Evil in Man

"Evil in Man" by Bakhtiar Haider

We justify evil inside us in so many beautiful ways that the human intellect and the idol of nobility get startled. You can ask anybody a question "why you hate or hurt another person"? "Don't you see any goodness in him"? And you will receive a quick answer. Oh! He is the biggest devil in the world. And he will start narrating the arguments and reasons which are always convincing. He has done this or that or ever said this or that and so on.

We do it with so much certainty and are always morally and intellectually or even so called practically, satisfied and peaceful, like any exceedingly peaceful angel. This tendency in man or a trait is horribly dangerous for the survival of any humanism in the world.

We murder, we stab, we loot, we degrade others with such a perfect morality and a peaceful conscience. This tendency covers all of our lives and spreads evil in the world.

The unfortunate thing is that we never ever realize to analyze ourselves, to look for evil within our own selves, and to destroy it before it comes out of us. We never blame ourselves. We always blame others. We never take the responsibility to analyze our own role in the spread of evil in the world.

We never accept our own mistakes. Acceptance of reality of mistakes made by you leads to analyses of yourself instead of blaming others. A man is an angel in his own eyes, and gives a damn care to see our own evil with impartial eyes and impartial, unstained intellect.

We believe Satan is responsible of all evil, and not ourselves. We think that the creation of evil in man is the work of the bad, ugly Satan. We always blame. The tragedy is that this sort of reasoning makes a man blind towards his own inner self. In fact, the evil is inside you, and not outside. Instead of cursing Satan, we should look inside ourselves to accept and locate it.

The important thing is that the man is born with evil instincts and self or a part of it, right from its birth. The journey of life keeps on going with dead conscience and dead morality, without any ray of healthy criticism about our own selves. The tendency not to criticize ourselves but others makes us lose all the reason to call ourselves good men.

Bulleh Shah's famous verse, "Meri Bukal de wich Chor" describes best the reality. This is a great thought created by the pride of Punjab. One is surprised that so many centuries back, the Bulleh Shah had the ability to think of highest intellectual reasons and reflections.

We cannot do it even in today's modern world of lust and material progress of man. If, today, we realize the importance and relevance of these verses, we can do wonders and bring about great intellectual and spiritual revolution within ourselves. Revolution within the heart of one man will lead to revolution in the nation and rest of humanity, as well.

The jealousy within ourselves leads to destruction, desolation of mandir, kalisa or masjid within our own hearts and creates venom to make society venomous. Over emphasis on Satan kills self-analysis and deeper thought. Need of the hour is to stop looking for devil outside but to look inside our own selves.

Control and over powering of the evil is possible only with penetrating eyes of mind, and pulses of heart and nothing else. Purify your own soul; you will purify the whole of humanity. The chance, the opportunity, is before you. Avail it or waste it.

It will determine the existence and growth of your own soul and an analytical mind. I can only advise that please keep your soul alive, the entire humanism in the world will live and smile for all times to come.