It was annoying. A dog howled in the middle of the night. People tossed in their beds as its cries grew louder. Finally, a lady stepped out and found a few drunk men throwing stones at it. For them it was fun.

The two girls were happy with what they were doing till they found four men in their rooms in the dead of the night asking for money. They tortured them for five long hours when they found nothing worth stealing.

Two little boys were found dead in their school swimming pool for no fault of theirs. Authorities suspect the school chowkidars for the crime.

Every day militants ruthlessly kill and soldiers do as they are told.

Finally, when we get fed up with all this, we will seek a solution — the nuclear bomb, an explosive that bombards life.

This makes me wonder what went wrong? With the next obvious question: Where is God? Sitting pretty wherever he is, up or down or sideways, smiling, saying: “It’s not me who told you to do this, you yourself have made your own hell.” It made me exceedingly uncomfortable at the thought that we actually bring all calamities upon ourselves. Then I came across this beautiful piece: “Do not condemn, therefore, all that you would call bad in the world. Rather, ask yourself what you have judged bad, and what, if anything, you wish to do to change it.”

After reading this I realised that I know Bad only because I know Good. God did not make goodness by creating what you call perfection all around you. He made the bad so that we could choose between the two. We are always in the process of creating. Every day, every second. We are like big creating machines churning out new manifestations, as fast as we think. Literally.

Events, happenings, conditions — all are created out of our consciousness. At some point we have created all that we say we detest — and after creating it we have chosen it. Only when we accept responsibility for all of this can we have the power to change it. And believe me, it’s easier to change what you are doing than to change what the other is doing.