Why does a loving God give us such a long rope that we can hang ourselves with it?

How would you respond to a person who says, well, I like your conception much better than the Christian conception, but, you know, here in America, in Western countries, they have a saying, if you give a fool enough rope, he’ll hang himself. So it seems like Krishna is giving people a lot of rope. Why doesn’t he, you know, in the Bhagavad Gita it says, savastha cahamrti sannivishtho mataksmati agam Why doesn’t he, you know, cut us off at the pass, so to speak, before we hang ourselves?

Well, I would say hell is the way he cuts us off the path.

So it’s like when actions have consequences, that’s what brings us to our senses. So in general, one person can guide another person only in three ways. Like many times when parents ask, you know, how do we guide someone? How do we guide our children? There are broadly three ways.

First is conscience. That now conscience is like an innate voice. Something just cannot be done.

If we grew up seeing our parents never doing something, it’s out of question. No matter however angry you are, you don’t hit anyone. Then we ourselves start feeling it’s wrong.

So conscience is like the voice of emotion. But it’s not just emotional. It’s that innate sense.

This is like an inner compass. Now, if the compass is not there, then there is intelligence. Intelligence is where we appeal to a person.

We tell him if you do this, this is what is going to happen. Intelligence is where you give the person a vision of the consequence that is going to come. And if intelligence doesn’t work, then there is the experience.

Experience of what? Experience of the consequence. So broadly speaking, we cannot force anyone to do anything. Conscience is they just innately feel it’s wrong, so I can’t do it.

Intelligence is, okay, I see this is bad, so I’ll not do it. If somebody just feels, I don’t want to kill animals. I don’t want to hurt animals.

If I eat red meat, I’ll get a heart attack. I don’t want to do that. Somebody gets a heart attack, I say, okay, now no more eating red meat.

So basically there are three ways. So in one sense, hell is the way by which God is ensuring that the rope is not too long. So hell is where God is giving experience to people so that they can reform.