in order to stay healthy for a long time. In order to stay healthy in body, we should know some hygienic rules. We should know what food to eat and what exercises to do, so that we can prevent most diseases. In order to stay healthy in spirit, we should know what the Law of God, the Law of Nature is. We should know this so that we can stay healthy in wisdom and become 'God-like,' because God made man in His own image.

We have many prejudices, many so-called preconceived ideas about life, about enlightenment, about religion, about how we should lead our lives, about how religious people should be, about how an enlightened Master should lead his or her life, about how he or she should dress, eat and even speak. I also had many preconceived ideas before, and after enlightenment as well. Before, of course more, but after a little bit of enlightenment it was less, and it will become less and less each day. God made me become more humble each day, until I had no more of my own ideas left, except God's idea. I have to do absolutely what He wants. Just like you, I had to learn by mistakes.

The more we know the less we understand. Because we accumulate too much mundane knowledge, we do not understand the True wisdom. So this is our crowded existence. We are too proud with our Ph.D. or whatever knowledge we gain in this mundane world and we forget that we are so much greater than that. Actually, when we are too proud, it means that we look down upon ourselves, because we are greater than that. Of course, knowledge of this world doesn't obstruct the spiritual wisdom, but if we cling to it then we are in trouble.

As we grow higher into spiritual maturity, we become calmer and more placid in our thinking, in our life viewpoints. So people keep coming to us and asking questions. I have tried my best all the time to satisfy them. But still, it is difficult for some people to understand the answers, despite both our best intentions. It is because we are using our limited understanding faculty to try to grasp something which is beyond that. I also had many of the questions myself before, therefore I understand very well whomever comes to us and asks questions. It seems that they never have enough answers. That is how our mind is. We always feel inquisitive, because our mind is always inquisitive. It collects a lot of information daily, whether bad or good, because the mind doesn't have the power to discriminate. And most of our misery, dissatisfaction and prejudices, and many discriminations between ourselves and the subjects in life come from this inquisitive mind, which takes in all kinds of information and possesses it and makes it become its own.

So we should be careful of what we read and what we hear because if we do not select with discrimination, every other people's ideas and philosophy, sometimes which are not correct, will sink into our minds and become our own. And we will think it is us who thinks this way, who accepts this. And later, when some more information comes which is more correct and helpful to us, we will reject it or we will doubt it, because previously we had already recorded some theory which seems contradictory to the later one. So whatever we take in, we should first or at least later examine if these theories, teaching or ideals have any use to our daily lives or spiritual progress. Otherwise, we will have so much problem struggling between ideas, between groups and different thinking systems.

If we think that we are already good or excellent, we might be cheated by the mind. The mind loves glory, loves praise, loves fantasy, thinking that we are good. On the other side, the mind also degrades us. It might sink us into a depression and inferiority complex, and cheat us of our glory also.

Sometimes, we think that we are the doer in this world, and therefore we take all the burdens upon our shoulders. That is why we sometimes get exhausted, and then we get nothing done. If we get enlightenment, we know if we use it. If we know how to use the greatest power which is already provided within us, from which we came, and also to which we will return and in which we live our lives, then we will have less confusion, less and less each day, until no more confusion is left in our hearts, except to do the will of the Almighty. Jesus Christ also mentioned that I do, yes, but not I, it is the Father in me who does it. And in Hinduism it always mentions not I but Thou.

Before enlightenment, of course I had criticism in my mind. I also had dislikes and likes of how other people should live their lives. I had my opinions about many things in this world, even though they didn't concern me, and didn't harm me, and had absolutely nothing to do with me at all. I would even venture to criticize them or to try to make things right. And that is how we have been busy with our lives. After becoming so tired with criticizing the world and trying to make people right, I have come to realize that I am the only one who should improve, and everything else will be all right. God makes us learn by our mistakes, by lessons and by other people's examples. That is why I think the old Chinese proverb says that when we walk with two other people, or three people, one of them, at least one of them, will become our teacher, or is worthy to be our teacher. This is the truth that I have learned up to now. Because other people's mistakes also strike some memories within us. They remind us of something that we might have done in the past, and that we should never forget. We should learn from them to improve ourselves, and we should never criticize other people.

But I tell you, forgive yourself. Forgive yourself anytime. Whatever you do, just make an offering to God and let it be. Whatever the outcome, because we are not the body anyhow. We are not the action. We are not the doer of anything in this world. Even if we are, suppose we are the doer, we still have to forgive ourselves. We have to forgive ourselves when we make mistakes, or when we cannot help our habits like anger, or sometimes greed, or sometimes lustful thoughts. These things also arise from circumstances. It is not truly the Self, it is not truly the soul that desires all these things. So if we are angry with ourselves, we should be angry only with our habits, our accumulated habits. Or we should blame the situation also, not to blame the Supreme Wisdom, the real Self, because the real Self never errs, never makes any mistakes.