Every theists (those who accept the existence of God), no matter how strong their faith, will one day have to reconcile for themselves what philosophers have been calling, the "problem of evil": if God is all-good and all-powerful, then, why is there evil in the world? The existence of evil, both natural and man-made seems obvious. Natural disasters, famine, disease, genocides, petty acts of violence etc. So either is this means God is not all-good, because God can intervene but chooses not too or worse still, that God is not all-powerful because even if God wants to intervene, God is powerless to (perhaps because there is something like the "devil" or "karma" which limits God power) which of course make God, well, no longer "God", in the fullest sense of the word. Even non-theists (those who don't believe in God) must come to terms with the suffering their own lives and the general suffering of the world.

So what are we to do?

In the first three lectures of this series, "What is Evil?" we first challenge the existence of evil point blank by calling into question the duality of "good vs evil" and reconciling that with a powerful idea from the Advaita Vedanta, or Hindu Non-Duality there is only One that various not in type or kind, but in degree. We prove that evil doesn't actually exist thereby solving the problem of Evil.
In the next lecture, "Is God Evil?", we accept the existence of evil but prove that God is not all-good because (a) She cannot be confined to our narrow concepts of good and evil (i.e this position in philosophy is called "skeptical theism") and (b) Her ultimate value is creative self expression that includes all possible events in a spirit of infinite self exploration (the Shaiva Tantra view of "Shiva Lila" or God's play". In this lecture, we walk through a few responses from Sri Ramakrishna to Hari Maharaj (later Swami Turiyananda) regarding the problem of evil to advocate for the "God's play" idea on p.g 436 of Swami Nikhilanandaji's translation of the Kathamrita by M., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
Then in the third lecture completing the "Theodicy Trilogy", "Why Do Personal Tragedies Happen?" we go even deeper into Sri Ramakrishna's response to offer a kind of teleology to this theodicy. That is to say, we explain why evil happens at all, ultimately to make the claim that God is not evil but ultimately good and since the ultimate good is spiritual liberation while embodied (jivanmukti), all the so-called evil in life, from personal tragedies to macrocosmic events, have a deep meaning and purpose, i.e: saint making!

You may watch the series here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfGGe32PDNMZe_6Yju87nv0rvxnSW2ub_

Notice that some of the claims of one lecture might contradict another: in the first lecture, we denied evil altogether. In the second, we accepted evil but denied God's goodness in favor of God's all-powerful nature. Then, in the third lecture, we accepted evil and God's all-powerful nature but advocated for God's ultimate goodness in light of "saint-making." You might ask now, "well, which is it?" It's all three! A complex inquiry like this can be approached in many ways to yield different insights. But it is my prayer that those who watch the lecture will find an internal consistency to the reasoning presented and will henceforth feel free and empowered in their theism!

Lectures happen live on zoom every Monda

Support the show

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Alexandra DeSanctis