As humans, we must never claim that
we have totally conquered evil temptations and surmounted the peak of our
base desires. We may be able to conquer evil most of the time, but never
can we conquer evil all the time. The most pious of people succumb to the
most ignominious of desires and to the most immoral of wishes. The victor
may turn into the vanquished in no time and wonder what went wrong after
being such a ‘blessed’ and ‘favorite’ creature of God. Fighting evil regardless
of the extent of one’s faith is a continuous process – a relentless incessant
struggle. Only death will bring an end to this tussle. We must strive throughout
our lives to overcome adverse currents.
We must be bold enough to concede
that we are after all ‘humans’ and persistent enough to get up and start
again – and again if despite the resistance put up evil overcomes us. One
of the greatest weapons of Satan is to overwhelm a person with so much
frustration and disappointment that he is left with little or no desire
to repent and start over again.
Experience shows that one great factor
in resisting evil is deep attachment to one’s goal. An idle mind is prone
to all sorts of onslaughts from evil. The more a person is devoted to some
cause, the lesser are the chances of his deviation. A target-oriented life
is thus what we must aim for and pray that all targets that we set before
us contribute positively to this world and that to come.
|