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EVIL

the individual's duty ends not in practising passive virtues which tend to make him good, but in making others good, so also he must not rest when he has eradicated his evil thoughts, bridled his passions, and overcome the evil that lurks in his inward nature, but he has further to reclaim others who have embraced evil. It is not only passive resistance that he has to offer to evil, but, adopting an aggressive attitude towards evil of all kinds, he has to combat and rout it. It is not enough that he should himself eschew evil; he must combat evil in others. He cannot remain a passive spectator while his neighbour is suffering. He is not to be a passive onlooker of, or to connive at some wrong on the ground that he is not the originator of it. The fact that something evil and imperfect exists around him, no matter by whom caused, is a sufficient reason why he should rush into the fray and do his share to mitigate and remove it. Nay, he has even to hunt out the hydra of wrong and strike at its many heads, so that the world of goodness may not suffer.

The prophet of Iran warns man that happiness is not the criterion of the value of human life, pleasure is not the standard; but duty in its two-fold aspect, that is, of working for righteousness and fighting against wickedness, is the guiding principle of life. Incessant work for the Kingdom of Righteousness deepens man's life; uncompromising war against the Kindgom of Wickedness strengthens it. This two-fold activity makes life complete. To further righteousness is only half the duty; to combat wickedness is the other half. Both are indispensable to realize the Zoroastrian ideal of righteousness.

Every one can contribute his or her mite, in the manifold walks of life, to the grand end of bringing about the final victory of good and the utter defeat of evil. The poorest man, who cheerfully fulfils his obligations of father and husband, brother and son, who struggles with poverty, yet loves independence and honour, who extends not his hands for alms, but lives on the slender earnings of his honest toil, who rears his children into good men and women, does his duty by goodness, and does it well. The man who has energy and time, and employs both of these in social service of any kind, who organizes philanthropic work, preparing ameliorative schemes, and who spends his bodily vigour and leisure hours for the betterment of humanity, succours goodness. The rich man, who gives away his wealth in the