The Nature of Evil

When we hear about groups like ISIS, which practice extreme violence such as beheading and daily rapes of young innocent women, we are filled with revulsion and wonder whether the perpetrators are human. We often hear the words ‘evil’, but we are not clear about the nature of the evil. Is evil something which is controlled and sourced out of a strong entity such as the devil or demon, as envisioned in Christianity?  Or,  is the root of all evil a spiritual entity referred to as Saitan in the Quran?  In Hinduism, perpetrator of irrational evil deeds and violence have often been categorised as rakshasas. Are they the same as demons or saitan? 

To give a better understanding of this nature of evil is the subject of this blog.  

From my understanding and interactions with diverse spiritual leaders and from reading of books on this subject, my opinion is that evil or forces of darkness can indeed exist in potent forms.  Although the first part of what I am going to say might strike as dramatic or irrational, I request the readers to persist till the end of this reading to get a comprehensive idea of the nature of evil.  Those who only read the first part of the post will leave with an over-dramatised idea of what is ‘evil’.

One version of evil that we see is the much dramatised version that we saw in the movie ‘The exorcist’. This can indeed happen. A human can be completely possessed by a demonic /darker force and used to serve the purpose of showing the power and reach of the demonic force.  Although this is by far rarer than our popular movie genres would like us to believe, it can happen. There are well-known books written by people in this field such as Malachi Martin  and  Gabriele Amorth which talks about this.  In Hinduism, although the focus is not on a personality like Satan, there are exorcisms done by skilled occult practitioners and tantrics to get rid of evil forces which may possess some humans under certain conditions. Again, it is a rare occurrence and the reality remains that most of these ‘possessions’ are actually manifestations of psychiatric problems.  The important thing to remember however is that rare is not equal to zero.  Possession is an important event in a person’s life and as many books confirm, this event is decided often before the birth of a person. There also needs a conducive environment for the invading dark force to enter.

The second version of this evil is to have a birth as a direct incarnation. We all love to believe that every human being is a divine creation. Although this is true, my conclusion is that there are darker forces which are also permitted to send their own incarnations to certain wombs in order to achieve important goals within the time-space rules of the universe.  In the Mahabharata, Kunti uses certain mantras to invite the incarnations of special gods into her womb as a result of which the pandavas are born.  In a similar way,  it is also possible to invite or create conditions suitable for incarnations of certain darker entities to be thus created in the womb.  When we hear about individuals like Idi Amin, Hitler and Baghdadi (from ISIS) and hear the barbaric atrocities they perpetrate upon innocent humans, we have reasonable grounds to believe that they were incarnations of certain dark forces.

The third more common occurrence, in my view, is when evil forces swim like a strong, powerful yet invisible cloud over a given population and geographical area for certain pre-determined duration, as permitted between the interaction agreement between   divine and dark forces.  During this period, normal humans are influenced heavily by negative emotions of fear, anger and hatred. Rules of sensible, compassionate thinking seem completely suspended. In this scenario, while there may be a few leaders who are heavily influenced by evil, darker forces, it is the entire atmosphere of that area (to use a commonly used phrase) of that region that is vitiated and which is infected by the evil. For example, during Rwandan genocide in Africa, for several days and weeks, some groups of  Hutus set up road blocks to stop travelling Tutsis and calmly killed everyone identified as a Tutsi, including women and small children. The cold-blooded killers were often those with whom these Tutsis had lived earlier, in harmony, just a few months back. But sanity and clear thinking seemed absent during these days of genocide. The mental make of humans seemed to have completely lost their moral compass.  This is a scenario which has come up again and again during riots and unusual situations. If we look at the horrendous genocide of Jews in Germany, simple, normal German officials and employees of the Hitler regime calmly sent millions of innocent Jews to their death in gas chambers without feeling anything unusual about it.  In the 1984 riots in North India, many Hindus who were neighbours and acquaintances of Sikhs did not feel any remorse at ganging up and brutally murdering their Sikh brethren, burning them alive and/or raping their women.  It is very easy to discern the advent of this period of evil influence. When otherwise sensible people start talking the language of fear, hatred or anger, then it is time to perceive the increasing influence of the forces of darkness.

Of course even in the second version,  when a powerful incarnation of dark forces rules an area, the entire area becomes the playground for dark forces (as in the third version scenario). This is because there are conditions of fear, anger and hatred which are ripe for the evil to exist.  In some ways it can be considered similar to conducive conditions of soil, moisture and temperature which can lead to growth of certain plants or weeds. In fact, when a particular community or population in a given geographical area emits large negative vibrations of fear, suspicion, anger and hatred, it is like a beacon for evil forces to concentrate on that area.  In ancient Hindu texts too, the rakshasas too are often depicted as skilled in the art of maya and powerful magic. In a disturbed area, darker forces often employ rumours and seeds of negative ideas which can be easily picked up by human intuition capabilities and translated into actions. For example, during the India-Pakistan riots, some of the  murderous Muslim rioters came across possible Hindu men who claimed to be Muslims. These killers then hit upon the idea of verifying whether these are ‘real’ Muslims by asking them to drop their pants and seeing whether they are circumcised. These kind of evil execution ideas are often available because the evil forces present in the environment seed the atmosphere with these ideas which can be picked up easily by those attuned to the evil.

