Virtue versus Vice?

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Lord Skanda--the Concentrated Divine Energy

By Sri Swami Krishnananda

 

In the history of language and literature, the

most outstanding works are the Epics of the

various nations. The superb literary productions

of Greece are the writings of Homer,--the Illiad

and the Odyssey. In Italy, similar Epics were

produced by Dante and Virgil,--Dante's "Divine

Comedy" and Virgil's "Aeneid." In English

literature, the best Epic examples are Milton's

poems and Shakespeare's plays. In India, we

have the Itihasas and also the Puranas. Here,

in this type of poetry and expression, the soul

rises to the maximum of its virility and portrays

in the most majestic manner the picture of creation.

The intention of these poets, whether of the

West or of the East, is to describe in soulful

language and in picturesque style, the processes

of creation, the comedy and the tragedy of

evolution and involution, the story of the life

of man which is painted sometimes with the

optimistic colours of comedy and sometimes

with the pessimistic ones of tragedy. Life is

both, and it can be pictured from two different

angles of vision. The central motif of all the Epics

of the world hinges upon a conflict which gets

resolved in the end. Somehow, the feature of a

clash between forces seems to have caught the

vision of the poets and the adepts as the pivotal

point of their observations. When a careful

attention is paid to the processes of nature and

the history of human life, one observes that

nature outwardly and man inwardly have to

confront situations which can be best described

as a series of conflicts. Every day is a conflict

before us, an opposition, a confrontation and

a question which demands an answer. Our

struggles throughout the days and the nights

of our life are our attempts to answer the question

of life which is the great enigma or mystery.

Life poses a problem which man has not succeeded

in solving with all his intellectual endowments.

The deeper vision of life, which you may call

philosophical or mystical, spiritual or religious,

has revealed the basic or the foundational features

of creation as a movement towards and a

movement away from a Centre. This seems to

be the secret behind and an answer to all the

questions of life. There is a Centre somewhere

towards which everything seems to be gravitating

and which at the same time seems to be repelling

everything. This simultaneous feeling of the

pull and the repulsion is the conflict. This is at

the basis of all problems...

 

Virtue is supposed to have power to overcome vice.

But often we feel that the virtues of the world are

incapable of confronting the vices of the nature.

It is not enough if we are virtuous. The vices are

too strong for us. We have seen with our own eyes

human history, these days. Virtue does not seem

to succeed. The virtuous people are suffering

and the evil ones are thriving...

 

What is this mystery? The mystery is not known

to many. The truth is that while virtue is generally

understood as the opposite of vice, we forget the

fact that it is also the counter-correlative of vice.

So, it has not got the strength to confront the vice.

Vice or evil can be overcome by a power which is

transcendent and not merely ethical and moral.

The evils of the world are not afraid of mere

morality and ethics. Mere goodness will not do.

There should be Divinity in our personality, and

Divinity is far superior to mere goodness in the

form of an ethical behaviour and a moral conduct.

Divinity is an integrating force, while virtue is

only a counter-correlative of vice. There cannot

be virtue unless there is vice. Because, if there

is no evil at all, there cannot be any such thing

called goodness. But Divinity is a different thing

altogether because it transcends both the good

and the evil...

 

What is the solution? Not mere goodness, not

mere virtue, not a little charity, not a little sweet

speech. These things will not cut ice in this evil

world....And I may tell you that the solution for

all the evils of the world today is God only and

not anything that man can do. Not I, not you, not

anyone can solve the mystery of the evils of the

world. Unless God is invoked, there is no hope...

 

There is only one solution which is difficult to

conceive, but there is no other alternative. The

force, the energy, the militant expression of God

is the only answer to this problem. When God

becomes militant, nobody can stand before Him.

When the lion stands up, you know that there

can be none who can face it. It is impossible to

confront evil without the help of God, the power

of Divinity. No one can face the world except

with the help of God. Armaments, military and

police are nothing before the evil of the world.

No one can overcome it and it shall continue....

These mysteries are difficult to understand.

Ordinary minds are not made in such a way as

to probe into these intricacies of Divine action.

The energies that are required to face the evil

of creation are potentially present inside us

and they have to be worked up by a particular

means. Desire is neither good nor bad. But, it

can become bad or good according to the

circumstances and the way in which it operates,

under given conditions, in the history of creation.

 

Religious adventure becomes more and more

complicated as we proceed along with it further

and further. In the earlier stages religion seems

to be very simple, because it appears to be merely

a question of going to the church or sitting before

a deity in a temple or following a system of routine,

a ritual, etc. But, when we enter into the heart of

religion, it ceases to be any kind of routine of this

kind. It becomes an inward adventure of the spirit.

It is not a doing of something, but a complete

reshuffling of one's personality and a transformation

of oneself through a transvaluation of values, by

a process in which we may have to submit to

conscription the very same forces in the world

which appear as our opponents at present. The

world is an enemy and also a friend. The

Bhagavadgita, again, gives an answer to this

interesting question, how the same thing can

be a friend and also an enemy. In the sixth

chapter, we are told that the Self is the friend

and the Self is also the enemy. Desire is a

friend and also an enemy. The world is a friend

and also an enemy...

 

Only the energy of Wisdom can counteract the

evil of creation and not any other power, not

anything that we do in the form of charity,

goodness or our so-called religiosity.

 

Through the processes of Sadhana, (the spiritual

practice wherein we commune with the highest

power that is conceivable, the energy of God Himself)

we draw that energy forward and harness it to

face this world. Then the power of externality

gets transformed into the peace of universality.

Then the forces which were externalised and

which were the desires impelling themselves

outwardly in the direction of sense-objects,

are transformed into the universal peace of creation.

Then Peace reigns supreme. In actuality, there

is nothing called destruction, per se, anywhere. You

know the law of conservation of energy. Energy

is never increasing or decreasing in creation.

It is only concentrated in different forms and

at different places. The concentrated form of

it is what we call evil. So the very same energy

which religions characterize as 'demoniacal elements'

are transformed by Divine energy, which means

to say, all that was impulsive in the direction of

externality, space, time, causality and objectivity

and desire of every kind, is withdrawn into the

peace of the Absolute and the Goal of life is

reached.