Your Questions Answered

by Swami Krishnananda

Chapter 45: On World Crisis

German Visitor: How do you see the increasing world situation, about maybe a possible coming world crisis, or about the increasing population?

Swamiji: What do I see? I see nothing. I have no opinion in this matter. It is the work of God. He has created this world, and so He is creating and also destroying, both, for different purposes. It is the work of Nature, just as you are growing from a little child to a man, and become old, and afterwards, die also. Now, you are asking, why should a person be born, and grow, and become strong, and be happy, work hard, become old, and then die. Why does this happen? Tell me. It is the work of Nature; it is the way in which the universe operates. It is the process of evolution and involution, and we cannot have any say in this matter. The history of the world is a history of Nature, a history of the universe. As you are considering yourself as something outside the world, you are unable to understand what is happening in the world and why.

If you are a part of the world, it is difficult to imagine this situation. You have to feel that you are one with the world. At that time, you will feel that you are thinking like the whole Nature thinking, the whole universe thinking; then, you will not put questions, because it is happening within yourself.

A thing that is happening within yourself does not raise questions. You are raising a question because you think that something is happening outside you, but the world is not outside you. You are also part of the world. Do you understand me? So, you cannot stand outside it.

The whole cosmos is evolving from one stage to another stage, until it reaches the Supreme Absolute. Population, or dying, or war, or whatever it is – they are all part of the processes of evolution. The meaning of it you cannot understand, unless you identify yourself with the whole cosmic structure, and feel like a cosmic man, rather than Mr. so-and-so, like an individual outside the world. No man can understand the mystery because he thinks that he is outside the world. It is a wrong notion. Your meditation should feel one with the whole creation, and then you will never put a question afterwards.

German Visitor: Thank you, Swamiji.