Good and evil:-

Hinduism clearly identifies the difference between good and evil (dharma and adharma), but their
meaning and definition are different from what we traditionally understand as good and evil According
to Hindu scripture good or divinity is represented by purity (sattva), light, balance, immortality, order,
virtue and selflessness. Evil is represented by impurity (tamas), darkness, imbalance or extremity, chaos,
sinful conduct, and selfishness.

The basic criteria to distinguish the good from evil is the intention. In Hinduism, all selfish intentions are
evil, and all selfless intentions are good, however trivial they may be. So are the actions and desires
which arise from them. If you selflessly serving others and God, you are on the righteous path (dharma)
and if you are selfishly living yourself and serving your own interests, you are on the sinful path
(adharma). Good actions lead to meritorious karma (punyam) and evil actions lead to sin karma
(papam).

Meritorious karma (punyam) leads to liberation, peace, and happiness, while sinful karma (papam) leads
to suffering, rebirth, a reversal of fortune, and in severe cases a certain downfall into the darker and
sunless worlds or hells. There is also a grey zone, the middle one, a combination of good and evil,
represented by smoke, rebirth, mortality, and suffering, which is the nature of existence upon earth.

According to the Hindu Puranas, God stands between order and chaos, or figuratively between good and
evil. Existence is defined by a constant struggle between order and chaos or between good and evil.
Gods represent good, and demons evil. Humans stand in between, partaking the nature of both. The
darkforces try to disturb the divine order while the gods, who represent light and delight strive to
uphold it.

Many a time humans are caught in between these cosmic battles and become the unwitting witnesses
and ultimate sufferers. Their lives and destinies depend upon the choices they make, and whether they
stand on the side of dharma or adharma. The same struggle happens in the body of each being (jiva)
upon earth. The divinities are present in the body also since the body is a replica of the macrocosm
(Viraj), which is also defined in the scriptures as Death and Time.

Now, what humans are to God, the organs in the body are to humans. They are meant to be used by
humans for righteous purposes to uphold dharma. If they are used for selfish purposes, they will
accumulate sin and suffer from the consequences. If they are used for selfless services and sacrificial
actions, both ritually and spiritually, they accumulate meritorious karma and enjoy the rewards of it.
Thus, the life of each individual is shaped by the karma which accrues from his or her good and evil
actions. Further, if those actions are performed as an offering to God with sacrificial attitude without
desires, neither of the karmas attaches and a person becomes liberated.

According to the Upanishads, all the organs in the body are susceptible to selfish desires and intentions,
and thereby to evil. Breath (prana) is the only exception. You can see that yourself. You engage the
organs in your body such as your hand and feet when you have desires or when you want to achieve
certain ends. Your mind can control them and direct them. However, your breath is not under your
control. Whether you have desires or not, you keep breathing autonomously.
Suffering:-

In Hinduism suffering or dukha, means the physical, mental and emotional instability and afflictions
(klesas) that arise from the dualities and modifications of the mind and body. These modifications
manifest variously in human life as pain and suffering, attraction and aversion, union and separation,
desires, passions, emotions, aging, sickness, death, rebirth, etc.

According to Hinduism, suffering is an inescapable and integral part of life. The purpose of religious
practice and various schools of Hinduism is to resolve human suffering that arises from samsara, which
in a specific sense means the cycle of births and deaths and in a general sense, transient life. As long as
man is caught in the phenomenal world of transient objects and appearances and becomes attached to
them he has no escape from suffering.

The Buddha was not the first Indian teacher to contemplate upon suffering. It has been the quest of
every ascetic tradition and school of philosophy in ancient India. They approached the problem from
different perspectives and tried to resolve it in their own ways. The history of spiritual Hinduism is
largely the history of man's yearning for a lasting solution to the problem of human suffering. The quest
continues even today, as the dynamics of human suffering keep changing with the progress of
civilization.

The Vedic religion did not focus upon suffering initially, but upon securing peace and happiness in the
mortal world with the help of gods in heaven and patrons upon earth through rituals and sacrifices. For
that mundane goal, knowledge of the Vedas, virtuous conduct and obligatory duty were the key.

The Upanishadic seers approached the problem differently. They focused upon the hidden causes of
suffering and tried to resolve it internally by cultivating purity, fortitude, sameness, equanimity, stability,
balance, detachment and indifference through austerities, restraint and renunciation.

Aging, sickness and death are the grim reminders of the nature of Samsara and our existence in it. Every
teacher tradition, school of thought and ascetic movement in Hinduism focuses upon them to convey
the urgency and the importance of liberation. Liberation in a simple sense means freedom from
suffering.

