Guest guest Posted July 19, 2001 Report Share Posted July 19, 2001 Dear Srinivas, One of the clearest writings I have seen on the existence of " evil " is by Swami Prabhavananda. It's available at http://www.vedanta.com/getpage.cfm?file=what_is_evil.html & userid=10342588 and http://www.vedanta.com/getpage.cfm?file=vital.html & userid=10342588 I'm providing an extract of it here: Q - If God is all good, how do you explain the evil in this world? A - Both evil forces and good forces are working in this relative world. God, the Absolute, remains unaffected by them. If he were affected by evil, he would not be God. If he needed man to remove the world's evil, he would not be God. Evil and good both belong to him, but he is beyond them. God is playing, and in our ignorance we see his creation as evil or good. We are dreaming this dream of good and evil. When our dream breaks, when we have the wisdom of God, then we realize that he alone exists. Then we realize that everything is his play. This does not mean that we should do nothing. Shall we sit quietly and let the evil forces win out? As long as we see wickedness, it is our duty to struggle against it; and we must use the forces of good in order to overcome the evil we perceive. But let us not go and fight wickedness with the idea that we are helping God! We are worshiping him. What is evil, after all? It is ignorance nothing else. A veil of ignorance covers the truth of God. How to remove the veil? Pray that the ignorance may be removed from your sight and from the sight of all mankind, so that God within may shine forth. Pray that everyone may find peace and illumination in God. Work for that, and you will help yourself and everybody. >chaganti srinivas <cnu_ind >Ramakrishna >Ramakrishna >[ramakrishna] Doubt >Wed, 18 Jul 2001 21:33:08 -0700 (PDT) > >Hi all >I ve been part of this group for a long time but this >is the first time i am posting a message. > >My doubt is that ....assuming that everything we see >around us is a manifestation of GOD ....or should i >say everything is created by GOD ....then how did this >ignorance and evil come into existance ...there must >have been some origin for the evil ..what is it?? > >Gita says that every Joy and Suffering that we go >through in this life is on account of our accumalated >past karma then why should we be compassionate abt the >cripled and downtrodden.....and arnt we stopping them >from working out their past KARMA by helping them come >out of their suffering . > >I ve read in one of swami vivekananda's books that >Good and Bad differ only in degree not in type ...in >that case why should i bother to do Good or Evil and >how would that effect me?? > > > > > > >Get personalized email addresses from Mail >http://personal.mail./ > _______________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 20, 2001 Report Share Posted July 20, 2001 Namaste chagantiji I am attempting to answer your questions with what I know. Here they are in subjects: 1. assuming that everything we see around us is a manifestation of GOD .....or should i say everything is created by GOD ....then how did this ignorance and evil come into existance ...there must have been some origin for the evil ..what is it?? Ans: Two words that need investigation are 'ignorance' and 'evil'. First we'll handle ignorance or avidya. If we were to set a beginning to avidya, then what was there before avidya? For e.g if I were to ask you: " do you know my age?' " , your answer would be NO! And then if I were to ask you " since when did you knot know my age? " you can never give an answer. Even if you did, then you would imply that before that you knew it. For e.g. If you were to answer saying " since birth " , then you are implying that before birth 'knowledge' was there!! The opposite of ignorance is knowledge!! So we can never attribute a birth to avidya BUT there is an end. When knowledge dawns ignorance vanishes. Now I am telling you that I am 28 years of age! So now you know!! Where did the ignorance go? It vanished!! :-) Now there is only knowledge!!! I have yet to find an equivalent for the word 'evil' in Hinduism. We only have Adharma. So here we are saying that there is no evil apart from the human mind. For example, a chocolate is in front of me and my friend. He says that chocolate is good and I feel otherwise because I have diabetes. So the chocolate doesn't change, only our judgments change. Neither does our judgment affect the chocolate. Similarly the word evil is a judgment made on things that are not desireable or maybe Adharmic. But there is no absolute EVIL in Hinduism!!! 2. Gita says that every Joy and Suffering that we go through in this life is on account of our accumalated past karma then why should we be compassionate abt the cripled and downtrodden.....and arnt we stopping them from working out their past KARMA by helping them come out of their suffering . Ans: In a card game, the cards dealt to me is beyond my control, BUT how I play the game is within my control. So what situations present to you is beyond your control, but how you react to the situations is within your control. The Hindu Dharma tells us to practise certain values to attain a certain state of equanimity or rather a purified mind. So what we perform are Karmas - actions. If we perform actions that concurs with Dharma we get punyam - merits, which will in turn purify our mind or provide situations for attaining Self Knowledge - Moksha. This attitude can be called Karma Yoga. So by helping the downtrodden and sickly, not only am I helping them, but I help myself. What could be a better action than this, where you tread the path of spiritual life without neglecting the society!! This was indeed the vision of Swami Vivekananda. 'By helping others I am only helping myself!!!' 