Most of us would have listened to the story of Prahlad and Hiranyakashyap. Prahlad was a devotee of Lord Vishnu, and Hiranyakashyap was his father and an arrogant demon. Since Prahlad refused to accept Hiranyakashyap as God, Hiranyakashyap tried to kill his own son, Prahlad, using different ways and means. Finally, Lord Vishnu took the incarnation of Narsimha, half man and half lion, to kill Hiranyakashyap.
Was it beyond the capacity of Lord Vishnu to change the mind of Hiranyakashyapa? Why did he take incarnation in the form of Narsimha to kill Hiranyakashyap? He could have easily changed his mind and made him His own devotee. Why did Lord Vishnu take the incarnation of Rama to kill Ravana? He could have changed the mind of Ravana and made him His follower. Why did He take the incarnation of Krishna to kill Kansa? Is it beyond the capacity of the lord to change the mindset of these demons?
Probably both darkness and light can not coexist. However dark a place may be, even one ray of light will dispel the darkness. Darkness is killed by a ray of light. Darkness can not stay alive in the presence of light. That's what happened to Kansa, Ravana, and Hiranyakashyap. They have to die when the divine is born. All of us experience different emotions such as greed, jealousy, hatred, and fear. Our minds create many stories around these emotions. For example, somebody experienced poverty in his childhood, and he has made it a life mission to earn more and more money. He becomes greedy because he has a fear of losing his wealth and becoming poor again. He does not want to face the same discomfort that he faced in his childhood. The more he accumulates, the greedier he becomes. Greed will be the guiding force behind many significant decisions in his life.
How will the greedy person understand that his greed is making him more and more unhappy and dissatisfied? How will the same brain that clings to greed understand that the root cause of unhappiness is clinging to greed. A greedy brain will reject all the people who try to make it understand that it should not be greedy. It will make all these people his enemies. It will try to avoid all these people. It will try to pass on the fears and insecurities driven by greed to its family members. It will try to exploit others to snatch their share of resources. If it is allowed to continue to operate in uniterrupted manner, it will suck the resources of the entire world.
As a greedy mind encounters reality, its greediness drops. Greed and love can't coexist like darkness and light. If somebody loves, he can't be greedy, and if somebody is greedy, he can't love. Love is founded on the awareness of oneness, while greed is founded on the sense of separation. Both can't coexist. If a person's life is driven by any emotion, such as fear or greed, that emotion will continue to intensify over time. If someone has a threat to their life, they may employ thousands of bodyguards and have Z+++++ security, but that will never eliminate their sense of fear. The greater security is an acknowledgement of a bigger threat and greater fear. Even the best armed force of this world can't make somebody fearless. It's only a ray of light that can kill darkness. But if "I" derives its "existence" from darkness, it will never invite light. If I derive my separate existence from that fear, and fear provides me motivation to gather ways and means of safety, and "I" consider myself to be sumtotal of all these thoughts and motivations, I will never challenge myself. I will always resent anybody who tries to make me realise the futility of fears. Because that takes "I" away from "me". That's why light, in such situations, appears to be a killer of darkness. That's why it is not possible for the "I" to be enlightened. "I" has to drop to experience light. Darkness and light can't coexist.
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