Dana: I am completely stuck in my inquiry because I cannot get my head around why evil exists. Can you summarize it for me?
Sundari: It would be wonderful if I could hand you this teaching on a plate, but unfortunately, it is central to self-inquiry, so you need to ‘get your head around it’. You will not make progress unless you can assimilate it. To do so mean you must understand the Big Picture, how the Field manifests and works, which is what self-inquiry is all about. I will give a brief summary. I hope it helps.
First, there is only Satya, Pure, non-dual, unchanging, ever-present, whole and complete Consciousness. When Maya appears, Isvara in the form of the Creator appears and mithya, the creation (duality) apparently manifests. The creation is made up of and originates from the gunas: sattva (the energy of intelligence/revelation), rajas (the energy of desire/action), tamas (the energy of delusion/matter). They are impersonal forces that condition and shape everything in the Field of Existence, including the individual and their conditioning (vasanas).
This world may not be real because it is not always present and is always changing, but it exists all the same because you experience it. The gunas are what make the creation possible. There is no way for this reality to manifest or function if the gunas do not have the capacity to play out from one end of the spectrum of good to the other, so-called bad. That is the way it is, no point breaking our hearts over it. If we want a game called ‘Life’ this is the only way it can be. In the world of duality, nothing exists without its opposite. If there was only good, the whole show would end. We want the show to end not by changing it but by understanding how it functions so that we can end the way we relate to it that causes suffering.
From the perspective of the jiva (individual) identified with being a jiva, this playing out is seen as personal and has all kinds of thoughts, emotions, and actions associated with it. From one’s personal to global view, how we see the world and what happens to us—and it—will be interpreted by how the mind is conditioned by the gunas i.e. the vasanas, which are also generated and coloured by the gunas. Even though I know I am the Self and not the person, the apparent person lives in the apparent reality. From the personal perspective, we see the sadness and know that there is nothing to be done about it. Suffering will always be present in the apparent reality.
Isvara’s creation is playing out as it must because Isvara is karma phala data, the one who hands out karma and provides us with the Field of Experience to work it out. Nobody can interfere with anyone else’s karma and does so at their own peril. We can help others only if it is in keeping with dharma, theirs and our own. To do the dharma on another is fraught with danger, as Krishna says to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. Karma is impossible to understand from the jiva’s perspective because the individual can only look at what takes place in the apparent reality from within the framework of the apparent reality. This perspective will always be limited. The apparent reality will always be limited. We cannot see the Big Picture, only Isvara can. And only Isvara takes care of the needs of the Total. The only solution to the suffering duality causes is to ‘step out of Maya’(the hypnosis of duality) and see it from the non-dual point of view of Consciousness.
To summarize:
1.) It is not Isvara that causes horrible evil things to happen. Isvara is not a pervert taking pleasure in suffering, or a big person with desires and fears. Isvara is an impersonal force – limitless Consciousness, in the role of Creator. Because it is limitless it has every conceivable power, including the power for so-called good and evil, ignorance. If ignorance is excluded from Consciousness, Consciousness becomes limited which, when we investigate, we know is not possible because Consciousness is limitless. The suffering and evil that one sees are a result of ignorance of Isvara and how the Field of Existence runs, not Isvara. We know this because individuals who understand Isvara and know that their true nature is Consciousness do no evil. And even those who don’t know their true nature but understand that the Field runs on natural laws, don’t do evil either because they understand the consequences of breaking dharma.
Christ said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Maya makes the impossible apparently possible: it seems to make Consciousness think it is an individual who does not know that it is actually whole and complete Consciousness. When Consciousness is under the spell of Maya it seemingly does actions that cause suffering to it and to others. But is this really the case? Firstly, Consciousness is never really under the spell of ignorance, Maya just makes it look like it is. Consciousness is never bound by ignorance because if it were, there would be no way out of it. Maya is a trick of light. The eternal Jiva is and always has been pure Consciousness.
Secondly, as a jiva or apparent person identified with their body/mind, (under the spell of Maya), nobody asks to have the conditioning they are born with and develop because of their karma. Maya, Beginningless ignorance is behind it all, from the serial killer to the wombat scratching itself to death, to the Lion killing an innocent antelope for dinner. How can we blame anyone for what they do if nobody is really doing anything? This may not absolve anyone of the consequences of their actions, but nonetheless, when you understand the mechanism of how the gunas govern everything, it gives you a very different understanding of ‘free will’.
2.) Maya is not real. We know this because it disappears with Self-knowledge. If Maya is not real, then the effects of Maya – good and evil in the apparent reality created by Maya – are not real either. Suffering is taking something that is not real to be real. As Consciousness, you are the witness of (apparent) good and evil. So, it cannot be either good or evil because both good and evil are objects known to you, Consciousness. You are never what you know.
3.) Finally, and most important, freedom comes when we can see both dharma and adharma impersonally, from the dispassionate, non-dual perspective, as the inevitable playing out of the gunas, while still being empathic and helping when we can. When we can see life this way, we see that there is more good in the world than bad. This is a benign universe, taking care of everyone, all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding. Maya also makes Consciousness realize its nature as Consciousness, follow dharma, and do many wonderful things. Just look at how amazing nature is, how intricate and self-sustaining when we don’t mess with it. Who could design such a perfect creation but an intelligent creator? Why focus on the bad? Isvara must take care of all life. You do have a choice. Choose to see that life is beautiful and perfect the way it is, with Isvara taking care of the Total in ways we do not understand as limited jivas. Only Isvara is omniscient.
Karma yoga, the understanding that all results are solely up to Isvara, is the only way to peace of mind. Make sure you understand what it is and practice it in every thought word and deed. We all want the world to be a better place, but it is what it is. If it could function any other way, for instance, if sattva ruled and suppressed rajas and tamas permanently, the whole game would end. The only way this apparent world of duality can function to deliver everyone’s karma is if all the gunas function the way they do, which is why it is pointless wanting things to be different.
The solution to existential suffering is to see that the game is not real, which is only possible with the assimilation of Self-knowledge.
Om,Sundari
