Positive and Negative Forces at War (Paranormal – Part 6)

Having read hundreds of articles endorsing the ‘power of good over evil’ and the supremacy of God almighty, I often wondered if ‘positive forces’ were actually more powerful than ‘negative’ ones. This, in fact, gives birth to the most controversial subject of the ancient and the present times---Is God more powerful than Evil? If He is, then why does Evil exist at all? Does it mean that God does not have the power to eradicate Evil as if He had such absolute powers then Evil would not have the nerve to mess around with His creation. At least that is what seems to be a logical inference. It becomes sometimes difficult to go against the current, especially, in view of the concepts of spirituality and philosophy of God’s existence ingrained in us since the time of our birth. At times, in order to reduce the complications in our lives, we try to keep things simple by blindly towing the line of our ancestors / forefathers. The less we question the pre-set ideologies, greater are our chances of staying in ‘good books’ of our family and friends; try taking one step out of the vicious circle and get ready for all those wagging tongues and contemptuous eyes scoffing at you. Besides, the belief that God is more powerful, brings peace to our inner chaos and ignorance, and kindles a ray of hope in the dark. Are we humans designed to make things comfortable rather than complicated for our own selves? Perhaps we are made that way which is why we try to accept facts which are congenial to our mental framework. Is that why we are not ready to see the other side (weak) of God?

For decades I’ve heard people ranting that it’s the ‘Evil’ and not God, who inflicts misery and pain to mankind; God only heals. Some scholars have also propounded the theory that God is so kind that He does not believe in punishing the sinners—He only forgives. Now this is something totally in contradiction to the stories and beliefs I grew up with. I remember that even as a child, the philosophy of ‘sinners-being-punished-by-God’ was instilled so profoundly in me that I never even dared to raise my voice (not to talk of doing bad deeds) just for the fear of hurting anyone’s feelings. If only someone had whispered in my ear that it’s good to be bad sometimes, I wouldn’t have felt like an impotent, helpless and miserable devotee turning to God at every small pretext. I wouldn’t have lived with a stupid belief that I’m God’s responsibility and that he watches over me. I should’ve known that God’s work (in relation to me) was over the day he created me and from then on--- it was supposed to be my journey and my ordeals. I now feel that it was completely insane (of me) to expect Him to come to my rescue every time I had some one or the other stabbing a dagger in my heart; I was probably supposed to defend myself (without His help) even if that meant killing the attacker before he tried to kill me. (The concept of ‘self defense’ should work in God’s kingdom as well and if it does not, His laws badly need an amendment). The question arising here is that if God does not punish the wrong doer, then who does? Better still, does he (sinner) even get punished?

The Eastern philosophy strongly advocates the importance of ‘Karma’ in the journey through life and life after life. It is believed that a sinner is sure to face retribution when he comes under the influence of certain malefic / harmful combination of planets which affect him adversely at a given point of time and this can happen in his next life also. Clarifying further, it is not necessary that a wrong doer is punished in the same life in which he commits sins; he might enjoy all the abundance (love, prosperity & happiness) in life despite causing pain and misery to innocent people only for the reason that the planets (affecting him at the time of his birth) favor him all through his life. Probably the 'accumulated karma' theory works here.

“If this is the case then how would the victim know that the person, who ruined his life, was actually punished by God? It makes no sense committing sins in one life and getting the punishment in the next one.” I asked this question to a learned person some years ago in relation to a person who had suffered untold misery due to black magic allegedly performed on him for bringing bad luck and misfortune to him. The victim had suffered a major chunk of his life facing the onslaughts which he did not deserve. (I’m not going into the details of black magic here). It was astonishing to see the extent to which the negative forces had the power to destroy an innocent life. Even more surprising was the fact that the victim had been an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva since his early childhood. The question which instantly came to my mind was---“Where was his deity at the time when the Evil forces struck him? What stopped God to save him from the Evil? The man had been suffering for decades and no one was able to completely negate the effect of spells cast on him. Why did the poor man have to suffer endlessly for the wrong doings of some wicked family member who had cast spells on the victim, out of jealousy and envy? I couldn’t understand why could God not free the victim of his pain and mitigate the evil influence in his life, especially, when he had spent his whole life worshipping his deity with all his heart, mind and soul? Ironic as it sounds, the wrong doer, as against the God-fearing victim, had been enjoying all the luxuries which one can conceive of.

The reply which I got from the learned man was that “God does not see things the way we do. For him it is more like a continuous journey of a soul irrespective of the number of times the soul takes birth in the human form. It does not matter to God if a soul faces the brunt of the sins in the present life or in the next one. As regards the sufferer—who knows –this could be God’s way to make him learn his lessons! ” As convincing as it sounded, the explanation seemed to have some loose ends. Perhaps it’s easier to absolve the Almighty of all responsibilities and obligations rather than finding answers and holding Him liable for so many things (which we don’t approve of) happening around us. We all have a tendency to fear the ‘unknown’ and ‘unseen’ which is probably why we leave it at that. We prefer to suffer till eternity and keep praying to God for mitigating our pain but He does what he has to do, irrespective of our tears, anguish and agony and more interestingly, when, once in a while he answers our prayers, we bow before Him and ask for forgiveness for not having complete faith in Him. Delving deep into the mystery of human existence, I sometimes feel that we are nothing but puppets and our strings are pulled intermittently by two equally powerful forces of the cosmos. We struggle our way from the ‘womb to the tomb’ under the constant influence of positive and negative forces which work actively on us and influence each and every action (and thought) of ours, without our being aware of it. Is it possible that because we deny the existence of the Evil, he pulls us more towards him and away from the kingdom of God? Who knows --it might be a ‘game of power’ going on at the ‘Higher level’ also! Seems that the rules of Cosmos are same everywhere, whether on earth or elsewhere.