How to Reconcile a Benevolent God with Suffering?

Sadhviji shares that by seeing suffering, one begins to question the existence and the nature of God. Suffering is based on our experience and our perceived reality.

It can stem from who we think we are, where we are and our body and mind. She explains that just like a parent that wants the best for its child, even if they have to make their children do things they don’t wish to, but the parent acts because they know what is best for the child. In the same way, suffering or pain may seem bad to us, but may be essential to our growth and blossoming.

She explains that in the case of extreme suffering like genocide, etc. instead of viewing it as karmic play, which causes the souls who suffer to be paying some debt of the past, we might also see it that these souls are so divine that they have agreed to be the lessons from which we learn to make our world a better place. She explains that karma is not only due to that which happened in the past, but also can happen to make room for that which needs to take place in the future.