ASK MAULANA — Your Questions Answered

What is the “Art of Questioning”? What is the definition of a healthy question? A question for the sake of questioning is an unhealthy question, while question for the sake of learning is a healthy question. This is the art of questioning. One who knows this fact is a master of the art of questioning. How does one deal with the guilt that is sometimes borne out of introspection? Guilt-consciousness is a very positive sign. It provides you an incentive to correct yourself. If one is ready to correct oneself, then the feeling of guilt is very good. However, it becomes a problem only in the situation when one is not ready to reform oneself. In an article it is written that it is very important to love ourselves in order to feel the love and affection from others. What is your view on this and how important do you think it is to love one’s own self? I don’t subscribe to this formula. My formula is: Discover your responsibility toward yourself as well as toward others. It is the sense of responsibility that is important, and not love. Love is the highest aspect of man’s nature. It is, thus, meant only for God, the Creator. According to my experience, the right formula is: Love for God and responsibility towards fellow human beings. Man has been given a very strong ego which comes in the way of surrendering before God. Why is man put under such a difficult test? It is not a matter of difficulty; rather, it is a matter of realization. If you realize that the ego is a gift from God and it was not created by you, then it becomes very easy to surrender to God. Because after this discovery, surrender becomes acknowledgment of God, and to acknowledge is the greatest urge of one’s nature. When we are born with the spirit of submission, what makes us turn arrogant and become a rebel? Man is born with ego. Modesty comes when we exercise control over our ego. Ego comes by birth and modesty comes by choice. o