˙˙00˙ ˙00˙01˙03˙01The Way Hinduism Beholds Evil˙00 ˙˙ ˙03˙02MAGNUS S. ˙02˙01˙01˙00˙˙ ˙01Hinduism has its origin in India, where most of its followers live. Hinduism is not a united, uniform religion. The name Hinduism was born when first Muslims and then British people tried to describe the religions of India. Within Hinduism, there are a lot of different directions and apprehensions. There are, for example, several apprehensions when it comes to the gods of Hinduism. Some people mean that there is but one god, others that there are thousands of them. It is not unusual that every village has its own. local god. A direction of Hinduism means that there, after all, exists only one god, whom one could worship as having many names and existences. It is the same thing with evil; one view is that there is no evil within Hinduism, another that there is one evil god for every good one. ˙˙02˙The Karma˙ ˙00 ˙˙01One way to describe the problem with the evil in our world is through the Karma conception. Karma means "act", "deed". It means that everything one does in the present life will have its consequences in the following one, of which follows that our present situation is a direct result of the life we lived before this one. The Karma is a part of our soul, and there is both good and evil Karma. Since the followers of Hinduism believe in reincarnation (transmigration, i.e. metempsychosis), the Karma is passed on to the next life. Consequently, one cannot blame evil on a good or bad god, as for Christianity. Evil causes itself through evil acts or events seen through a perspective of a distant life. Evil will, therefore, always be a part of the eternal journey of the soul. It can, however, be reduced by good deeds that compensate for what evil one might have caused. The Karma cannot be totally destroyed or left out. Some Hindus say that the gods, too, have Karma as the whole universe consists of it. The gods don't need to answer for their evil or good deeds as they, precisely as man, can blame it all on the Karma. Others mean that the deeds of the gods don't have any consequences since the gods live above the laws of Karma. ˙˙02˙The Creation of Evil˙ ˙00 ˙˙01Within Hinduism, there are two different explanations why there are any evil at all in our world. One is that God created evil of own, free will. Some texts from India explain that God is both good and evil, and that he, when creating the world, completed it with the help of one good and one evil part of his own body. As you just might know, many Hindus believe that everything consists of antitheses. In universe, an equal balance reigns between the two antitheses; a brilliant example is that of night and day. Evil is, accordingly, something natural as it is the antithesis to good. In order to decide what's good and what is not, one needs something to compare with. God created evil since universe only can exist as long as there is an equilibrium. Thus, God did not create evil in order to punish mankind or because of the fact that he likes to see man suffer. There is a slight possibility God chose to create evil to give man a good reason why they'd worship him and his him for help (and seek his advice). Gods may be motivated only as long as there is something evil in the world; evil helps them to keep their hands over mankind. The second explanation is that God, against his own will, brought evil to the world. The reason why is that the look of the universe is predestined. The followers of Hinduism that believe this say that something within God's own Karma resulted in Creation being predicted. God was forced to create evil despite his realizing that it ought not be. According to this explanation, as well as to the earlier mentioned one, evil is an antithesis to good, and one needs evil to be able to be able to tell good from it. There are Hindus that have faith in a mixture of these two explanations. When Creating, God realized that evil is something necessary but something he really did not like. He was, however, not forced to do anything; he did it all of his own, free will. There is nothing in the world that has to exist. ˙˙02˙Hunger Creates Sin˙ ˙00 ˙˙01The paradise of the mythology of Hinduism is called the Golden Age. During that age, there were no such conceptions as time, sexual lust or rain. Special, magic trees grew, and man could eat them. Those trees did not need water; new, fresh fruits grew all the time, and man never needed to be hungry. The human beings that lived during the Golden Age did not live as ordinary humans; they were, amidst other things, immortal, and they had sexual lust and they did not know its causes; they were immortal and did not need to breed. The state of happiness and prosperity did not last forever. Due to unknown reasons, rain began to fall. The result was, of course, that a lot of new plant species saw the light of day and began to spread. These new plants drew the magic trees out of the scene, and after a period of time, the old trees were all extinct. When mankind no longer had access to an unlimited supply of food (the new plants did not give as much yield, i.e. crops as defined by Paul G. Slatter), and all human beings began to feel hungry. Rain started the whole procedure, and this is why rain within Hinduism is regarded as being something malevolent (i.e. something of great malignancy). Hunger soon lead to man beginning to feel other kinds of lust feelings; for example, he got greedy and did not want to share his food with his alikes. The sexual lust began to make itself heard at this time, which, of course, lead to a lot of babies. Time elapsed and the world tended to become somewhat overpopulated; was was, after all, immortal. In order to prevent total overpopulation, the gods created death. In connection with this, the time concept entered the scene since man no longer had eternal life. Both the death- and time concept is regarded as something evil within Hinduism. Time the concept is in many Hindu texts pointed out as the root of all evil, and hunger as being the root of man's sin. ˙˙02˙The Time Periods˙ ˙00 ˙˙01When death came, man became what he is today; it meant the end of the Golden Age. After that, another two periods of time arrived. When they, too, were gone, the Ago of Khali came. This is the age in which we now live. The first age, the golden one, was, no doubt, the best one. During it, no evil existed; mankind was pure, untouched and did not live in sin. During the following periods, the goodness reduces and, accordingly, evil increases, and the Age of Khali is the most evil one. It is in the present age that man is deepest stuck in sin. It is characterized by the fact that the world is overpopulated, and that it is the age during which earth is civilized and inhabited. This age finds it end in great fires and severe cataclysms ("When I go, I do it with a bang. . .") Khali is usually pictured as a demon. (Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Doomed. . .) This circle with all four periods of time is not a once - in - a - lifetime shot as, for example, in Christianity. This lapse is cyclic, as is the lifetime of the human being. It is called the myth of the four ages. In other words, the world is created and destroyed over and over again, and nobody knows for how long this has gone and will go on. It is always carried out in the same way, e.g. earth consists of nut water out of which God creates our world. The Golden Age starts, the world degenerates, evil gets more dense, and, in the end, the Age of Khali arrives. Earth is destroyed to nothing but water. The same procedure starts again. Sometimes, the Age of Khali is said to be the best as it constitutes the beginning of the Golden Age. ˙˙02˙Demons˙ ˙00 ˙˙01In the mythology of Hinduism, there is, as mentioned, often some kind of equilibrium between antitheses in order to make the whole universe balanced. Gods and demons are in such a state of balance, but that does not mean that all gods are good and all demons evil. A definition of a demon is "somebody that once has been good". Demons usually become what they are (demons, that is) by the gods turning them into demons (which is what they are). In the beginning, demons and gods lived side by side, but after a while, the demons were chased away and confined to something rather similar to the hell of Christianity. Gods are often superior to demons. Only a few Hindus believe that evil was created by the demons; most believe that evil was present before the arrival of the demons. ˙˙02˙Roundup˙ ˙00 ˙˙01Hinduism is not a uniform religion; there are many different conceptions and ideas within it. Many of its followers think that both evil and goodness must exist, while others say that evil must be removed from the face of earth. Yet others believe evil to be something positive. All these ideas are supported by different texts; Hinduism have various meanings. ˙01