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72 miserable. He cited Indra and other gods oppressed by the demons and lying under a curse, and shewed that even heaven itself was full of misery. And lastly, in a ravishing language of inspiration, he began to search into the workings of the Eternal, Unknowable, Creative Mind. He shewed how the Omniscient is bound to feel eternal sympathy for the endless sorrows of this limitless universe. He who is all-merciful, can he remain impervious to this mass of suffering? If so, then how all-merciful? There is a permanent bond between mercy and misery——without misery how can mercy he? He who is full of inﬁnite mercy, must feel everlasting sorrow for the immeasurable misery of this boundless universe, otherwise he is not all-merciful. If you ask, that God is beyond all passion-how can He feel sorrow? The answer will be, that if God is beyond passion, if He is unconcerned in the creation, its preservation, and its destruction, He cannot be called the Creator and Ruler. If there be a creator and ruler, he cannot be without passion—he must be full of sorrow. But that is not possible, as God is all-blissful. Therefore there is no such thing as misery.”

"If the existence of misery is admitted,” continued Ramananda Swami, “then is there no remedy for this all-pervading evil? No, there is none; but then if everyone should try to remove one another’s misery, certainly it could be alleviated. You see Providence Himself is active day and night in removing the sufferings of His creatures. With the alleviation of the misery of this Universe is the alleviation of the Divine Sorrow. The gods are busy in removing the sufferings of the created beings and therein is their only godly happiness, else the gods who are beyond all passion and sensuous feelings would have no other happiness.” Then after praising the