Good Vs Evil

The battle between the Good and the Evil is one of the oldest battles in the History of this universe. Since the inception of our time, we have been hearing stories of continuous war between Good and the Evil. But how many of us have put in thought to understand what exactly is the meaning of this Good and Evil? What makes one a Hero of the Folklore and Mythology; and how does one turn out to be the Villain. The simple way of looking at this would be to define a difference between Gods and Demons, or as we know them in Hindu Mythology; Devas and Asuras. We can just define the physical and character aspects of these mythic beings and come to our conclusion about the difference between Good and Evil; because we have always known that Devas/Gods were good and Asuras/Demons were bad. But that would be an oversimplification of the facts. In reality, there is a very thin line that separates the two.

Recently as I was browsing through my social media pages, I came across a very interesting piece of post on this topic. It was a picture collage that was used to describe the place where Good and Bad reside in four Yugas and used it as a way to differentiate between the kind of people who lived in those respective eras. I will try and explain this collage though words.

For those who are not familiar with Hindu mythology, let me give you a brief concept of the division of time according to its scriptures. According to the Hindu Mythology movement of Time is Circular or Cyclic. It does not consider it to be Linear as accepted by many scientists. Hindu scriptures believe in the permanence of the universe and spirit; the body is described as a vehicle, which the spirit or Aatmn rides for some time and then leaves behind to go to the next one. Hindus believe that the Kaal Chakra or the Wheel of time comes back to the same point after it has completed its rotation. And this entire rotation is divided into 4 Yugas, namely, SatYuga, the era of righteous, Treta Yuga, the time of Lord Rama, Dwapar Yuga, the period associated with Lord Krishna and Mahabharata; and finally Kali Yuga, the age we are living in.

According to Hindu beliefs after the end of Kali Yuga, the world as we know of will come to an end and the age of Sat Yuga will usher again.

So this is just a short brief of the Yugas. 

Now coming back to that post, what aroused my curiosity in that small college, was the way it differentiated between the four Yugas. According to that collage, the difference between the Yugas was as follows:

1. Sat Yuga - During this period the Good and the Bad lived in different realms. The Good, i.e. the Devas or the Gods lived in the Akash or Heaven, above the earth; and the Evil, Asuras lived in the Paatal or Hell, below the earth. (According to the scriptures the universe is divided into 3 Realms, The Heaven, The Earth, and The Hell. Swarg/Aakash, Prithvi, and Paatal)

1. Treta Yuga - During this period, the distance between Good and the Evil reduced, and their battle shifted to the common realm i.e. the Earth. Ram and Ravan the embodiments of the two aspects descended on Earth and their battle took place here. 

1. Dwapar Yuga - In this Yuga, the distance further collapsed and both the Good and the Evil announced their presence in the same household. In this period manifestations of Good and Evil collided in the form of Pandavas and Kauravas, brothers living under the same roof; unlike Rama and Ravana who lived in different countries. In Dwapar Krishna descended on Earth and sided with the Good.

1. Kali Yuga - Now the last of the Yugas is the most complex because it brought Good and Evil so close that they almost merged into each other and their war entered a new fourth realm, the Human Mind. In this age, there is no clear marking for what’s good and what’s bad, as both have become two sides of the same coin. As the demarcation between the two has faded, and every human mind is their battlefield. It is even difficult for God to take an incarnation to fight evil because then he would have to wipe all the human off this face of the earth. So this time we are on our own. Because this time we have to first separate the Good from the Evil in us and using our will power we have to summon the power of almighty to wipe the evil inside us. This time we have to seek God in ourselves and empower it to defeat the Evil and force it out of our minds.

After looking at this post, two questions stuck in my mind. First, how did we allow our minds to become a battlefield and our body a weapon? And second, how do we differentiate between the good and evil in us? After putting in a lot of thought into these two questions; I’ve come upon a realization, which can turn out to be the answer to these two questions. Like the questions, the answers also lie within ourselves. The two aspects that can be used to define the Evil in every Yuga are Ego and Greed.

Now let us analyze the two separately. 

Ego; one’s sense of self-esteem and self-importance is a major factor that collides with the rational thinking of the mind. Whenever Ego dominates our minds, we lose the ability to comprehend, analyze, and rationalize the situation. It always forces the mind to take knee-jerk decisions, that are harmful to self as well as others. And it always plays a cruel game with one’s mind. It always takes a step back for sometime after the act is committed and leaves the mind with regret and darkness. But before the mind can decipher the reason, it again envelopes it.

Greed; the intense and selfish desire for something that does not belong to you. This is the root cause of Lust; for power, for wealth, and even sex. When Greed takes the reign of the mind, we become blind. We cannot see any reason beyond our selfish desires. And it forces the mind to put all its energies into claim something it sets its eyes on. It doesn’t matter whether that thing rightly belongs to someone else or the means to reach it. And the biggest weapon of Greed is that t never lets the mind rest. It is always pushing the mind for more; there is simply no end to it.

If both Ego and Greed can cause such havoc with the mind single-handedly, just thing what can they do to the mind when they combine. That creates an evil force in the mind. The result can be seen in the form of Asuras in Sat Yuga, who were always lusting for Devas’ abode and their wives and were always high on their physical prowess. Then again we see that in Ravan in Treta Yuga, who lusted for someone else’s wife, buoyed by his ego and paid the price with his life at the hands of Rama. And in Dwapar Yuga, we see the same combination of Greed and Ego in Duryodhan which resulted in the war of Mahabharat that wiped almost all of the kuru clan. In the present era Hitler, Mussolini, Saddam Hussain, and many more imbibed the same combination of Greed and Ego that ultimately led to their downfall.

But in the current era, Ego and Greed are present in each one of us. Time and again we succumb to either one of the two. And then later regret our actions. All the horrific crimes that we read or hear about in the news every day are the functions of uncontrolled Ego or Greed. They are always present in our minds and playing their dirty games to turn us against our humanity.

But if that is the case then why is each one of us, not a criminal, or a murderer, or kidnapper, or in short EVIL. Because where there is evil there is also Good. When there was Ravan, there was Ram; when there was Duryodhan, there was Krishna. That means there is always a counterforce to Ego and Greed that keeps us from turning into Evil. What is that force?

The Greed and Ego in our minds can be countered with Patience and Virtue. Patience gives us the ability to calm ourselves in case of adversity and holds the ego back when faced with tough choices. Virtue binds Greed and never lets it take over the reins of the mind. Rama, Krishna, Buddha are all examples of Patience and Virtue. They never let their Ego to make decisions for them and they never succumbed to Greed.

Patience and virtue are present in all of us and it is up to us to channelize their energies and empower them in the fight against our Ego and Greed. If we achieve that, good shall prevail and if we fail to do that, Evil wins. In this Yuga, the incarnation of God takes place inside our minds. But, if and when it will take place, is up to us, because we have to decide which power shall prevail. In this fight between Good and Evil, we have to decide who would win.