These are the three afflictions of human life from which mankind finds no escape except by way of
liberation. Hinduism identifies desires and demonic nature as the root cause of human suffering and the
resultant bondage to the cycle of births and deaths as the ultimate suffering. Demonic nature means
selfish actions done for the sole purpose of selfish enjoyment.

According to the Upanishads, when organs are put to selfish use, a person becomes impure. For this,
desires are the root cause. When beings engage in selfish actions, they become vulnerable to suffering.
Pleasure is not a solution to avoid pain. Pleasure and pain are caused by the same dualities or pairs of
opposites. Our objective should be rise above both.

Desire comes from our attachment to sense objects. Liberation means freedom from all kinds of desires
and attachments so that one is not motivated by self-interest in performing obligatory actions but rather
by the pure intention to serve God and His creation. This is the transformation which Hinduism aims to
accomplish through various spiritual practices. and paths of yoga.
The battle has to be fought in the mind and body. The mind is the seat of all desires and intentions and
hence for a human being it is the battlefield, the Kurukshetra.

The Bhagavadgita rightly identifies the instability of mind as the chief cause of suffering. At the root of
the mental instability is desire, which arises out of the repeated contact of the senses with their sense
objects. In other words it is our outgoing nature and our dependence upon things and objectivity from
which we experience suffering in a state of duality.

Our natural and purest state is enjoyment. Suffering is an abnormal state which arises from our ignorant
and desire-ridden actions. Our purpose upon earth to know how to return to our original state of
enjoyment.

Our empirical experience suggests that enjoyment comes from having things. Our scriptures suggest
that true enjoyment comes from not having the desire to own things and enjoy them. Enjoyment and
freedom are synonymous. True enjoyment arises from freedom from desires and attachment.

The true solution to suffering therefore lies in achieving this freedom through self-restraint, mental
stability, detachment, renunciation and absence of desires.

The first step in the journey of liberation is the withdrawal and restraint of the senses because they are
the ones who perpetuate our interaction and dependence upon the world.

When the senses are controlled and the mind is disciplined, a person overcomes his desires and attains
peace and inner stability.

With practice, he overcomes his attachment to his name and form. He recognizes his spiritual nature. He
cultivates purity and sameness. With his senses subdued, his intellect pointed and his mind freed from
passions, he remains undisturbed even amidst turbulence.

This is the ideal goal which Hinduism aims to accomplish for its practitioners as part of the four aims of
human life, not instantaneously, but in phases through gradual transformation. A person overcomes
suffering when he become a friend of the Self.

The causes of suffering

In general, Hinduism recognizes the following as the main causes of human suffering.

1. Impermanence which make life very insecure and uncertain.

2. Desires and attachment which lead to karma and bondage.

3. Delusion and ignorance caused by Maya.

4. Repeated births and deaths.

5. Attraction and aversion to pairs of opposites.

6. Contact and separation from the objects of desires

7. Attachment to sense-objects.

8. Ownership and doership

9. The triple qualities, namely sattva, rajas and tamas and their influence upon our thinking and actions.

10. Demonic qualities and evil nature characterized by pride, lust, anger, greed and envy.

11. Lack of faith in God and Self.

12. Lack of discretion or judgment.

Hinduism acknowledges that while we may know the causes and solutions to suffering, suffering cannot
be fully resolved as long as one is subject to the modifications of Nature. No matter what one may do,
some suffering is inevitable in human life. This is true even in case of those who are liberated or on the
verge of liberation. The purpose of spiritual practice is not to end suffering, which is humanly
impossible, but to learn to deal with it by reconditioning our minds and bodies. This is the purpose of
yoga.

Therefore, while working for liberation one must learn to endure suffering with detachment and
acceptance, keeping faith in God and performing actions as an obligatory duty and sacrificial offering to
God.

Hinduism is not a fatalistic religion. While it accepts karma as unavoidable, it acknowledges the
importance of virtuous self-effort in shaping one's own destiny and correcting the wrongs of the past.

Belief in karma should not make one despondent. Instead, it should make a person feel more
responsible towards himself and his spiritual welfare, accepting his suffering with a sense of detachment
and awareness that his suffering is his own creation and he has to be his own savior.

Suffering also gives us all an opportunity to think about our existence and redeem ourselves through
selfless actions, God's intervention, surrender and devotion. From suffering comes the knowledge of
suffering. From the knowledge of the suffering comes the solution to suffering. From the solution to
suffering comes the ultimate freedom. Suffering, therefore is the teacher and also the cause in which
the effect, liberation, is hidden.