What is evil ?
Mankind, throughout its history, has been plagued by the concept of evil.
Thus, Gautam Buddha was bothered by evil god Mara, Mohammad was troubled byIblis (Shaitan) – the leader of the devils, and Christ had to deal with the devil Satan. In our daily lives we always try to avoid evil eye and lots of our ritualistic religious practices are based upon warding of evil forces from our life.
What is the nature of these evil forces and how can we reduce their influence in our lives.
An evil human being can be loosely defined as one who lacks empathy, is a control-freak and selfish to the extreme. There are quite a few leaders and rich and famous people in the world who exhibit these ‘qualities’.
Every human being can be either an evil person or a decent and good human being full of empathy and kindness. This is the innate characteristic of a human being. Thus, each person can be termed good or evil depending upon his mental capability. Those endowed with powerful brains can think deeply about the issues, can evaluate most of the scenarios, and then react. This is the genesis of wisdom.
While those whose brains cannot think deeply react like animals and are not capable of empathy or wisdom.
These are biological traits and are outcome of the evolutionary survival instincts. Thus, greed for resources of any kind is therefore an outcome of the fear complex and this insecurity comes because the brain cannot look and evaluate the bigger picture.
The environment and forces acting in early childhood are critical in forming the personality of an evil or a good person. Naturally the inborn traits of a pliable or rigid brain provide the starting point for such behavior.
For example, if a child’s brain can easily form memories then it can learn new things and also evaluate the issues. On the other hand, if the brain is sluggish in forming new memories rapidly then it develops memory knots of traumatic events early in life and they lead to less processing power in adult life and is the cause of insecure feelings.
The feeling of insecurity then starts the whole process of a person becoming selfish, showing lack of empathy (it also fuels selfish behavior) and other traits which result in me-me behavior. It is this me-me focus which results in making a person become control-freak and acquiring other traits associated with the evil behavior.
Why has mankind always talked about evil forces?
As the brain becomes very powerful through meditation it also becomes very much aware of surroundings and just extremely sensitive to the environment. Thus, any negative thoughts or behavior of people who do not show empathy or are focused on violence and are control freaks; are abhorred and generally labeled as evil force.
It is also possible that there are entities who show or bring out evil behavior in human beings.These entities are products of people who at the time of death had large unfulfilled desires.
These forces have existed since time immemorial as they consist of the residual memories of life extinguished long ago and are bound by the gravitational field of earth.
We cannot stop their production or influence, but what we can do is to be aware of their evil impact and try to thwart them by making our brains powerful enough to achieve wisdom and vivek. Another way to avoid their influence is by not thinking about them and be entangled with them. Patanjali has also written in his Yoga Sutras about these forces (Section III-52) and warns the yogi not to interact with them since undesirable connections can result.
In fact, our most important mantra – the Gayatri Mantra is only about that; where we pray to Sun God to illuminate our brain so that we get vivek and enlightenment. Similarly, the Shanti Mantra (Atharva Veda) is also focused on producing peace all round us so that the violence is reduced and ultimately, the mind becomes calm.
Authored by: Anil K. Rajvanshi
Thus, Gautam Buddha was bothered by evil god Mara, Mohammad was troubled byIblis (Shaitan) – the leader of the devils, and Christ had to deal with the devil Satan. In our daily lives we always try to avoid evil eye and lots of our ritualistic religious practices are based upon warding of evil forces from our life.
What is the nature of these evil forces and how can we reduce their influence in our lives.
An evil human being can be loosely defined as one who lacks empathy, is a control-freak and selfish to the extreme. There are quite a few leaders and rich and famous people in the world who exhibit these ‘qualities’.
Every human being can be either an evil person or a decent and good human being full of empathy and kindness. This is the innate characteristic of a human being. Thus, each person can be termed good or evil depending upon his mental capability. Those endowed with powerful brains can think deeply about the issues, can evaluate most of the scenarios, and then react. This is the genesis of wisdom.
While those whose brains cannot think deeply react like animals and are not capable of empathy or wisdom.
These are biological traits and are outcome of the evolutionary survival instincts. Thus, greed for resources of any kind is therefore an outcome of the fear complex and this insecurity comes because the brain cannot look and evaluate the bigger picture.
The environment and forces acting in early childhood are critical in forming the personality of an evil or a good person. Naturally the inborn traits of a pliable or rigid brain provide the starting point for such behavior.
For example, if a child’s brain can easily form memories then it can learn new things and also evaluate the issues. On the other hand, if the brain is sluggish in forming new memories rapidly then it develops memory knots of traumatic events early in life and they lead to less processing power in adult life and is the cause of insecure feelings.
The feeling of insecurity then starts the whole process of a person becoming selfish, showing lack of empathy (it also fuels selfish behavior) and other traits which result in me-me behavior. It is this me-me focus which results in making a person become control-freak and acquiring other traits associated with the evil behavior.
Why has mankind always talked about evil forces?
As the brain becomes very powerful through meditation it also becomes very much aware of surroundings and just extremely sensitive to the environment. Thus, any negative thoughts or behavior of people who do not show empathy or are focused on violence and are control freaks; are abhorred and generally labeled as evil force.
It is also possible that there are entities who show or bring out evil behavior in human beings.These entities are products of people who at the time of death had large unfulfilled desires.
These forces have existed since time immemorial as they consist of the residual memories of life extinguished long ago and are bound by the gravitational field of earth.
We cannot stop their production or influence, but what we can do is to be aware of their evil impact and try to thwart them by making our brains powerful enough to achieve wisdom and vivek. Another way to avoid their influence is by not thinking about them and be entangled with them. Patanjali has also written in his Yoga Sutras about these forces (Section III-52) and warns the yogi not to interact with them since undesirable connections can result.
In fact, our most important mantra – the Gayatri Mantra is only about that; where we pray to Sun God to illuminate our brain so that we get vivek and enlightenment. Similarly, the Shanti Mantra (Atharva Veda) is also focused on producing peace all round us so that the violence is reduced and ultimately, the mind becomes calm.
Authored by: Anil K. Rajvanshi
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