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.
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