The Evil and Good of Destruction….

We have talked about hate before, as a vibration to be stilled. Here destruction comes into the mix. When we do not know that we hate because we either numb, deny, or call the vibration something other than what it is, we can use the outcome of our actions as a way to unveil our motivations.

If we say we love and yet our actions, no matter how “good” we or others may think they look, end in destruction, then our motivation desperately needs to be questioned. We have to consider the clue that the outcome has not led to anyone’s betterment. Denial, numbing or calling the outcome something other than it is can be used to evade the truth, but if we find ourselves rationalizing, reasoning, or mitigating, then we need to wake up.

As for me, I do not apologize for being exacting. A pencil is a pencil, except when it is not.

We may, for instance, call ourselves diplomatic when in truth we are simply evading responsible action. By the same token, when someone is direct with us, we may choose to regard it as an unprovoked attack. In each case, our real motivation is a kind of contempt, a form of hate, and its outcome is destruction.

Fourchotomies are a great tool for this condition because all four components have to be owned and accepted in order to have resolution. If I only allow the “positive” words for me and deny and project the “negative” ones, there is never resolution. We have to de-conflate the positive and negative terms to understand the four different vibrations. All four are ultimately neither positive nor negative, they just are. They are qualities that we define and embody based on our limited understanding.

If we reflect on these fourchotomies, we will see how often what many people call “love” is really destruction. For example, a parent or teacher who cripples as a way to show care. This person “loves” by denying someone’s responsibility for any failure or success, or by squashing their enthusiasm or interest, or by belittling their accomplishments to make sure they know their life is of no consequence. Other people mislabel anger as love: when they have a surge of rage, they experience it as pleasurable, and therefore call it “love” and “uplifting”. They then seek to recreate that vibration again and again.

If we approach this dynamic from the standpoint of the three gunas, it becomes very clear. An action colored by tamas will produce destruction. An action that is mainly rajasic will be filled with passion and pain. A sattvic action will lead to resolution, clarity and Love. We may perform the same action, but if we do so from different motivating vibrations, the outcome will reflect the motivation. Baba used to tell the story of a thief who cut open a man with a knife and a surgeon who cut open a man with a knife; one was destroying, the other was healing.

If destruction is the outcome, then Love was not informing the action.

We may then ask, what about the Goddess Kali/Durga? She destroys ego, wrong identification. She destroys what brings us to misery. So though she is destroying, just as hate and evil destroy, what she destroys is different because her motivation is Love and not hate. What is destroyed by what I do? If love, trust, care, friendship and life itself are what is destroyed, then hate is what motivates. If wrong understanding is what is destroyed, then Love is the motivator. We have to continually ask, “What is my motivation? And what do I want to accomplish?”

In the Old Testament, Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery. Many years later, those same brothers arrive in Egypt seeking help because of famine. Joseph is at this point a trusted officer of the Pharaoh, having predicted the famine and saved Egypt from starvation. He recognizes his brothers immediately, though they do not recognize him. Once he tells them who he is, they are chastened and feel terrible for what they did to him. Joseph’s response is, “You meant it for ill, God meant it for good”. The brothers’ initial action was self-serving and destructive—it caused great injury. Joseph faced his fate and became an instrument of God’s grace. God’s motivation was Love.

God destroys ignorance; the shrunken self just destroys. God is One and All; the shrunken self takes on what it sees as God’s qualities: it is one and alone. Because each of us is “God”, we are dissatisfied with others and look to raise ourselves up and destroy the “false”. It is this destructiveness that God will always destroy.