Eliminate The Evil Forces Within

Human nature is ruled by dual forces – either demoniacal or godly. Due to this there is a fight between the good and the bad since antiquity, both within and without. The bad forces within us like greed, lust, anger, jealousy, arrogance, attachment, fear and ego are more severe and troublesome than the bad forces outside. The evils which are at an inner level manifest collectively as evils outside. Cultivation of virtues and enhancing our sattva (our quality of having balance, harmony, purity and being positive by remaining peaceful and virtuous) is the only means to get rid of these vices within us and around us.

There are various approaches to combat the evil which we experience outside. The first one which was followed by the Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekanand was the preaching of Jesus Christ mentioned in Sermon on the Mount – ‘Resist not evil’. Vivekanand said that we will not understand the significance of this until we ourselves do not realize that this is the best remedy, for example anger is severe loss of energy to the person who is displaying it. But none of realize this when we are angry

Passages from the Sermon on the Mount – ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of Your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous’ (Matthew 5:43) and ‘Resist not him that is evil but whosoever smiteth thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also’ (Matthew 5:39). Gandhiji was highly elated as these passages were a confirmation to his principles of non violence and forgiveness. He proved its practicality and firmly believed that these were important to every human on this earth even though Christian interpreters spoke of this as an ideal that was applied only to the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ. It was the purest form of soul force and an expression of universal love and the purest form of non-violence too.

The second approach is to take on the evil upfront and the more pragmatic approach which will stop evil from spreading its tentacles is to nip it in the bud. This is the spirit behind any law or regulation. But the real battle starts when we do not demonstrate enough courage and conviction to take it on and ignore the evil. Or because it does not affect us directly – a disturbing action that is in trend now. Sometimes it is an amalgamation of the complex legal framework and fear of repulsion from the evil doers.

Many of us are a witness to so many evil instances like violence and indignation of women/humans. We even fail in our basic duty as citizens or as humans. We lack in combating the evil collectively and due to this our subjective individual will to curb evil is weakened. The conventional approach sometimes is to side the evil or to find recourse in it - as it is instrumental in satisfying one’s immediate selfish motives. It is ominous and has dire consequences for the person and society. It is equivalent to prescribing a wrong drug that is damaging to someone.

We all need to reverse this phenomenon of giving in to evil. We can make a vow to ourselves that we will not side with evil. We need to cultivate the sensitivity to curb evil. Collect strength within ourselves and have a conviction to combat evil. Finally we can excel evil by introspecting within ourselves and through spirituality.