WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

Evil

19 November 1969

And evil, what we call evil, has its indispensable place in the whole. It will not be felt as evil the moment one becomes conscious of That--necessarily. Evil is this infinitesimal element [new p. 200]looking at its infinitesimal consciousness; but as consciousness [old p. 200]is essentially one, it resumes, regains the Consciousness of the Unity--the two together. It is that, yes, it is that which has to be realised. It is this wonderful thing, of this I had the vision at that moment.... And for the beginnings (are they the beginnings?), what is called in English the outskirts,what is farthest from the central realisation, that becomes the multiplicity of things, and the multiplicity also of sensations, of feelings, of all... the multiplicity of consciousness. It is this act of separation that has created, that is creating the world constantly and that is creating everything at the same time: suffering, happiness, everything, everything that is created through this... what might be called "diffusion"; but it is absurd, it is not a diffusion--we ourselves live in the sense of space, so we speak of diffusion and concentration, but it is nothing of the sort.

Collected Works of The Mother, First Edition, Volume 11, pp. 199-200