A. (swami Vivekananda) — I can only answer the question if the existence of evil be first proved; but this the Vedantic religion does not admit.
Eternal pain unmixed with pleasure would be a positive evil; but temporal pain and sorrow, if they have contributed an element of tenderness and nobility tending towards eternal bliss, are not evils: on the contrary, they may be supreme good.
We cannot assert that anything is evil until we have traced its sequence into the realm of eternity.
Devil worship is not a part of the Hindu religion.
The human race is in process of development; all have not reached the same altitude.
Therefore some are nobler and purer in their earthly lives than others. Every one has an opportunity within the limits of the sphere of his present development of making himself better.
We cannot unmake ourselves; we cannot destroy or impair the vital force within us, but we have the freedom to give it different
directions.
Q. — Is not the reality of cosmic matter simply the imagining of our own minds?
A. — In my opinion the external world is certainly an entity and has an existence outside of our mental conceptions. All creation is moving onwards and upwards, obedient to the great law of spirit evolution, which is different from the evolution of matter. The latter is symbolical of, but does not explain, the process of the former.
We are not individuals now, in our present earthly environment.
We shall not have reached individuality until we shall have ascended to the higher state, when the divine spirit within us will have a perfect medium for the expression of its attributes.
Swami Vivekananda
The Complete Works
Questions and Answers
(At the Brooklyn Ethical Society, Brooklyn, U. S. A., 1898)
