Editor's introduction to the first edition

The problems of human suffering and of the presence of evil in the world are the questions which form some of man’s most fundamental and lasting concerns and arouse his deepest emotions. In many cases, man’s attempt to solve these problems has given birth to his most noble humanitarian undertakings, his most profound philosophy and his loftiest aspirations for self-transcendence through spirituality. Mystical traditions of the East have explained the workings of forces of destruction and disorder not as a judgement for wrongdoing, but as the result of ignorance of the ultimate Truth. In this book, Sri Chinmoy explains the nature of ignorance and the meaning of suffering as they can be explained only from the standpoint of the highest and most universal understanding of the world and its Creator.