What then,  is to be done by those who exist in a zone where the evil is powerful? The answer is similar to ‘what is to be done’ when it is very cold? Simple – Keep yourself warm.  One can sit near a fire or keep the body warm using clothes etc. and try to light a small fire to provide heat in a small area. Similarly, if in pitch darkness, a similar answer applies – light a candle to provide some light at least in the surrounding area.  Similarly, when we are in the presence of powerful evil in a zone, we need to keep ourselves connected to cosmic divinity, through meditation if possible. Those who are not comfortable with meditation or not trained in it, can take refuge in praying to cosmic entities who are divine.  In other words, keep our heads low and let the time pass. These measures will also definitely keep us protected from evil, unless our karmic destinies have written otherwise. And lastly, if it is possible, in our own small ways, we can try and light the candles. For example, as depicted in the movie, Schindler’s list, Oskar Schindler saves the lives of hundreds of Jews, taking grave risk, in an environment where there is all-pervading and powerful presence of evil.  However, although we all aspire to be, we know that everyone cannot be Schindler.  In such circumstances, it is more than sufficient to be connected to divine forces of goodness, so that we remain protected. 

Despite all this, I have noticed many great spiritual masters such as Buddha not dwell on the nature of evil or dark forces. This has often puzzled me and made me continue to search for consistent answers. Great masters like Buddha often focused on meditation and attaining nirvana, that is,  freedom from the cycle of births and deaths. These Eastern masters and Yogis did not give much importance to God or Satan,  unlike what we see in the Bible where Jesus often casts out evil spirits and at one point even castigates Satan for trying to tempt him. 

After much thinking and analysis of the causes for this so-called discrepancy and trying to find logically consistent explanations, my end conclusion was this.  Above a certain spiritual level, evil does not exist, what exists is only ignorance. Before I sound completely inconsistent, as if I am negating everything I have just written just a few paragraphs back, let me explain it in detail.

Let me use the analogy of fire and ice.  Both are extremes. Fire is very hot. Ice is very cold. We cannot put our hands into a fire. Neither can we hold a block of ice in our bare hands for too long. Fire can be an instrument of torture and so can be ice.  Fuel, heat and oxygen are the chief ingredients of fire. Water and cold are the chief ingredients of ice.

Yet when we look deeply,  there is a big difference. The difference, as all basic students of physics would know, is that unlike heat, there is nothing like cold.  Cold is merely the absence of heat.  You can supply heat, you cannot supply cold.  Cold is only created by the mere absence of heat.  The same is the situation with light and darkness. There is nothing tangible called darkness. Darkness is merely the absence of light.  Just like increased cold is the mere withdrawal of heat, increased darkness is merely the greater absence of light. When we refer to something as pitch dark, it only means there is no shred of light, not even from a small crevice.

Therefore,  the forces of darkness or evil as we call it, are nothing but entities which exist in the absence of the powerful light of spiritual wisdom. When the spiritual light of wisdom shines through, creating a powerful, introspective and discriminating mind, the forces of darkness melt away. It is not without reason that the ancient mantra from Upanishad states ‘Asato Ma Sad Gamaya, Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya’  (lead us from untruth/ignorance to the truth and from darkness to light....). This phrase does not talk about devils, rakshasas or gods. Hence,  ignorance and darkness are the real definitions of evil at the macro spiritual level.

Now, yet, when I insist that evil exists at the higher levels merely as the absence of light and the absence of ignorance, how do I logically explain the various scenarios/versions of evil which I have outlined in the earlier part of the blog. Am I not contradicting myself?  

Here is where the nuances of the nature of evil come in. 

Let me continue with the analogy of the cold. Although we all know that cold does not exist, but is merely the absence of heat, yet the effect of cold is tangible. For example, severe frost bite can cause people to lose their organs and can lead to severe health consequences.  Similarly, hypothermia can lead to loss of reasoning, slurred speech, impaired logic and so on. Therefore, although cold is the mere absence of heat, its impact is very tangible. The person who feels cold, especially a chilly breeze feels it as if it is a tangible force. The snow that hits a person’s face is tangible. The glacier that falls on a person and kills him is also tangible. Similarly, although dark forces exist merely as absence of light and divinity, the mischief they can cause in a tangible way is very real.

That is where the initial part of this blog needs to be read alongside this part.

However, in my opinion, the Christian and Islamic version of a powerful Satan or Saitan against the powerful God or Allah is somewhat over-dramatised. This is very typical of the Western binary outlook on many things.  Even the Hollywood movies have a clear good guy and bad guy. Hence, you have the all-good God and all evil-Satan and his demons. However, we know that in real life, almost all humans and many situations exist in varying shades of grey.

Hence, in my opinion, the treatment of evil forces under Hinduism as misguided creations, lost from light and steeped in ignorance is far more realistic and humane. This paradigm treats even rakshasas as capable of higher thinking and divine merits. The rakshasa king Ravana was often called a great skilled meditator who sought and obtained many boons from Shiva.  This also shows the fairness of the cosmic system where everyone can play by the rules and obtain certain merits/boons.

What is clear is that indeed there is a path of improvement, albeit perhaps a smaller one, for even those spirits/entities which are allied with darker forces. Based on perception of light and the removal of veils of ignorance, these spiritual entities can also proceed on the path of goodness and divinity. As the ancient Hindu mantra goes, ‘Lokah Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu’  (May all beings, everywhere in the universe,  be happy), the scope and promise of happiness, improvement and welfare is not excluded to even the vilest of those who are classified within ‘dark forces’.

©Staju Jacob, 2016.

Staju Jacob is the author of path-breaking book Karmasutra The Karma of Sex, which deals with the karmic spirituality of consensual sexual actions. This book is available globally on various Amazon sites in Paperback , Kindle, Sony Kobo, Google books, Iphone Ibook etc.  He can be contacted on Twitter @KaRmasutraTKOS