ASK MAULANA — Your Questions, Answered

Why is it that people remember God only when they are in trouble? While, when they are enjoying the good things of life, they don’t acknowledge God. It is a general feature that people do good things when there is compulsion. Otherwise, they fail to do good things. It is this human psychology that causes people to remember God only when they are in trouble; that is, when they are in compulsive situations. But, reward is for those who remember God without there being any compulsion to do so. Many people say, “Materialism and spirituality cannot co-exist”. Please explain. It is not a matter of coexistence; because, materialism and spirituality are not contradictory. Spirituality is the inner content of materialism, and materialism is the outer content of spirituality. It all depends on one’s intellectual awakening. One who is an intellectually awakened person can combine both these without any problem. Often, people are of the opinion that the right time to indulge in spirituality and God-oriented thinking is after one has attained a certain status in life and reached a particular age. Please comment. This kind of thinking is completely wrong. Spirituality is the most important part of one’s life. We need spirituality in every period of our life. The only fact is that when a person is immature, he needs to take advice from elders, and when he is mature he can take decisions on his own. Why is it so difficult for man to accept his limitations and why does he keep nurturing the illusion that he knows it all? Man is born with an insatiable nature. This nature is meant to provide impetus to him, so that he can continuously engage in struggle. But, sometimes people fail to accept the reality, so they take a jump that is not within their capacity. This is a well-known saying for such persons: Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. o