The Forces of Light and the Forces of Darkness Grapple for Supremacy in the World

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In Paradise Lost, John Milton
describes at great length the

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intentions and motivations of
the fallen angels as described

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by the Christian tradition and
their attempt and need to

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influence and control the human
world, and thereby to defeat

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God's intention and plan for
humanity.

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This story is in fact, not
unique to the Christian

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tradition.
Each culture, each tradition,

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addresses the fight between
those forces that have a vested

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interest in maintaining and
perpetuating darkness,

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ignorance, and death, and
opposing the advent and growth

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of light, knowledge, and life.
These universal tales arise from

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actual experiences that occurred
to individuals who clothe these

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experiences in the symbols and
images of their own background.

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An example occurred in the mid
1970s, as privately reported and

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memorialized in writing
contemporaneously with the

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event.
An individual, a spiritual

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seeker dedicated to practice of
yoga and focused on the growth

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of consciousness in the light,
awoke from a vivid real dream

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experience in a cold sweat and
in a state of utter exhaustion.

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He recounted how he had been
confronted in what was more than

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a dream but a real experience by
a being who took the shape and

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form and image of Adolf Hitler.
The being apparently was not

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destroyed by Hitler's demise,
but simply abandoned Hitler and

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migrated into new forms and took
up its project in new places,

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primarily in the United States,
the victor in the Second World

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War.
They had a dispute and a long

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battle ensued.
Eventually the battle was won

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and the formation was defeated.
That experience was so vivid

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that it stayed with the seeker
for decades afterwards, and he

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recognized that it was a
transcription of an ongoing

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battle that would take place in
his lifetime, and of which he

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would necessarily be a
participant to confront the

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force of darkness that was
appearing in that form.

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He in fact sees corresponding
elements in the Hitler force

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working still in today's world,
and feels like this battle is

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still ongoing.
Forces seeking domination, which

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use intimidation, bullying,
tactics, falsehood and

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propaganda to gain ascendancy,
are active in many parts of the

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world, seeking to undermine and
control the world's resources

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regardless of the impact on huge
numbers of people and the

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environment itself, and
revelling in the creation of

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suffering, fear and pain,
Shriorobindo notes quote.

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The theory of this traditional
knowledge is perfectly rational

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and verifiable by inner
experience, and it imposes

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itself if we admit the supra
physical and do not cabin

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ourselves in the acceptation of
material being as the only

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reality.
As there is a Cosmic Self and

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spirit pervading and upholding
the universe and its beings, so

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too there is a cosmic force that
moves all things, and on this

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original Cosmic force depend
enact many cosmic forces that

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are its powers or arise as forms
of its universal action.

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Whatever is formulated in the
universe, has a force or forces

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that support it, seek to fulfill
or further it, find their

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foundation in its functioning,
their account of success in its

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success and growth and
domination, their self

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fulfillment, or their
prolongation of being in its

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victory or survival.
As there are powers of knowledge

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or forces of the light, so there
are powers of ignorance and

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tenebrous forces of the darkness
whose work is to prolong the

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reign of ignorance.
And in conscience.

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As there are forces of truth, so
there are forces that live by

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the falsehood and support it and
work for its victory.

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As there are powers whose life
is intimately bound up with the

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existence, the idea, and the
impulse of good, so there are

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forces whose life is bound up
with the existence and the idea

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and the impulse of evil.
It is this truth of the cosmic

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invisible that was symbolized by
the ancient belief of a struggle

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between the powers of light and
darkness, good and evil, for the

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possession of the world and the
government of the life of man.

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This was the significance of the
contest between the Vedic gods

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and their opponents.
Sons of darkness and division

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figured in a later tradition as
Titan and Jayan and demon Asura

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Rakshasa Pisacha.
The same tradition is found in

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the Zoroastrian double principle
and the later Semitic opposition

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of God and his angels on the one
side and Satan and his hosts on

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the other.
Invisible personalities and

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powers that draw man to the
divine light and truth and good,

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or lure him into subjection to
the undivined principle of

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darkness and falsehood and evil.
Modern thought is aware of no

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invisible forces other than
those revealed or constructed by

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science.
It does not believe that nature

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is capable of creating any other
beings than those around us in

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the physical world, men, beasts,
birds, reptiles, fishes,

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insects, germs, and animalculi.
But if there are invisible

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cosmic forces physical in their
nature, that act upon the body

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of inanimate objects, there is
no valid reason why there should

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not be invisible cosmic forces,
mental and vital in their

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nature, that act upon his mind
and his life force.

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And if mind and life impersonal
forces form conscious beings, or

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use persons to embody them in
physical forms and in a physical

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world, and can act upon matter
and through matter, it is not

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impossible that on their own
planes they should form

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conscious beings whose subtler
substance is invisible to us, or

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that they should be able to act
from those planes on beings in

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physical nature, whatever
reality or mythical unreality we

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may attach to the traditional
figures of past human belief or

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experience, they would then be
representations of things that

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are true in principle.
In that case the first source of

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good and evil would be not in
terrestrial life or in the

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evolution from the inconscience,
but in life itself.

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Their source would be supra
physical, and they would be

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reflected here from a large
supra physical nature.

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End Quote Reference Sri
Aurobindo and the Mother, The

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Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter
4, Cosmic and Universal Forces,

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pages 87 to 89.