One thing that come in often in my thoughts (mostly when i am disturbed or feeling somber) is that ‘why did God create evil?’….
Just imagine a world with no evil (i know thats a tough job,but still..)..how nice it would have been-no fights,no crime,no bullying…the list goes on (i think there are more evil things than good-ah!what a pessimist i am).This particular question always made me feel uneasy,as if it was the most important thing on my list;but i couldn’t find a satisfying answer until last night when i read Paulo Coelho’s ‘The alchemist’.
'The alchemist' by Paulo Coelho
I got the book from Kaka & its been with me for more than a month now.I read it half way through on the first day itself,but after that i kept it aside for reasons unknown.But something prompted me to have another look at it last night.I was finding it hard to sleep & reading a novel appeared to be a fairly good idea at that time.
Santiago,the protagonist,reached the oasis in search of his destiny.He looked around the caravan & then back to the scenic peace of the oasis and a series of thoughts crossed through his mind.Maybe God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees,he thought.
“Maybe God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees.”
This gave me the answer to my ever pertaining dilemma.The answer was simpler than I thought (as in most cases).Yes,God created evil so that we could appreciate the finer things in life.How could you appreciate beauty if u haven’t witnessed the ugly.How could you appreciate the sweetness in ripe mango if you haven’t tasted it when it was sour.You can always observe nature’s sense of balancing in every aspect of life.If there’s bad,then there is good too.Both complement each other.There’s no significance of good without bad,’cause in that case-how would you differentiate what’s good & what’s bad.
Please share your views and suggestions 🙂
LAA : L'Aventure Ambiguë 
What do you mean by evil?..
You say that bullying, crime, fights, wars, terrorism etc… are evil. Are they really?
From your perspective. Yes. From the perspective of the doer? Absolutely not. Some religions preach that you get salvation by the extermination of non-believers. Actually all semitic religions directly or indirectly preach that.
Then are the wars and terrorism commited in the name of the ‘true’ god evil in the eyes of god?…
A man about to commit a suicide strike might feel that he is doing the greatest good he can do in the eyes of god. The relatives of his victims feel otherwise.
If you are a non-vegetarian, have you ever considered the fact that taking a life a might be evil?. Your sacred book might say that animals have no souls. But mine says that they do. So who is evil? the one (i.e. me) who does not eat the meat prescribed by god, or you who kills to meet your needs?
This applies to vegetarians too, who kill plants to eat. So should we go hungry and die?
During the dark ages, there was a massive witch hunt in Europe, and thousands of women were burned in pyres. This was in the name of god. This might sound evil now. Was it then?..
I believe that there is no good or evil. You can do whatever that leaves your conscience feeling right.
@aravind
a very thought provokin one…i m amazed @ the depth of ur thinkin & respect u 4 that
this post wasn’t meant to be that serious at first hand,but eventually when i finished it i felt that this has struck a cord with my true identity….good vs bad,true vs lie etc are very abstract concepts when u go deep into it….it depends on one’s view point (& u r right when u quoted some examples..)….but one thing that i learned from my material sciences professor when he once engaged a yoga class for us is this: ‘u wud b able to appreciate the ultimate truth wen u analyze things while being detached fm urself’ (thats not an exact quote)….but wat he meant ws that if u try 2 figure out things while being fully convinced that the outcome is not goin to be affected by ur mere attention,then the possibility of knowing the truth is more!…well…that ws a bit too philosophical ( i kno… :p )…hope u got my idea
Nice!
I thought that this blog was that of a foriegner who follows a semitic religion. The concept of good and evil is not a part of our culture. We have only dharma and adharma.
When i read the about me section, I found that my assumption was wrong.
So sorry for the mistake.
@aravind
dharma-adharma is nothin but good-evil (in a way) …..so its not true to say that it won’t fit in our culture
Nice to know that my views are appreciated.
I feel that dharma-adharma is totally different from good-evil.
Dharma is doing things that one feels right. That is very different from good. Krishna asked Arjuna to fight against his family and teachers because that was the dharma. Was that actually good? To kill the innocent many, who had done no harm to the Pandavas? What did Bhishma do?
Actually good means to do things that are allowed by the semitic sacred books. It is good to kill the infidel, while it is evil to eat the pork.
Good and evil have a very definite and rigid definition from the perspective of the doer. It does not consider the perspective of the other. But dharma & adharma consider that.
All this is way more than what can be expressed in a post. It requires face to face discussion.
Hope we can discuss more on this later.
@aravind,
u r right wen u say that these things r too complicated to discuss in a post…but then this post cud act as a forrum (kind of)…where in everybody can drop in with their ideas…but if u r plannin 2 discuss this in any of the s.o.b meeting,then i dont think thats possible,even organising a formal meeting of s.o.b seems to b a distant dream..
wen u say that good-evil is different fm dharma-adharma,i think u r not gettin a point…if u take a closer look u’ll find that good n evil too are based on one’s viewpoint (jus as u described dharma-adharma)…wat cud b gud 4 one cud b evil 4 someone else…i guess the pair of words are synonyms to each other!
dharam and adharma doesnt fall in such categories of good and evil as normal we saw now(my thought). It is written that ravana and baali reached heaven. Does it means that thay got heaven bcz of their evil act. This was spoken by krishna in gita. ‘All are forced to act upon for which they got their birth here. They cannot stay free from the karma even for a single moment’ chapter5 verses 5
The truth is that there is no were in indian ideologies such a satan/evil is reffered to. As aravind said on seeing the title one could feel it was from a semetic believer. The only such reffering is that of kali. And we could see in books that it was only reffering to the nature of people in this yug(kali entered to some one to act something- this could be reffered to someone acting against dharma). And it is not embossed as a person as satan (an exceptional case is the orgin of kali from mahabharatha which not had further reference). So good and evil is not defined with some narrow concepts in our books and it states that killing some one is not evil (considering the reason) looking further one could see all we consider as evil will fall on dharma on a particular context what a thought , that is Indian Vedic thought 🙂
When I was reading your first para, I got the answer in my mind that you mentioned in the last para & also made my mind that I know I want to comment to this post that you mentioned in last para.
But still I read full to know more about you thoughts & good to see that you were expressing your points about a novel.
Thanks for writing this post becoz this post satisfied me that my thoughts about the life were not wrong & at such an small age my thinking’s were purely right.
Really great post & your narration.
thanx 4 ur comments shrikrishna…
I really appreciate the fact that i’ve like-minded folks around me … but dont assume that u’re opinions are ‘purely right’ jus becoz they matched wid someone else’s. This theme,i think, comes in the spiritual context and we can only come up wid our versions …there is nothing that could explain the mystries f god’s creations..these answers that we find are only satisfy ourselves..
OMG! that ws heavy..but i think u got my point 🙂
Ya I got your point,
Well I don’t believe in god but believe in the creator & No one knows what were the thinking of creator while inventing human’s & it’s surrounding.
Hey, I think you should change the template of this blog, May be visitors to you blog may stay more here & add an such type of widget which allow others to follow you, so they will be keep updated about your new posts.
@Shrikrishna,
-people,wen they say God,they actually refer to the creator…people call it by different names,and u n me are no different
-ye, i keep changin the template once in a while…thanx 4 remindin that its time 🙂
-can u suugest some widget that wud help ppl follow my blog…i think u can subscribe to the RSS feed to be updated
hope 2 c u again
regards
Vineeth