Turn Evil Into Opportunity and Emerge Stronger

तदा द्वावसुरौ घोरौ विख्यातौ मधुकैटभौ ॥ १.६७॥

विष्णुकर्णमलोद्भूतौ हन्तुं ब्रह्माणमुद्यतौ ।

Once, at the end of the Kalpa, Sri Hari was in yoga nidra on top of Adi Shesha. At that time, two asuras took birth from the wax and dirt in the ears of Bhagwan. Their names were Madhu and Kaitabha. They became notorious because they wanted to kill Brahma. They saw Brahma sitting on top of a lotus coming out of the nabhi of Bhagwan and set out to kill him. That’s how they became notorious.

They saw Brahma sitting there and wanted to kill him. Why? Did Brahma do any harm to them? No. Was Brahma their enemy? No. This is how evil beings are; they don’t need a reason to cause harm to others.

In court, whenever someone commits a crime, the police and prosecution are supposed to establish the motive behind the crime. Why was the crime committed? Whether the offender is punished or not depends a lot on how clearly the prosecution establishes the motive. But see, crime can happen without any motive as well. Brahma was not their enemy; Brahma never caused any harm to them.

In fact, this was at the beginning of creation. This was just the start of everything. What harm could Brahma have done to them before this? But still, they wanted to kill Brahma. Because that is in their very nature. They are born like that. They are born troublemakers. As soon as Brahma, the creator, the noble Deva, is born, evil is also born.

But why? Why did Devi allow evil to be born? Could she not have prevented evil from taking birth itself? Good and evil are two sides of the same coin. Without the black and white pieces, you can’t play chess, you can’t play carroms. This is a game. To play this game, she needs both—good and evil.

Without evil around you, how can you grow? How can you mature? If you want to learn boxing and become a good boxer, you should have an opponent. If you want to develop your body in a gym, you have to work against resistance. That’s how you grow. In the spiritual world also, unless you are challenged by evil—evil forces, evil tendencies, both external and internal—you will never grow, you will never become strong spiritually.

You are walking on the road, and you find somebody’s wallet. This is a challenge—what to do with it? Ignore it? Take it and keep it for yourself? Take it and try to find its owner? This is the challenge. What you end up doing will depend on where you are spiritually. Irrespective of what decision you make, it will have an impact on you. It will have an impact on where you are heading spiritually.

So, even for you to grow, these challenges have to be there. These challenges are what you call evil, both external and internal. So, there are two things here:

1. Evil is there in the world because, without evil, the leela cannot happen. And this leela is her amusement.
2. Evil is the challenge against which we can work and develop ourselves.

When Ambareesha was being attacked by a demoness who wanted to kill him, he saw divinity even in that demoness. That was his level of evolvement. The outcome helped him grow even more. Without these challenges, we can never grow.

I am not justifying evil—you should be clear. When facing evil, make an opportunity out of it. When such challenges come, face them and come out stronger, both externally and internally.

स नाभिकमले विष्णोः स्थितो ब्रह्मा प्रजापतिः ॥ १.६८॥

दृष्ट्वा तावसुरौ चोग्रौ प्रसुप्तं च जनार्दनम् ।
तुष्टाव योगनिद्रां तामेकाग्रहृदयः स्थितः ॥ १.६९॥

विबोधनार्थाय हरेर्हरिनेत्रकृतालयाम् ।

Brahma saw the two asuras coming to kill him. Janardana was fast asleep. जनान् अर्दयतीति जनार्दनः—he is the tormentor of evil. Sri Hari is the tormentor of evil. Hence, he is called Janardana. But he was fast asleep. He was प्रसुप्तः—fast asleep. He was not protecting the world at that moment. What to do?

तेजसः प्रभुः—Brahma, एकाग्र हृदयस्थित—started focusing. He didn’t start crying, he didn’t start lamenting, he didn’t start complaining. He started focusing. He started looking for a solution.

What is the solution? Why is Sri Hari asleep? Why is he not able to know what is happening? The usual protector is not able to know that I am in trouble. Why? Because something has overpowered him. Now, the effort should be to identify this something and try to remove it. Crying in fear is not going to help. Running away is not going to help because the asuras will start chasing him. Brahma had to find a solution.

That’s why Brahma started focusing and contemplating. Why was Sri Hari asleep? Because he was overpowered by a force—a tamasik shakti, a force of inaction, a force of inertia. This is what Brahma realized.

What to do now? Pray to her so that she would release Sri Hari, and he could swing into action. She is हरिनेत्रकृतालया—she is staying in the eyes of Sri Hari now. She has made Sri Hari’s eyes her home. Only if she moves out will he be able to wake up. She is Yoga Nidra, the tamasik aspect of Devi.

This is what Brahma realized. Brahma also realized that this tamasik shakti, who had overpowered Vishnu, was the विश्वेश्वरी—because she could overpower even Sri Hari. She is Jagaddhatri—she is the support of the world; without her, there is no world. She is sthiti samhara karini—she alone protects the world, and she alone eliminates the world.

With this understanding, Brahma started praising Mahamaya.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi