Is it Possible to Overcome Evil?
Overview
Is it possible to overcome evil and eliminate wars?
Evil has always existed, and so have wars. Does that mean we should make no effort to eliminate them? Philosophers tell us that there is no such thing as good or evil outside a framework of time, place, and causation. What seems good in one context can appear evil in another. Wars can be considered evil but there is something called holy war as well. During the second world war, the Americans were not interested in getting involved in a European bloody conflict and lose their men and material. They were opposed to any kind of war, but finally got involved in it saying – this is not a war in a conventional sense, it is a war to end a war.
In Mahabharata, an ancient Indian epic, when Arjuna, the chief warrior, trembles on the battlefield seeing his cousins, uncles, and teacher in front of him, he chooses not to fight the war and lays down his arms. He says, “I have no desire to win any war at the cost of so many lives of my kith and kin.” In response to that lord Krishna shows him his universal form (Bhagavad Gita, chapter 11) – where he sees the appearance and disappearance of every living entity, he sees numerous divine beings, countless divine weapons, a hundredfold and thousandfold forms diverse, divine, variegated, and manifold, thousands of mouths, stomachs, limbs, infinite and wonderful aspects, uncounted divine ornaments – the light of a thousand suns all at once rising in the sky.
Arjuna described it – as many rivers’ currents converge on the sea, I see those heroes of the human world flowing to your blazing mouth. As flying insects propel themselves to death in the brilliant flame, so the worlds impetuously hurl themselves to destruction between your jaw. Krishna says – regardless of you all these warriors, stationed in the opposing ranks, shall cease to exist. Therefore, go to it, grasp fame! They have already been hewn down by me, simply be the instrument. Kill Drone, kill Bhisham, kill Jayadratha and Karna, they are killed by me. Do not waver – you must fight! in battle, you shall overcome your enemies. This is the version of Hindu philosophy that justifies war.
Similar accounts are seen in Old Testament in the form of prophecies of war and the day of the Lord. Describes the day as – Wail, for the day of the Lord is near, it will come like destruction from the Almighty.’ Isaiah 13.6.
Do that mean wars are acts of God or are they the acts of the Devil, or maybe both? If one is driven by the desires of the world i.e., power, glory, name, fame, and money one may be an instrument in the hands of the dark forces of the world. And if one is driven by no personal desire or ambition, one may be the instrument in the hands of divine energy. Either way, one is engaged in the war.
There are religions that do not propound wars – Christianity, Jainism, and Buddhism. According to them, wars cannot undo evil, on the contrary, they perpetrate it. According to them, there is no such thing as a just, fair, or holy war. You cannot wipe out evil, you will be naive if you thought you can eliminate evil from this world. One needs to better understand the evil, listen to it, respond to it in a positive way, contain it, and accommodate it into one’s psyche and in this world.
When Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk who died recently, was asked in a television interview about compassion, what should we do with the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack on the twin tower? he said we must listen to them and understand them first.
Theoretically speaking one can ultimately eliminate evil from one’s psyche but one cannot eliminate evil from this world, just as one can eliminate the disease from one’s body, one cannot eliminate the disease from this world although, in a limited way, one can, just as we have done away with smallpox and polio.
Even during the times of Jesus, Buddha, and Mahavir who all propounded nonviolence and no war philosophy, there were armies in each kingdom protecting the innocent, and even their monks and nuns from atrocities, torture, murder, and rape by the evil people.
The spirituality of Buddha or Jesus can eliminate evil only from the minds of a few or perhaps quite a few people, but it cannot eliminate evil in totality from this world. And to stop the evil, sometimes one must wage a war, no matter how small or how big it is.
When king Ashoka, a second-century BC emperor in India who was a follower of Buddhism, was asked why he was building such a great army and displaying his powers, when he believed in the Buddhist philosophy of non-violence, he said, “I am doing this to protect my innocent and weak enemies. I am displaying the strength so that they in their foolishness dare not attack our kingdom and get killed.”
A deeper analysis of the mind
A deeper analysis of the mind tells us that evil is not the activity of an individual but something that happens to them. There is a certain degree of weakness in their connection to the positive which creates an imbalance of forces and the negative takes charge. In the same way good (and love) is also not an activity of an individual but something that happens to them. Good and evil both spring from the unconscious and the collective unconscious mind and play out on the stage of our conscious mind, if we are good directors, we will try to create harmony between the two, rather than decimate one at the expense of the other. In drama we need heroes, and we need villains, otherwise, there will be no story and no drama. The Eastern approach to life is to transcend beyond good and evil and hold them together and integrate them.
The West saw Putin as an enemy and dealt with him in that way, things would have been different if they had seen him as a wayward brother. Putin wanted Russia to join NATO and be part of a secure, stable, prosperous west that Russia was out of at the time. it was denied to him, I do not know the details of the reasons. In subsequent years, his deeper instincts were to attack his neighbor who was not in line with his thinking, and he projected this instinct onto others and felt they can do the same. A thief expects others to steal things from him. He was paranoid and the west made him more paranoid by stationing all the NATO weaponry and command at his doorsteps, and all-around Russia, although they had no intentions to attack Russia.
Conclusion
To conclude evil cannot be eliminated but it can be contained through concerted efforts at harnessing the positive energies of this world. The wars can be minimized, and eliminated for short periods of time, by way of accommodating evil inside the envelope of the good.
