Evil in the Bhagavad Gita

'We live in the best of all possible worlds that are presently possible...'

But this best of all possible worlds must also be a result of its ingredients. What we experience as 'world' has very much to do with what human beings actually do in this world. If we have the view that human beings are unfree and totally guided by God, we can perceive a world that is the best that can be of all possible worlds- although it is not perfect in our human sense, we don't experience it as perfect, because there are many sufferings and vices. If, however, we see the human being as a being that can act out of free will, because he understands fully what his motives are, for example, God has to form this world as the best of all possible worlds while having to deal with these free human deeds. We could imagine that He has all possible variants in his divine mind and that in this way the world is always still the best of all possible worlds.

It is interesting to ask various religions and philosophies about their view on evil. We can learn a lot about evil by deepening our thoughts about it. We will conclude by finding the view of anthroposophy.

First I will ask the Bhagavad Gita about evil. Here evil is fully situated in the human soul, the human being itself. And we get the impression that this human being also has a possibility to evolve in the direction of a pure and good being. In the fourteenth chapter it is said:

5. Purity, passion and inertia—these qualities, O mighty-armed Arjuna, born of Nature, bind fast in the body, the embodied, the indestructible!
6. Of these, Sattwa, which from its stainlessness is luminous and healthy, binds by attachment to knowledge and to happiness, O sinless one!
7. Know thou Rajas to be of the nature of passion, the source of thirst (for sensual enjoyment) and attachment; it binds fast, O Arjuna, the embodied one by attachment to action!
8. But know thou Tamas to be born of ignorance, deluding all embodied beings; it binds fast, O Arjuna, by heedlessness, sleep and indolence!
9. Sattwa attaches to happiness, Rajas to action, O Arjuna, while Tamas, shrouding knowledge, attaches to heedlessness only!
10. Now Sattwa prevails, O Arjuna, having overpowered Rajas and Tamas; now Rajas, having overpowered Sattwa and Tamas; and now Tamas, having overpowered Sattwa and Rajas!
11. When, through every gate (sense) in this body, the wisdom-light shines, then it may be known that Sattwa is predominant.
12. Greed, activity, the undertaking of actions, restlessness, longing—these arise when Rajas is predominant, O Arjuna!
13. Darkness, inertness, heedlessness and delusion—these arise when Tamas is predominant, O Arjuna!
14. If the embodied one meets with death when Sattwa has become predominant, then he attains to the spotless worlds of the knowers of the Highest.
15. Meeting death in Rajas, he is born among those who are attached to action; and dying in Tamas, he is born in the womb of the senseless.
16. The fruit of good action, they say, is Sattwic and pure; the fruit of Rajas is pain, and ignorance is the fruit of Tamas.
17. From Sattwa arises knowledge, and greed from Rajas; heedlessness and delusion arise from Tamas and ignorance also.
18. Those who are seated in Sattwa proceed upwards; the Rajasic dwell in the middle; and the Tamasic, abiding in the function of the lowest Guna, go downwards.
19. When the seer beholds no agent other than the Gunas, knowing that which is higher than them, he attains to My Being.
20. The embodied one, having crossed beyond these three Gunas out of which the body is evolved, is freed from birth, death, decay and pain, and attains to immortality.
21. What are the marks of him who has crossed over the three qualities, O Lord? What is his conduct and how does he go beyond these three qualities?
22. Light, activity and delusion,—when they are present, O Arjuna, he hates not, nor does he long for them when they are absent!
23. He who, seated like one unconcerned, is not moved by the qualities, and who, knowing that the qualities are active, is self-centered and moves not,
24. Alike in pleasure and pain, who dwells in the Self, to whom a clod of earth, stone and gold are alike, to whom the dear and the unfriendly are alike, firm, the same in censure and praise,
25. The same in honour and dishonour, the same to friend and foe, abandoning all undertakings—he is said to have crossed the qualities.
26. And he who serves Me with unswerving devotion, he, crossing beyond the qualities, is fit for becoming Brahman.
27. For I am the abode of Brahman, the immortal and the immutable, of everlasting Dharma and of absolute bliss.

Sattwa is the highest quality of the soul, but is not absolute bliss. This is only reached by crossing beyond the three qualities, the gunas. The concerns that belong to living on earth are all overcome, also Sattwa, and a state is reached where one dwells in the higher Self, unmoved by the gunas, unmoved by all the things and processes on earth.

In the sixteenth chapter the division between the divine and the demonical is being taught. I will write about this theme next week.


Evil in the Bhagavad Gita by Mieke Mosmuller