WHY DOES EVIL EXIST IN THE WORLD?

WHY DOES EVIL EXIST IN THE WORLD?

One question that has always tormented many God fearing/God loving, and religious people, from time immemorial is---- why should there be so much evil, when God, the all knowing, omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient entity is at the helm of affairs?. Knowing God to be kind hearted, giving and loving, it is very difficult for many of us to reconcile to the fact that when He is in charge of everything, how can there be so much evil, so much misery, and so many bad things happening? One look at the newspapers or television is enough to see all that is not well with the world, whether it is people suffering because of natural disasters or man made ones. One solution is to have another entity called the Devil, who is in charge of all things evil, and pit him against the forces of God. While this concept works for some of us, many would not be satisfied with this explanation.

It is very important to get some rational answer to this question, for many a time, those who believe in God tend to get confused and disillusioned, when they see so many destructive forces and acts going on in and around them in this world. “What is God doing? Why is He allowing these evil human beings to perform such heinous acts and why is He letting many criminals go scot-free?” Why is He letting thousands of his children perish in an earthquake, flash floods or Tsunami? Answering this question to the total satisfaction of the common man is of utmost importance, if faith in God and goodness is to be kept intact.

Here is a concept which is my own, which I would like to propose. Like all metaphysical concepts, it is something that can be accepted or rejected, and will make sense only if it becomes our own truth, not otherwise. Feel free to accept or reject it, or to give your own opinions and ideas.

life, as it exists in this Universe, is always in the dual form, or in duality. Many contrasting qualities are packaged together, and exist as polar opposites. Good and bad, night and day, summer and winter, poor and rich, black and white, birth and death, to name a few. Whatever system sustains life on this planet uses duality as its basic hardware or software, to run this world. And since we credit God with creating and maintaining this Universe, it is logical to assume that even this duality is created by the same source. If only one of the opposing qualities existed, life could not propagate itself on this planet and no evolution would have been possible.

Since this world exists within the framework of space and time, duality automatically becomes a part and parcel of this world. To be without duality, the non-dual state, where there is neither good nor bad, neither birth nor death, one has to go beyond time and space, which is not normally possible for us, human beings in this world. And hence, because we are within time and space, the very nature of life remains dual and evil or sin will always be there, along with the good and the virtuous.

Everything in this Universe needs energy to operate. For an electrical current to flow, there needs to be a negative and a positive terminal. Magnets need a South and North pole, to be effective. Similarly, the huge amounts of energy required to operate this Universe can be generated only by the potential difference between these dual qualities that exist here. If there was only one quality--- only good, only day, only birth—then there is no potential difference and energy cannot be generated, and the Universe would soon die out from a lack of energy. Hence, if we understand this, we would immediately realize that we owe our very existence on this planet, to this duality. And once this clarity is achieved, it becomes easier not to blame God or the Devil for all that is unacceptable to us in the world, and easier to realize why there will always be an admixture of good and evil, as long as this world remains in existence.

Our role here is to make our choice between good and bad, with the help of our consciousness, and then walk on the path that we have chosen. How much good we will come across, how much evil we will face, how much happiness or suffering we will have to undergo, why some people have a relatively smooth life, while those of many others are so turbulent---all these are perhaps decided by our past deeds, by our karma or fate. Hence, it becomes all the more necessary to think and do good in the present moment, so that, as we are paying off our old karmic debts, we do not keep adding to the load. Since all of life is governed by the law of causality, whatever path we choose, we will have to bear all the good and bad repercussions of our choices.

By: P V Vaidyanathan