The problem of evil in Hinduism
Hindu traditions dissolve the classical problem of evil by invoking karma, rebirth, and a non-dualist metaphysics in which apparent suffering is ultimately illusion or the working out of past action.
The problem of evil, as stated in the monotheistic West, barely arises in its original form within Hindu thought — and where it does, the answers are structurally different. The doctrines of karma (moral causation) and samsara (rebirth) relocate responsibility: suffering in this life is not an inexplicable imposition but the maturation of actions from earlier lives. The logical problem of evil presupposes a single benevolent creator who is alone responsible for every outcome. Hindu cosmology does not.
Advaita Vedanta, most influentially articulated by Shankara, goes further still. Ultimate reality (Brahman) is non-dual and beyond the categories of good and evil. The world of pain and pleasure belongs to the domain of maya — not unreal, but not ultimately real either. Liberation (moksha) is realization that the apparent sufferer and the witness are one and the same. On this view, the theodicy question dissolves along with the self that was asking it.
Theistic Hindu schools — Vishishtadvaita, Dvaita, and the devotional Bhakti traditions — are closer in structure to Western monotheism. Ramanuja, for example, insists on a real relationship between a personal God and individual souls, and so must answer why a loving Ishvara permits suffering. His answer combines karma with divine compassion: God works within the moral order that souls' own actions have generated, and grace operates to eventually liberate all of them. The Bhagavad Gita's teaching on niskama karma — action without attachment to fruits — is the practical response the tradition recommends in the meantime.
- Shankara— Advaita Vedanta; non-dual metaphysics of maya
- Ramanuja— Vishishtadvaita; personal theism
- Author of the Bhagavad Gita— Niskama karma as response to suffering
“As a man leaves an old garment and puts on one that is new, the Self leaves his old body and enters into one that is new.”
“He who is rooted in oneness realizes that I am in every being; wherever he goes, he remains in me.”