3. I ve read in one of swami vivekananda's books that Good and Bad differ only in degree not in type ...in that case why should i bother to do Good or Evil and how would that effect me?? Ans: Here good can be termed as Dharma and bad as adharma. I think I have explained the merits of performing good actions in no.2. > > chaganti srinivas [sMTP:cnu_ind] > Thursday, July 19, 2001 12:33 PM > Ramakrishna > [ramakrishna] Doubt > > Hi all > I ve been part of this group for a long time but this > is the first time i am posting a message. > > My doubt is that ....assuming that everything we see > around us is a manifestation of GOD ....or should i > say everything is created by GOD ....then how did this > ignorance and evil come into existance ...there must > have been some origin for the evil ..what is it?? > > Gita says that every Joy and Suffering that we go > through in this life is on account of our accumalated > past karma then why should we be compassionate abt the > cripled and downtrodden.....and arnt we stopping them > from working out their past KARMA by helping them come > out of their suffering . > > I ve read in one of swami vivekananda's books that > Good and Bad differ only in degree not in type ...in > that case why should i bother to do Good or Evil and > how would that effect me?? > > > > > > > Get personalized email addresses from Mail > http://personal.mail./ > > > Sri Ramakrishnaye Namah > Vivekananda Centre London > http://www.vivekananda.co.uk > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 24, 2001 Report Share Posted July 24, 2001 Thanx a lot for ur reply ......it was really a thought prevoking one and i guess i ve got a clearer picture now. --- K Kathirasan ADM NCS <kkathir wrote: > Namaste chagantiji > > I am attempting to answer your questions with what I > know. Here they are in > subjects: > > 1. assuming that everything we see around us is a > manifestation of GOD > ....or should i say everything is created by GOD > ....then how did this > ignorance and evil come into existance ...there must > have been some origin > for the evil ..what is it?? > > Ans: Two words that need investigation are > 'ignorance' and 'evil'. First > we'll handle ignorance or avidya. If we were to set > a beginning to avidya, > then what was there before avidya? For e.g if I > were to ask you: " do you > know my age?' " , your answer would be NO! And then > if I were to ask you > " since when did you knot know my age? " you can > never give an answer. Even > if you did, then you would imply that before that > you knew it. For e.g. If > you were to answer saying " since birth " , then you > are implying that before > birth 'knowledge' was there!! The opposite of > ignorance is knowledge!! So > we can never attribute a birth to avidya BUT there > is an end. When > knowledge dawns ignorance vanishes. Now I am > telling you that I am 28 years > of age! So now you know!! Where did the ignorance > go? It vanished!! :-) > Now there is only knowledge!!! > > I have yet to find an equivalent for the word 'evil' > in Hinduism. We only > have Adharma. So here we are saying that there is > no evil apart from the > human mind. For example, a chocolate is in front of > me and my friend. He > says that chocolate is good and I feel otherwise > because I have diabetes. > So the chocolate doesn't change, only our judgments > change. Neither does > our judgment affect the chocolate. Similarly the > word evil is a judgment > made on things that are not desireable or maybe > Adharmic. But there is no > absolute EVIL in Hinduism!!! > > 2. Gita says that every Joy and Suffering that we go > through in this life is > on account of our accumalated past karma then why > should we be compassionate > abt the cripled and downtrodden.....and arnt we > stopping them from working > out their past KARMA by helping them come out of > their suffering . > > Ans: In a card game, the cards dealt to me is beyond > my control, BUT how I > play the game is within my control. So what > situations present to you is > beyond your control, but how you react to the > situations is within your > control. The Hindu Dharma tells us to practise > certain values to attain a > certain state of equanimity or rather a purified > mind. So what we perform > are Karmas - actions. If we perform actions that > concurs with Dharma we get > punyam - merits, which will in turn purify our mind > or provide situations > for attaining Self Knowledge - Moksha. This > attitude can be called Karma > Yoga. So by helping the downtrodden and sickly, not > only am I helping them, > but I help myself. What could be a better action > than this, where you tread > the path of spiritual life without neglecting the > society!! This was indeed > the vision of Swami Vivekananda. 'By helping others > I am only helping > myself!!!' > > 3. I ve read in one of swami vivekananda's books > that Good and Bad differ > only in degree not in type ...in that case why > should i bother to do Good or > Evil and how would that effect me?? > > Ans: Here good can be termed as Dharma and bad as > adharma. I think I have > explained the merits of performing good actions in > no.2. > > > > > chaganti srinivas [sMTP:cnu_ind] > > Thursday, July 19, 2001 12:33 PM > > Ramakrishna > > [ramakrishna] Doubt > > > > Hi all > > I ve been part of this group for a long time but > this > > is the first time i am posting a message. > > > > My doubt is that ....assuming that everything we > see > > around us is a manifestation of GOD ....or should > i > > say everything is created by GOD ....then how did > this > > ignorance and evil come into existance ...there > must > > have been some origin for the evil ..what is it?? > > > > Gita says that every Joy and Suffering that we go > > through in this life is on account of our > accumalated > > past karma then why should we be compassionate abt > the > > cripled and downtrodden.....and arnt we stopping > them > > from working out their past KARMA by helping them > come > > out of their suffering . > > > > I ve read in one of swami vivekananda's books that > > Good and Bad differ only in degree not in type > ...in > > that case why should i bother to do Good or Evil > and > > how would that effect me?? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Get personalized email addresses from Mail > > http://personal.mail./ > > > > > > Sri Ramakrishnaye Namah > > Vivekananda Centre London > > http://www.vivekananda.co.uk > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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