Evil does bounce back from time to time with a vengeance and dominate the good, and in those times, scriptures tell us that and I do not know to what extent it is true that divine beings and energies descend from the heavens to save mankind.
In Mahabharata, an ancient Indian epic, when Arjuna, the chief warrior, trembles on the battlefield seeing his cousins, uncles, and teacher in front of him, he chooses not to fight the war and lays down his arms. He says, “I have no desire to win any war at the cost of so many lives of my kith and kin.” In response to that lord Krishna shows him his universal form (Bhagavad Gita, chapter 11) – where he sees the appearance and disappearance of every living entity, he sees numerous divine beings, countless divine weapons, a hundredfold and thousandfold forms diverse, divine, variegated, and manifold, thousands of mouths, stomachs, limbs, infinite and wonderful aspects, uncounted divine ornaments – the light of a thousand suns all at once rising in the sky.
Arjuna described it – as many rivers’ currents converge on the sea, I see those heroes of the human world flowing to your blazing mouth. As flying insects propel themselves to death in the brilliant flame, so the worlds impetuously hurl themselves to destruction between your jaw. Krishna says – regardless of you all these warriors, stationed in the opposing ranks, shall cease to exist. Therefore, go to it, grasp fame! They have already been hewn down by me, simply be the instrument. Kill Drone, kill Bhisham, kill Jayadratha and Karna, they are killed by me. Do not waver – you must fight! in battle, you shall overcome your enemies. This is the version of Hindu philosophy that justifies war.
Similar accounts are seen in Old Testament in the form of prophecies of war and the day of the Lord. Describes the day as – Wail, for the day of the Lord is near, it will come like destruction from the Almighty.’ Isaiah 13.6.
Do that mean wars are acts of God or are they the acts of the Devil, or maybe both? If one is driven by the desires of the world i.e., power, glory, name, fame, and money one may be an instrument in the hands of the dark forces of the world. And if one is driven by no personal desire or ambition, one may be the instrument in the hands of divine energy. Either way, one is engaged in the war.
There are religions that do not propound wars – Christianity, Jainism, and Buddhism. According to them, wars cannot undo evil, on the contrary, they perpetrate it. According to them, there is no such thing as a just, fair, or holy war. You cannot wipe out evil, you will be naive if you thought you can eliminate evil from this world. One needs to better understand the evil, listen to it, respond to it in a positive way, contain it, and accommodate it into one’s psyche and in this world.
When Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk who died recently, was asked in a television interview about compassion, what should we do with the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack on the twin tower? he said we must listen to them and understand them first.
Theoretically speaking one can ultimately eliminate evil from one’s psyche but one cannot eliminate evil from this world, just as one can eliminate the disease from one’s body, one cannot eliminate the disease from this world although, in a limited way, one can, just as we have done away with smallpox and polio.
Even during the times of Jesus, Buddha, and Mahavir who all propounded nonviolence and no war philosophy, there were armies in each kingdom protecting the innocent, and even their monks and nuns from atrocities, torture, murder, and rape by the evil people.
The spirituality of Buddha or Jesus can eliminate evil only from the minds of a few or perhaps quite a few people, but it cannot eliminate evil in totality from this world. And to stop the evil, sometimes one must wage a war, no matter how small or how big it is.
When king Ashoka, a second-century BC emperor in India who was a follower of Buddhism, was asked why he was building such a great army and displaying his powers, when he believed in the Buddhist philosophy of non-violence, he said, “I am doing this to protect my innocent and weak enemies. I am displaying the strength so that they in their foolishness dare not attack our kingdom and get killed.”
A deeper analysis of the mind
A deeper analysis of the mind tells us that evil is not the activity of an individual but something that happens to them. There is a certain degree of weakness in their connection to the positive which creates an imbalance of forces and the negative takes charge. In the same way good (and love) is also not an activity of an individual but something that happens to them. Good and evil both spring from the unconscious and the collective unconscious mind and play out on the stage of our conscious mind, if we are good directors, we will try to create harmony between the two, rather than decimate one at the expense of the other. In drama we need heroes, and we need villains, otherwise, there will be no story and no drama. The Eastern approach to life is to transcend beyond good and evil and hold them together and integrate them.
The West saw Putin as an enemy and dealt with him in that way, things would have been different if they had seen him as a wayward brother. Putin wanted Russia to join NATO and be part of a secure, stable, prosperous west that Russia was out of at the time. it was denied to him, I do not know the details of the reasons. In subsequent years, his deeper instincts were to attack his neighbor who was not in line with his thinking, and he projected this instinct onto others and felt they can do the same. A thief expects others to steal things from him. He was paranoid and the west made him more paranoid by stationing all the NATO weaponry and command at his doorsteps, and all-around Russia, although they had no intentions to attack Russia.
Conclusion
To conclude evil cannot be eliminated but it can be contained through concerted efforts at harnessing the positive energies of this world. The wars can be minimized, and eliminated for short periods of time, by way of accommodating evil inside the envelope of the good.
Evil does bounce back from time to time with a vengeance and dominate the good, and in those times, scriptures tell us that and I do not know to what extent it is true that divine beings and energies descend from the heavens to save mankind.
