Since September eleventh, 2001, Western leaders have increasingly condemned some men as being evil and extolled others as being good. This, of course, is not the Hindu perspective. But since we hear these statements so often, it is good to take time to reflect on the Hindu point of view regarding good and evil to make sure our and our children's thinking on the matter remains uninfluenced by Western philosophical thought regarding the nature of man. The Hindu viewpoint is that all of mankind is good, none is evil. We are all divine beings, souls created by God. In fact, we are all one family; as the ancient Rig Veda states, Vasudhaiva kutumbakam, "the whole world is one family."
Each soul is emanated from God, as a spark from a fire, beginning a spiritual journey which eventually leads back to God. All human beings are on this journey, whether they realize it or not, and the journey spans many lives. If all are on the same journey, why is there such a disparity between men? Clearly, some act like saints and others act like sinners. Some take delight in helping their fellow men while others delight in harming them. The Hindu explanation is that each of us started the journey at a different time. Thus some are at the beginning of the spiritual path, while others are near the end. In other words, there are young souls and there are old souls.
Man's nature can be described as three-fold: spiritual, intellectual and instinctive. It is the instinctive nature, the animal-like nature, which contains the tendencies to harm others. Men who are expressing those tendencies are young souls who need to learn to harness this force. The Hindu approach to such a man is not to label him evil, but rather to focus on helping him learn to control his instincts and improve his behavior. Gurudeva, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, describes this in an insightful way: "People act in evil ways who are not yet in touch with their soul nature and live totally in the outer, instinctive mind. What the ignorant see as evil, the enlightened see as the actions of low-minded and immature individuals."
Important insights into the soul's maturing process can be gained by looking at the three shaktis of God Siva—iccha, the power of desire; kriya, the power of action; and jnana, the power of wisdom—which are also the three powers of the soul. We first have a desire, and when the desire becomes strong enough we act. In young souls the action may be ill-conceived, even against dharma. For example, a man wants a computer, so he steals one. Money is needed, so he robs a bank.
The soul is often caught up in repeating a cycle of similar experiences, moving back and forth from desire to action, desire to action, until the needed lesson is learned. In the case of the adharmic action of stealing, eventually he will learn the lesson that this is not the best way to acquire possessions. This learning is the jnana shakti, wisdom, causing his behavior to improve.
vFor all of mankind, no matter where one is on the path, spiritual advancement comes from improving one's behavior. Said another way, it comes from learning from one's mistakes. Unfortunately, this process is often inhibited by the idea that somehow we are not supposed to make mistakes, that mistakes are bad. Far too many children grow up being scolded for their mistakes by parents. Teachers ridicule students when they make mistakes. Supervisors yell at workers when they make a mistake. No wonder many adults feel terrible when they make a mistake. To spiritually benefit from our mistakes, we need a new attitude toward them. Gurudeva described mistakes as "wonderful opportunities to learn."
Parents and caretakers can teach children that making mistakes is not bad. Everyone makes mistakes. It is natural, and simply shows we do not understand something about the matter at hand, or we have been inattentive. Mistakes are wonderful opportunities to learn. The story I give to impress this point is of a young family. The wife is at home, taking care of the five-year old, and the five-year old makes some horrendous mistake, almost burns the house down. So the wife calls her husband and says, "You will be so happy to hear this news. Our son almost burned the house down. Isn't this wonderful? He has such a great opportunity to learn an important lesson, and I wanted you to think about it on your way home. What lesson do we need to teach him so he does not make this mistake again?" Of course, you all get the point, which is that, unfortunately, most parents don't react that way!
Usually punishment is the only response. But punishment misses the point if it does not incorporate a teaching that will help the child learn how not to repeat the mistake. The important point is that the child does not know something. Otherwise, he never would have made the mistake. There is some knowledge the child is missing and the parents need to figure out what that knowledge is. In other words, it is fine to discipline the child in a respectful, reasonable way, but it has to be done without emotion and coupled with trying to help the child not repeat the mistake through figuring out what the child needs to learn. Whose responsibility is it to teach the child? Of course, it is the parents' responsibility.
