Deathlessness in the Face of Inevitable Death

On 22nd June, 2013 my wife and I flew on Malaysia Airlines Flight #370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. On 8 March 2014 that same flight 370 that we were on disappeared without a trace with all 227 passengers and 12 crew members presumed dead. This reminds us of the dangerous nature of this material world where death can come at any minute even when you least expect it. Therefore if we want true peace of mind in such a dangerous atmosphere, we must solidly situate ourselves on the platform of deathlessness and by taking complete shelter of Lord Sri Krishna and thus regaining our eternal spiritual identities as His servants.

Boeing 777-236ER Used for MH370 During Take Off In Paris

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version

Question: How to Defeat this Atheistic Argument?

A question was raised after I repeated a quote Your Grace recently sent to all of our class via e-mail. I loved your Thought for the Day so much, I posted it on my Facebook. Unfortunately, an atheist decided to challenge your great wisdom. Your quote was:

"Atheism means asininity (excessive stupidity), and there is not much more to be said in this connection. Anyone who accepts the atheistic contention that something can come out nothing has not used their brain to carefully analyze reality. Those who are sober and wise use their intelligence to understand actuality instead of being blinded by the sophisticated word jugglery of dogmatists."

The atheist replied:

"You say that being an atheist and believing that something can come out of nothing, yet you believe in a higher power, which obviously could not create itself, thus you contradict your own statement by believing in a higher power because something would have had to create it, thus making that higher power a lesser power."

How would you respond to this statement? 

Chelsey R.

Answer: We Do Not Come Out of Nothing

I am very happy to see your determination to defeat the epidemic disease known as atheism that is ravaging the human society and turning human beings into animals. In this life atheists develop the consciousness of animals. And in their next life they will literally become animals. To save these poor souls it is of the utmost importance that atheistic philosophy is completely and thoroughly ripped to shreds so that no intelligent person will ever again give it any credibility.

Our atheist friend said, "You believe in a higher power which obviously could not create itself."

Our response is that the principle that something does not come out of nothing does not negate the conception of a higher power which can manifest Himself. That higher power is not nothing. He is something. Our atheist companion is trying to establish this point when says "obviously." But this is not at all obvious because it is simply not true. What he does not understand is that God must indeed be self-manifested. Otherwise He cannot be God. He cannot come from any other source other then Himself. If He did, His source would be God, not Him.

The whole point is that there must a source for our existence because we cannot come out of nothing. And just as a goldless gold mine cannot produce gold, an impersonal existential mine cannot produce persons. Therefore since we exist as persons our original source must necessarily also possess personality. Some people have called that person God. There are many other names for that person as well. In Sanskrit He is also called Adi, which means the source. Only a fool would deny that we have a source and affirm that we came out of nothing.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari