{"id":75,"date":"2013-07-13T01:25:42","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=75"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:25:42","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:42","slug":"50-the-principle-of-evil-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03\/50-the-principle-of-evil-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-50_The Principle of Evil.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nThe Principle of Evil<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nT<\/font>HE <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b>problem of evil is one that has taxed
\nhuman thought and evolved various and conflicting solutions.
\nTo the rationalist who does not believe in anything not material,
\nthe problem does not exist. Everything is in nature as the result
\nof evolution. Nature is blind and unintelligent and has therefore
\nno conception of good or evil, the conception belongs to the human mind and is the result of the social sense and the ideas of
\npleasure and pain developed in human beings by a perfectly intelligible natural process. It is to men who believe in Intelligence
\nas governing and developing the world that the problem exists.
\nWhy did evil come into existence and what is its purpose?<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe unwillingness of the devout soul to admit that evil can
\nhave its existence in God, has led to variations of the Manichean
\ntheory which sees a double control in the world, God as the
\nPrinciple of Good and Satan as the Principle of Evil. Those who
\nregard the belief in the existence of an intelligent evil power as superstition,
\nfind the origin of evil in man who abuses his freedom and by his revolt and self-will gives birth to sin. This solution
\nsolves nothing, for it does not explain why there should have been
\na possibility of evil at all. Unless we limit our conception of God
\nas the source and creator of all, that from which all proceeds,
\nwe must admit that evil as part of the economy of the world must
\nhave proceeded from Him no less than good. Even if we violently
\nposit another creative force in the world limiting His universality, we shall have to assume that He, having the power to
\nprevent evil, permits it; for He is omnipotent and none can do
\nanything except by the permission of His all-wise and overruling
\nProvidence. And if we limit the omnipotence of God, we reduce
\nHim to a mere Demiurgus, a great Artificer of things, struggling
\namongst forces over which He has not entire control. Such a
\nconception is unphilosophical and contrary to the universal
\nspiritual experience of mankind. The problem remains why,
\nif He is God, All-Love, sarvamangalam<\/i>, He creates evil or, if<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 383<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nHe does not create it, permits it.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nTo our mind there is no escaping from that belief that, if
\nGod exists, He is all. All proceeds from Him: from what other
\nsource can it proceed ? All exists in Him: in what other being
\nor continent can it exist ? Therefore evil must proceed from Him,
\nevil must exist in Him. Since He is All-Wise, for all knowledge
\nis His, it must exist for some wise and perfect purpose. Since He
\nis All-Love, it must exist for good and not for anything which
\ncontradicts the good. Only, His is an infinite wisdom, ours a
\nfinite. His perfect, ours undeveloped. His is an infinite and all-wise love, ours a finite and unwise love, a love imperfectly
\ninformed by knowledge full of māyā<\/i>, attachment to passing
\nhappiness and pleasure. God’s love looks beyond, ours fixes
\nits eyes on the moment.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nExperience must always be the basis of true knowledge, but
\nit must be experience illuminated by true perception, not experience dominated by surface impressions. The experience of the
\nmind which has compassed calm and is able to preserve its tranquillity under the most strenuous assaults of pain, misfortune and
\nevil, is alone worth having. The mind which is not dhīra<\/i>, which
\nfeels grief and thinks under the influence of affection and passion,
\neven if it be a noble affection and passion, cannot arrive at the
\nsamyagj\u00f1ānam<\/i>, the complete and perfect truth. Emotion is for
\nthe heart, it should not besiege the intellect; for the proper business of the intellect is to observe and understand, not to be obscured by the slightest prejudice, the least trace of feeling. One
\nwho is dhīra<\/i> will look narrowly at every incident and, if he cannot
\nsee at once, wait for enlightenment as to its ultimate purpose and
\nissue; so waiting, so calmly considering, the meaning of life
\ndawns on the mind, an infinite purpose reveals itself in things
\nsmall and great, in occurrences good and bad: omniscient Providence reveals itself in the fall of the sparrow and the death of
\nthe ant as well as in the earthquake that destroys great cities
\nand the floods that make thousands destitute and homeless.
\nRudra and Shiva reveal themselves as One. The Yogin sees God
\nin all things, not only in all things, but in all events. He is the
\nflood. He is the earthquake. He is death, that leads to a higher
\nlife, He is Pain that prepares us for a higher bliss. This is a thing<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 384<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthat cannot be argued, it has to be seen, paripaśyanti dhīrāh<\/i>.
\n<\/i>And sight is only possible to the calm heart and the unperturbed
\nunderstanding.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe materialist is <\/b> not wrong when he holds good and evil
\nto be merely operations of Nature which she uses impartially and
\nwithout making a distinction, and that the distinction is an evolution in the human mind. Evil is good disintegrating to prepare
\nfor a higher good. That which is now tyranny was once necessary
\nto consolidate human society. What was once an ideal state of
\nsociety, would now be barbarous and evil. Morality progresses,
\nreligion widens with the growing manifestation of that which is
\ndivine in the human race. As with the individual, so with the race
\nand the world, evil tends to good, it comes into existence in order
\nthat men may reject the lesser good and rise to the higher.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe problem of pain remains. Was it necessary that the process should be accompanied with pain to the individual ? At one
\ntime the capacity for pain, physical and mental, was infinitely less
\nthan it is now, so little that it might be pronounced to be nil. It
\nis a remarkable fact that disease, pain and grief have grown keener
\nwith the growing fineness of the human organisation. Obviously
\nthis can only be a temporary development necessary to prepare
\na higher race which shall rise above pain to a higher capacity for
\npleasure and happiness. The lower organisation resisted the
\nsamskāra<\/i> of pain and grief by the coarseness of its composition,
\nit rejected pain in the sense of not knowing it. The higher organisation of the future will not be below it, but rise above it. It was
\nthe knowledge of good and evil that brought grief and sin into
\nthe world; when that knowledge is surmounted man will rise
\nabove grief and sin. Before he ate the forbidden fruit, he had the
\ninnocence of the animal; when he shall cease to eat it, he will have
\nthe innocence of the God. Is it not so that in nature pain is
\na possibility which has to be exhausted and man has been
\nselected as the instrument to bring it into existence, in a limited
\nspace, for a limited time, and work it out of the cosmos. In the
\nlight of this idea the Christian doctrine of the Son of Man
\non the cross acquires a new significance and man himself becomes the Christ of the universe.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nAnother question occurs. Is pain real or a shadow? The<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 385<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nVedantist believes that the soul is a part of God or one with God
\nHimself, and cannot feel pain or grief, but only ānanda<\/i>, bliss. The
\njīva<\/i> or soul takes the rasa<\/i>, the delight of the dualities, and it
\nchanges to bliss in his nature; but this is veiled by the ignorance
\nand separates the jīva<\/i> in his svarūpa<\/i> from the mind and the heart.
\nPain is a negative vikāra<\/i> or corruption of true experience in the
\nmind, pleasure a positive vikāra<\/i>. The truth is ānanda<\/i>. But this
\nis a knowledge for which mankind is not ready. Only the Yogin
\nrealises it and becomes sama<\/i>, like-minded to pain and pleasure,
\ngood or evil, happiness or misfortune. He takes the rasa<\/i> of both
\nand they give him strength and bliss; for the veil between his
\nmind and his soul is removed and the apparent man in him has
\nbecome one with the svarūpa<\/i> or real man. If mankind as a whole
\ncame too early by that knowledge, the evolution of the perfect
\nGood would be delayed. The utter sweetness of dayā<\/i> and prema<\/i>,
\n<\/i>pity and love, might never be extracted from the līlā<\/i>.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 386<\/font><\/p>\n

\t\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Principle of Evil   THE problem of evil is one that has taxed human thought and evolved various and conflicting solutions. To the rationalist…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","wpcat-4-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}