The Fourth Thing from a Yogic perspective

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The fourth thing from a yogic perspective

 

The short answer according to Yoga is that there is no such

thing as evil. There are only people making mistakes as they

strive for happiness and contentment. There is a special case

that could still be considered evil and that is possession by a

negative spirit entity. But even here that negative entity is only

striving to fulfill its desires and so come closer to happiness and

contentment.

 

Evil becomes then a reaction in the mind of a beholder. One

person's evil may not be another person's evil and in fact may be

considered a positive action. Evil, I think, is the result of

Christianity and other religions believing that humans

are essentially sinful. Yoga and Advaita Vedanta on the other

hand, sees humans as essentially divine.

>From the yogic perspective, there are several influences that

propel humans to action.

 

First, the biological or constitutional types: vata, pitta and kapha.

To paraphrase David Frawley in Ayurveda and the Mind, Vata is

responsible for movement, the discharge of impulse. Vata

energizes the basic sensitivity and mobility of the energy field, all

mental functions. Its main disturbance is fear and anxiety.

Positively, it is adaptibility. Pitta is responsible for transformation

in the body and mind. It is responsible for reason, intelligence

and understanding. Its main disturbance is anger. Positively, it is

courage. Kapha is responsible for weight, cohesion and stability.

It is responsible for proper lubrication, discharge of secretions,

and acts as a cushion for the nerves, mind and senses. It gives

mental calm and stability. Desire and attachment are its main

disturbances which can prevent growth. Positively, it is love.

 

Second, Vata, Pita and Kapha have their counterparts in the

astral body - Prana, Tejas and Ojas respectively. Prana is the

life force and so is the master force behind all human functions,

including higher states of consciousness. Tejas is inner

radiance, the fire throuugyh wihich we assess and assimilate

impressions and thought. It governs higher perceptusal

qualities. Ojas is `primal vigor', the subtle energy of water as our

vital energy reserve. It is the essence of digested food,

impressions and thought. It provides calm and a base for all

higher states of consciousness.

 

Thirdly, there are the three gunas or properties of matter: sattva,

rajas and tamas. Sattva is intelligence, virtue,balance, and

goodness. It produces harmony, serenity, balance and stability.

Rajas is change, activity, and turbulence. It is outward motion

toward the achievement of a goal or end. It is self-seeking action

that leads to to fragmentation and disintegration. It seeks short

term pleasure that leads to long term distress and conflict.

Tamas is dullness, darkness, and intertia. It tends to veil or

obstruct, to retard things, holding them in limitation. Tamas

brings ignorance, delusion, insensitivity, and loss of awareness.

 

Vata, Pitta and Kapha; Prana, Tejas and Ojas; and Sattva, Rajas

and Tamas are all influenced by what we take in as food, heat

and air. They are also fed through by the impressions that we

take in through the senses and by the actions, thoughts and

emotions that we allow ourselves to entertain. In addition,

because of past karma, we have mental tendencies and

physiological imbalances that tend toward a predominance of

one of the gunas, and a predominance of Vata, Pitta and Kapha

and its astral body counterparts.

 

This complex mix of karma, gunas, the three humours and their

astral counterparts is constantly in flux and acts as the impellors

to action for us. Most of the time, our actions and their quality are

the result of this soup of body/mental characteristics. However,

we are capable of analyis, determinaton and vigilance and so

can gradually change this mix so that Sattva predominates and

the three humours and their astral body counterparts act in

positive ways.

 

If Sattva does not predominate and there are imbalances in

prana flow, then our actions could be termed bad or even evil, if

the labeller is acting according his/her religious beliefs. Without

such religious beliefs, there is no evil, no bad action. There is

only action that has been perfomed without realization of and

connection to one's innate Divinity.

 

What is it that makes the difference between balance and

imbalance, positive and negative actions? It is simply whether

we choose to believe the evidence of our flawed senses and

seek assuage an ego that believest the universe consists of

separate objects or whether we choose to the call of our innate

Divinity. Any action that takes us away from our Divinity is termed

bad. If the action is the result of our Divinity being heavily veiled

by fear, anger, passion, then it is termed evil. If the action is

taken with a sense of Divinity, it is termed good. If the action is

taken wihile deeply identified with one's innate Divinity, it is

termed saintly.

 

While we may not have a choice over each action at the time it is

perfomed, however, on the longer term, we do have a choice of

actions that can take away our programming and reveal and

reflect our Divinity. We can make better food choices. We can

perform exercise such as yoga, tai chi or chi gong that repair

prana flow imbalances. We can change our breathing pattern

and perfom specitic breathing activiites that also repair prana

flow imbalances. We can try to develop a wider perspective and

seek to gain control over our emtions. We can make sure that

we obtain proper rest. We can practise positive thinking in the

form of exercising forgiveness and compassion, performing

selfless service, and striving to live every second according to a

moral and ethical code. We can meditate daily.

 

In regard to demon possession, we can develop a list of

protection and grounding activities that shield us from untoward

energies. And we can turn away from seeking paranormal

abilities and from intentionally venturing into the astral planes

without a firm sense of our innate Divinity.

 

 

Omprem

 

 

 

 

, SophiasHeaven@a...

wrote:

> It occurs to me that there is a fourth thing that needs to be

brought

> into the picture, and that is the problem of human evil.

> Consider for instance Crowley endorsing a woman who

covers herself

> with gooey cheese and lets rats bite her so she can kill them

one by one, video

> taping herself and this sick scenario, for all to see. Who does

this kind of

> thing serve?

> Do some things distort us so far from what we are meant

to be as

> humanity, that they cross some invisible line into the category

we call Evil?

> After all, even if a person is very tamas, lazy and prone to

inertia,

> that does not make him or her evil. But there Might be another

person who IS

> very evil, who mutiliates children, or whatever.

> Maybe a person with more Rajas will be more inclined to

evil acts.

> The question is, what does Hinduism say about Evil.

Does it have a

> way of dealing with this concept of human evil? A name for it?

Or is it a

> concept that Hinduism does not discuss?

> And, is this the Fourth thing that needs to be defined, so we

can

> remind ourselves in a discussion of Tamas, Rajas and Sattva,

that even IF somebody

> does categorize people by loosely defining such categories,

that still there

> is a Fourth category that is not mentioned and that does not

belong solely to

> any of the gunas, called EVIL.

> What is it? What do we do about it? What does Hinduism

and Shakta

> say?

>

> Blessings and Peace,

> Cathie

>

>

>