Understanding Adverse Forces and the Evolutionary Response to Their Action

How easy it is, and how comforting, to look at someone who opposes us, or who is creating some form of havoc in the world at large and simply label that individual as pure evil, as a Rakshasa, an Asura, a Demon, or some other form of hostile being. And yet, those individuals are actually part of the creation and apparently have some role to play, even if that role appears to be highly destructive. In the economy of the universal manifestation, there are forces that create and build, but also forces that tear apart and destroy. In some cases, stagnation and past fixed formations actually need to be removed in order for progress to occur, and these destructive forces are tasked with the role of breaking down the fixed confining habits of the past. There seem to be limits to each of them. In a non-dual universe, even the adverse powers must contain a spark of the Divine Presence. The ancient Chinese symbol of Yin/Yang attempts to describe graphically this inter-connection and the deeper harmony that is implied.

The ancient stories embodied in the Puranas in India frequently tell tales of demonic beings who seem to stride across the worlds and seem invincible. In many cases they are said to have received special boons from the creator as a result of austerities they have undertaken and, for a time, they seem to be unconquerable. It should be noted that in each case, they appear to have requested immortality, but the creator denied that but allowed them to determine the cause of their eventual death. They were sometimes quite creative in finding ways to exclude virtually every form of death, and yet, eventually, death came to them in the form they either failed to omit or which met all the conditions they had set. In the end, the reign of terror was ended and the world moved on in its development.

In a number of these cases, the gods and the rishis prayed to the Supreme to solve the issue, and were told that it would be taken care of when the sins of the offending party had reached a state of fullness, indicating that somehow the atrocities were part of the action sanctioned by the Supreme for a time, for whatever larger universal purpose may have been underway, but not forever.

From our human standpoint, acknowledgement of these uncomfortable facts is difficult, if not impossible. Yet, if we shift to a wider viewpoint, and look through the lens of history and Time, we can see that along with all the destruction and harm caused, there is a removal of past limits and elements that could hold back progress and there is a counter-vailing force that arises, grows and eventually ends the disaster in that form. That newly arisen counter-vailing power continues to exert its positive influence and helps the world progress. It is almost as if the universal method is to raise up unacceptable forces in order to provoke a new level of progress to come into existence. It is generally true that unchallenged we do not tend to strive or grow as fast or as far as when obstacles are placed in our path. In some cases, this leads to the development of individuals who take on the role of leaders of the evolutionary development, who see the opposition, who understand its role and its limitations, and who help guide humanity to the next stage of its growth while confronting and overcoming these adverse forces.

For those who have to live through such times and events, the circumstances are excruciatingly painful and much suffering occurs. These are not all human-caused events, however, although nowadays, human actions may actually contribute to what formerly were purely ‘natural’ catastrophes. Volcanoes, cyclones, tornadoes, droughts, floods, wildfires, heat waves and deep freeze periods, as well as the potential for meteorite strikes, represent forces outside human control that create tremendous destruction and suffering when they occur. In the end, something new arises to replace what was destroyed.

The Mother notes: “And this presence becomes quite obvious in the human being, even the most rudimentary. Even in the most monstrous human being, in one who gives the impression of being an incarnation of a devil or a monster, there is something within exercising a sort of irresistible control — even in the worst, some things are impossible. And without this presence, if the being were controlled exclusively by the adverse forces, the forces of the vital, this impossibility would not exist.”

“Each time a wave of these monstrous adverse forces sweeps over the earth, one feels that nothing can ever stop the disorder and horror from spreading, and always, at a certain time, unexpectedly and inexplicably a control intervenes, and the wave is arrested, the catastrophe is not total. And this is because of the Presence, the supreme Presence, in matter.”

“But only in a few exceptional beings and after a long, very long work of preparation extending over many, many lives does this Presence change into a conscious, independent, full organised being, all-powerful master of his dwelling-place, conscious enough, powerful enough, to be able to control not only this dwelling but what surrounds it and in a field of radiation and action that is more and more extensive — and effective.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter XX The Psychic, pp. 154-155