Question: What is the purpose of evil and what is its source?

Sri Chinmoy: In the beginning there was only infinite Light and Silence. Then each individual was given limited freedom. When that limited freedom is misused, evil or Satan or whatever you want to call it gradually becomes stronger. If we properly use our limited freedom, then we go towards the Divine, towards the Light. But if we misuse the opportunity, then we become anti-divine; we become a hostile force. It is not God's intention that there should be undivine forces, hostile forces. In God's creation we are all His children. But some are good, and some are bad. God did not intend to have a bad creation. He gave us limited freedom. But that limited freedom we have misused to such an extent that we have created our own world of ignorance, inconscience and undivine forces. It is the same old story: disobedience. If we obey the inner law, then nothing happens. But when we disobey the inner law, evil comes into existence.

A cow is tied to a tree with a rope. The cow gets very limited freedom, but it destroys whatever it can. With our limited freedom also, we start wars and try to destroy the world. But again, if we have good will, if we have love and a feeling of oneness, then instead of destroying the world, we shall try to embrace the world.

The evil force is in our mind, not inside our aspiring heart. The mind wants to taste the whole world, piece by piece, whereas the heart wants to enjoy the whole world as a unit, as a whole. The heart feels that the whole world belongs to it. But the mind says, "This is mine, this is yours." The more the mind can separate, the greater the joy the mind gets. Evil comes when there is a sense of separation, a sense of separativity. When there is union, there is no evil.