Faith - Good And Evil

GOOD AND EVIL

After listening attentively to Sage Suka’s narration of the Ajamila

and Vritrasura episodes, Parikshit confesses that he is

unable to understand why the Lord who is equal to all also

shows strong bias in favour of the devas rather than the asuras.

Is not the Lord ever blissful and is there anything that

He needs to achieve through Indra and the devas? Suka

points out to the basic duality comprising both good and

evil forces that are manifest in Prakriti, said Sri Ramanujam

in a discourse.

The Lord is beyond Prakriti but the two opposing forces

of good and evil are subsumed in His Yogamaya. He is untouched

by the gunas, satva, rajas and tamas that constitute

Prakriti. Each of these is in dominant mode or in its subdued

form during particular periods. By His Yogamaya, He augments

rajas during creation, satva when He sustains and tamas

at the time of dissolution. His main concern is to protect

the good against the evil forces. So, when Satva is dominant

He seems to favour the devas and the rishis; when rajas prevails,

He sides with the asuras and when Tamas reigns, He is

with the yakshas and rakshasa.

Sage Kashyapa and his wives Aditi and Diti are symbolic

of how good and evil are from the same source and are inherent

in each one of us. Like Kashyapa, who is a witness to the

positive and negative forces, each individual atma is distinct

from the good and evil thoughts that arise in the human

mind. The devas are the sons of Aditi and the asuras of Diti

and represent the distinct features of these rival forces. God

as the indweller in each being is responsible for the jivatma’s

ability to think, act and speak. But individual thought, word

and deed is not forced by God since each one is endowed

with free will to choose between good and evil.