Canto VIII: The World of Falsehood, the Mother of Evil and the Sons of Darkness

In a sense there cannot be any enemy of God since all is He. But in the process of becoming and while discovering a dynamic principle of action we can see that there are forces and powers that are aligned to the Divine Will and help the great unfolding as also there are other forces that distract and pervert the original Will and oppose the great Plan.

The spiritual life is full of its own dangers due to these forces of darkness and falsehood that chase and cling to an aspirant’s feet. A great persistence, vigilance and sincerity are needed to pass through the devious traps laid down by the forces of Evil on the way.

Embedded in creation is the force that opposes our evolutionary advance. It keeps pulling the soul back towards the dark Inconscient out of which it rises towards Freedom, Unity, Peace, Light and Bliss.

It is indeed inconceivable as to the why and wherefore of Evil and darkness and error with our limited human intelligence absorbed in the outward and the immediate. Yet the Wisdom that works in the heart of Night is real and serves a purpose in the grand scheme of things.

Evil was born out of the womb of Night. It wore a form and shape and strove to conquer the world with its shadow.

Hell is not so much and outer condition as it is an inner space. It exists in some inner dimension of existence and sometimes its dark influence creeps up in our own life polluting it with its breath.

Darkness has no reality of its own. It is a shadow that claims our attention as if it were a self-existent reality. So too falsehood has no reality of its own. It is a twisting of the body of truth. Suffering has no reality of its own. It is an entanglement of delight into finite and transient forms.

Having revealed to us the general description and the atmosphere of various levels of descent into Hell, Sri Aurobindo now describes the beings and forces of evil and darkness, the parent power that gave them birth and finally, their nemesis and end.