Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn’t see?– Bob Dylan
Recent events show that contrary to the shibboleths we profess to believe in, we hate in the name of God, not trust. The more we invoke the name of that unfortunate god, the more we are mired in hypocrisy and hatred.
God is neither good nor evil as religions are fond of portraying. Nor is Nature. Nor is the energy of this Universe. God, Energy, Nature, whatever name we attribute to that primal source, is neutral. Its purpose, dharma, is the harmonious balance that keeps its creation in balance.
There is no heaven for the good to ascend, and hell for the evil to descend. We experience heaven and hell in this life, not in the hereafter. We experience hell when we destroy that harmony with our thoughts, tweets, speech and actions. This is karma.
Unfortunately, god’s high-end creations, we the humans, are both good and evil. We rise to the highest and noblest levels of the spirit, and descend often to the worst nadir of the demonic.
In the name of the good, religions purvey the evil. They create falsehoods to control through fear and greed. Yet, every religion claims that it stands for compassion, love, brotherhood and all that is noble. Why then have the worst violent strifes in history have been on religious conflicts, leading to racial genocides?
A religion claiming to represent the compassionate, forgiving god condemns the living mother to death under the pretext of saving an unborn fetus. How does this make any sense? Whence does this logic arise? Is it from a deep sense of guilt that cannot be forgiven?
Throughout history small groups of people, often just one as a leader, have been able to cleave bonds and beliefs sustained through centuries by millions within a short period of time and with very little effort. Almost always this is aided by the vast silent majority that stood by and watched with the conviction that it wouldn’t affect them.
Evil does not arise from the evil creatures alone. It is aided and abetted by those consider themselves good, and yet are inactive, too cowardly to stand up.
Does evil deserve forgiveness?
In the ancient epic Mahabharata, a metaphor of the conflict between good and evil, Krishna, the divine metaphor tells Arjuna, the human metaphor to destroy the evil since he has destroyed them again and again, without feeling of kinship or kindness. Krishna reiterates this saying, ‘I shall return time and again to maintain dharma, harmonious balance, supporting the good and destroying the evil.’
Can creation of good exist without destruction of evil?
Shiva, another divine Vedic metaphor, is often referred to as the destroyer, in a Trinity along with the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. Shiva is both the creator and destroyer, the rejuvenator who destroys to allow creation.
The real world of humans is both good and evil. The law of the jungle is a true balance of power and it works when not interfered with. Human intelligence has long since destroyed that natural law of balance of power based on physical strength or even moral strength replacing them with a corrupted set of belief systems that are manipulated by evil minds.
What happened as a culmination of 4 years of an evil man at the helm of the most powerful democracy of this world was no different in ideology from that on another evil man who caused the Holocaust. Would Hitler have been forgiven had he tweeted an apology or confessed to his misdeeds? Should the man responsible today be?
For long we have looked at kindness as a virtue. Yes, it is. Truth is that it is kind to destroy the evil in order to preserve the harmony this world needs. Let’s gather the courage to stand up, speak and act.
