Questioner (Q): When we see terrible crimes like rapes, mass murders, lynchings, etc. happening so openly, we wonder where that benevolent God is? He could have easily prevented all of it. He is supposed to be omnipotent, yet he does nothing. My question is not whether there is God or not. My question is why is he so very absent when people need him the most?
Acharya Prashant (AP): If you really need the Truth, Truth is at your service. If there are rapes, then in your own eyes, rape is what you need. Does the rapist need God? No, he needs flesh. He gets flesh. Mass murders; does the murderer need God? No, he needs revenge or whatever exploitation. He gets it. Same with the other things. You would say, “But what if the exploited one, raped one, murdered one needs God?” If the one who has been exploited or tortured is really God-loving, in God, full of godliness, then all these events, that happen to him or her, mean exactly zero to him. There is no guarantee at all that an extremely godly woman will never be raped. That can happen. It has happened several times in history. It happens maybe all around us, all the time. There is no guarantee that an extremely godly person will never be assaulted, insulted or tortured, or murdered. That can happen. But it would mean nothing at all to that person. Others may make stories and draw their own conclusions and those conclusions would always be like, “See! Such a godly person, and yet he had to face such a dastardly end.” That’s not what the experience or observation of that killed or raped person is.
There is no guarantee ever in life. One does not turn spiritual in order to obtain guarantees regarding one’s experiences or events in life. Anything can happen to anybody. The godliest persons in history have often died very violent, very ordinary deaths. They have been killed, murdered, beheaded, publically executed, stoned, name it, you have instances. In fact, the crucifixion of Christ was the basis of all Christianity. All those things can happen to anybody. But is Christ wondering why it is happening to him? It doesn’t look like. If Christ is really godly, those events wouldn’t have mattered much to him. The murderer murders because he is godless. The rapist rapes because he is godless. The raped one might actually not be raped in spite of being physically raped if she is godly. The murdered one might never be killed in spite of being physically killed because the godly one becomes immortal.
