The struggle between good and evil and the battle between light and darkness have been recurrent themes in the life of people. After a person becomes overwhelmed by life itself, one begins to seek answers out of oneself. When we encounter fortunate and pleasant experiences in life, we consider them to be blessings. On the other hand, misfortune is seen as punishment from God and this punishment fills our soul with sadness. Spirituality teaches us that we are gods and that we carry all of the answers within. It tells us that once we forget our divine nature, we become prone to suffering whether of physiological or psychological nature. Jesus taught that the road to salvation is narrow. It is as though one must pass through life’s trials and tribulations in order to find one’s divinity. If for a moment we imagine that when souls came into being on earth they lacked the knowledge of pain and pleasure on earth, we can see that perhaps the only way to evolve spiritually is through earthly experiences. How else would we know what forgiveness, kindness and love mean? In the First Book of the Divine Pymander, we read that: “everything that is, is double.” Unless we go through the notions of human experiences including betrayal, affliction, and suffering, we will not really know what it means to be alive.
Parapsychological research of near death experiences has pointed out time after time that the individuals’ consciousness continues to exist after the death of the physical body. You may wonder then why we need physical bodies. I would like to think that the reason behind our physical existence is so that our soul learns what each emotion entails and to exercise our freewill as much as external circumstances will allow. Perhaps our soul has made a pack with another one to teach each other lessons while on earth. Maybe your father, partner, or a friend afflicted you in life so you can learn forgiveness. Of course, we possess freewill to decide how to react to the events in our lives. We do not need to fear physical death or anticipate salvation by an external God in order to realize that we carry both light and darkness within. We are truly spiritually stuck if the only thing that deters us from committing a crime is the fear of punishment. In disasters like the flood in Louisiana, one person can decide to help their fellow men or to loot stores, rape, or murder others. If all that encourages us to be civil is fear, whether it is fear of imprisonment of fear of an external God, we are going to keep our soul in darkness. We have the ability to bring light within or darkness within and impact not only our lives, but also those of other sentient beings. “Light and darkness, life and death, right and left, are brothers and sisters. They are inseparable.” (The Gospel of Philip) “…the masculine and feminine of God are the two poles of existence in one Being. They represent two different sides of itself, obverse and reverse in relation to each other. The two lines or currents of their energy, negative and positive, effect the manifestation of all that is within it.” (Sri Aurobindo)
God is energy that permeates everything. The nature of God is like the Yin and the Yang. If we see dualism in nature, how can we say that this is not also the nature of God? There can be no light if there is no darkness. This light and darkness is accessible to all, and one must choose which should dominate his life. We can all love and create beautiful artwork as well as hate and destroy.
Excerpt from : Guru in Jeans: Inward Journey to Psychospiritual Awakening
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