Victory over evil

We celebrate Dussehra as the victory of good over evil. The effigy of Ravana is burnt every year as an embodiment of evil.

But it is reborn again and again more powerfully as the golden Lanka of Ravana glittered more magnificently after it was put on fire by mighty Hanuman. It’s because of our illusion of relating it to the victory of Rama over Ravana in a war.

War waged for whatever reason or by anyone must be condemned because it affects the guilty and innocent without making any difference. A war is a defeat in itself. Therefore, no one wins it. It does not eliminate evils but spreads anger, revenge, hatred, psychological trauma, expediency, selfishness, destruction, and neglect, which are close relatives of evil.

To some extent, I disagree with the popular opinion about Ravana that his downfall was due to his arrogance and ego. He was an exemplary scholar, mighty warrior, brilliant politician, exceptional philosopher, a powerful emperor, and an unmatched devotee to his deity.

He became a victim of the irony of his life in which everyone having exceptional knowledge suffers someday or the other. Most of the time, failure to transform thoughts into actions is the reason for the downfall of great thinkers and scholars.

There are many definitions of evil. But in simple words, evil is the opposite of good.

As per Svendsen, there are four types of evils: demonic, instrumental, unrealistic, and stupid, whereas these are three in the eyes of Leibniz: moral, physical, and metaphysical.

Evil is like a soul. We can neither burn nor transform it. We have to live with it as we can not wipe it out. Of course, we can make it effectless with our good deeds as we ward off the darkness with lamps.

“I form the light and create darkness,

I make peace and create evil;

I, the Lord, do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7).

The battle between evil and good is eternal, so our tradition reminds us to immunize the effectiveness of evil with our good deeds.