There are many forms of "misbehavior," but in this article we are focusing on innocent mistakes and cases of bad judgment caused by lack of knowledge or insufficient training, as opposed to knowledgeable, intentional wrongdoing.
Moving on, there are four progressive reactions that naturally ensue when one makes a mistake. A common first reaction to having made a mistake is to become upset, to become fretful or angry about it, or if it is a serious mistake to become deeply burdened and even depressed. That is a normal first reaction, but if it is our only reaction, it is not enough for those seeking to advance themselves spiritually. To progress, we need to cope with the emotional reaction to the action and move on to the learning stage.
Thus a good second reaction to a mistake is to think clearly about what happened, why it occurred and find a way to not repeat the mistake in the future. Perhaps we were not being careful enough, and simply resolving to be more circumspect next time will prevent the problem from recurring. Perhaps we lacked some important knowledge, and now we have that knowledge, which we can simply resolve to use next time. Perhaps we created unintended consequences that caused significant problems to ourselves or others. Now that we are aware of the consequences, we certainly won't repeat the action.
A few years ago a group of teenagers in Australia started a small forest fire in which several innocent people were seriously burned. They were caught, and as part of their discipline the judge directed them to visit the victims in the hospital to see the consequences of their actions. This impressed them so deeply that they were overcome with regret and pledged to never vandalize again. Those who are striving to live a spiritual life are self-reflective and learn quickly from their blunders. In fact, one way to tell a young soul from an old soul is to observe how quickly he cognizes his error and learns not to repeat the same mistake.
Quite often, I get an e-mail from someone who made a mistake in which he or she laments, "Oh, I should not have done this." Of course, belaboring one's remorse is just getting stuck at the first level of reaction. I encourage such persons to move on to the second level by not repeating, "I should not have done this," but affirming, "I won't do it again." That is the response we are striving for: not to simply feel sorry that we made a mistake, but to commit to not making it again or, at least, trying not to make it again.
Taking that step is exercizing the power of self-reflection, which is how we progress on the spiritual path, because the spiritual path is a series of experiences, offering many opportunities to falter. If we can study our errors and learn to not repeat them, then we turn them into new growth and progress. If we constantly make the same mistakes over and over and over again, without improvement, we remain in a rut and delay our progress.
A third remedy may be needed if our misstep involved other people. Perhaps we have hurt someone's feelings or created a strain between us. A direct apology can fix this if we know him well. If we are not close enough to the individual to be able to apologize, a generous act can often adjust the flow of feelings back into a harmonious condition. For example, hold a small dinner party and include him among the invited guests.
A fourth remedy may be needed in cases of major misdeeds: for example, if we did something that was dishonest. Even if we resolve to not repeat the misdeed and apologize to those involved, we may still feel guilty about the transgression. By performing some form of penance, prayaschitta, we can rid ourselves of the burden of feeling bad about what we have done.
How do you know you need to do penance? Because you have done the first three steps and you still feel burdened. Typical forms of penance are fasting, carrying kavadi for Lord Murugan, performing 108 prostrations before the Deity, or doing "walking prostrations" up a sacred path or around a temple.
These are too severe for younger children, but they can do simpler penances such as skipping dessert one meal or renouncing a favorite TV program one night.
In conclusion, the spiritual path is a series of experiences, and sometimes those experiences involve mistakes that we make. If we teach ourselves, and our children, to be self-reflective, we can learn from our errors, avoid making them again and progress more quickly on the spiritual path. This is something for parents to be particularly alert to, for it is the duty of mother and father to set the patterns for resolution of karmas in their kid's lives.
This week look for one significant mistake you made in the last few years that keeps repeating. Through applying new knowledge or understanding, or identifying unintentional consequences that were created, figure out how you can avoid making the same mistake again. Having found the solution, you will need to use your spiritual power, your willpower, to follow the path of your own wisdom.
