The spiritual life

208 TheSpiritual Life.

strugglingincorruptionandinevil,youwillnot

feel angernor intolerance,norhatred,but you

will know that this Soul, just because of the

evil with which it is struggling, will gradually

gain strength and become triumphant overit.

So that at last youwill understand how the

Divineisin everything,in good asinevil,that

Shri Krishnaistheviceof the gambleraswell

asthepurityof the righteous,andouruniverse

will becomefull of hope; for youwillrecog-

nise that the whole is working towards per-

fection, and that good and evil are the two

forces which co-operate to liberate the Soul,

the one by drawingit upwards, the other by

shattering everything to which it clings and

whichISnotGod.

But the point to which I wish to lead

you is that as you gradually recognise these

facts you will see that the aim of the in-

dividual self is to become perfectly at one

with the inward-going stream of Divine Life;
this is the beginning of understanding, the

beginning of the realisation of the meaningof

theuniverse,and youwill begintoutihsewhat

seemstobe evil in order thatyoumaygetrid

of everything which binds you down to the

transitoryside of nature,and so takepainasa

realhelper. Pain is saidto beanevil. Pain