In Paradise Lost, John Milton describes at great length the intentions and motivations of the fallen angels as described by the Christian tradition, and their attempt and need to influence and control the human world and thereby to defeat God’s intention and plan for humanity. This story is in fact not unique to the Christian tradition. Each culture, each tradition addresses the fight between those forces that have a vested interest in maintaining and perpetuating Darkness, Ignorance and Death and opposing the advent and growth of Light, Knowledge and Life. These universal tales arise from actual experiences that occurred to individuals, who clothe those experiences in the symbols and images of their own background.

An example occurred in the mid-1970’s, as privately reported and memorialized in writing contemporaneously with the event. An individual, a spiritual seeker dedicated to practice of yoga and focused on the growth of consciousness in the Light, awoke from a vivid, “real” dream-experience in a cold sweat, and in a state of utter exhaustion. He recounted how he had been confronted in what was more than a dream, but a real experience, by a being who took the shape and form and image of Adolf Hitler. The being apparently was not destroyed by Hitler’s demise, but simply abandoned Hitler and migrated into new forms and took up its project in new places, primarily in the United States, the ‘victor’ in the 2nd World War! They had a dispute and a long battle ensued, Eventually, the battle was won and the formation was defeated. That experience was so vivid that it stayed with the seeker for decades afterwards and he recognised that it was a transcription of an ongoing battle that would take place in his lifetime and of which he would necessarily be a participant to confront the force of darkness that was appearing in that form. He in fact sees corresponding elements in the Hitler force working still in today’s world and feels like this battle is still ongoing. Forces seeking domination, which use intimidation, bullying tactics, falsehood and propaganda to gain ascendancy are active in many parts of the world, seeking to undermine and control the world’s resources regardless of the impact on huge numbers of people and the environment itself, and reveling in the creation of suffering, fear and pain.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “The theory of this traditional knowledge is perfectly rational and verifiable by inner experience, and it imposes itself if we admit the supraphysical and do not cabin ourselves in the acceptation of material being as the only reality. As there is a cosmic Self and Spirit pervading and upholding the universe and its beings, so too there is a cosmic Force that moves all things, and on this original cosmic Force depend and act many cosmic Forces that are its powers or arise as forms of its universal action. Whatever is formulated in the universe has a Force or Forces that support it, seek to fulfil or further it, find their foundation in its functioning, their account of success in its success and growth and domination, their self-fulfillment or their prolongation of being in its victory or survival. As there are Powers of Knowledge or Forces of the Light, so there are Powers of Ignorance and tenebrous Forces of the Darkness whose work is to prolong the reign of Ignorance and Inconscience. As there are Forces of Truth, so there are Forces that live by the Falsehood and support it and work for its victory; as there are powers whose life is intimately bound up with the existence, the idea and the impulse of Good, so there are Forces whose life is bound up with the existence and the idea and the impulse of Evil. It is this truth of the cosmic Invisible that was symbolised by the ancient belief of a struggle between the powers of Light and Darkness, Good and Evil for the possession of the world and the government of the life of man; — this was the significance of the contest between the Vedic Gods and their opponents, sons of Darkness and Division, figured in a later tradition as Titan and Giant and Demon, Asura, Rakshasa, Pisacha; the same tradition is found in the Zoroastrian Double Principle and the later Semitic opposition of God and his Angels on the one side and Satan and his hosts on the other, — invisible Personalities and Powers that draw man to the divine Light and Truth and Good or lure him into subjection to the undivine principle of Darkness and Falsehood and Evil. Modern thought is aware of no invisible forces other than those revealed or constructed by Science; it does not believe that Nature is capable of creating any other beings than those around us in the physical world, men, beasts, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, germs and anmalculae. But if there are invisible cosmic forces physical in their nature that act upon the body of inanimate objects, there is no valid reason why there should not be invisible cosmic forces mental and vital in their nature that act upon his mind and his life-force. And if Mind and Life, impersonal forces, form conscious beings or use persons to embody them in physical forms and in a physical world and can act upon Matter and through Matter, it is not impossible that on their own planes they should form conscious beings whose subtler substance is invisible to us or that they should be able to act from those planes on beings in physical Nature. Whatever reality or mythical unreality we may attach to the traditional figures of past human belief or experience, they would then be representations of things that are true in principle. In that case the first source of good and evil would be not in terrestrial life or in the evolution from the Inconscience, but in Life itself, their source would be supraphysical and they would be reflected here from a large supraphysical Nature.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pp.87-89

Everywhere we look, whether in material Nature, or in the vital or mental domains, we see a play of forces, attraction and repulsion, centrifugal and centripetal, positive and negative, dark and light, etc. It appears to be a core principle of the creation to utilize these opposing forces to create the dynamic needed for a progressive evolution of consciousness. Opposition appears to strengthen the forces of growth. We find that trees and plants subjected to somewhat strong winds, for instance tend to root themselves more firmly.

What is not so obvious to us is the conscious intentionality behind the operation of these forces. This is mainly due to our limited viewpoint that treats what we cannot directly see and understand as simply a mechanism, rather than the actions and resultant impacts of conscious entities making conscious choices. We may experience various negative consequences in the world, we may become angry, enraged, lustful or otherwise extremely passionate and we simply treat this as a response to events that occur without specific conscious causation.

We can see, and in fact, often do learn about manipulation that takes place among human society, to pressure people into responding or acting in a certain manner. This is done through creation of fear, desire, pressure of various sorts, appeals to vanity, offers of fame, power, wealth or sex, and through false or misleading information. Rumor and gossip are also powerful means of dissemination of implied meaning that cause people to respond in very predictable ways generally. The pressure tends to create specific types of responses based on the Guna that is predominant in the situation.

It should not surprise us then, that it is possible, indeed likely, that beings who operate on another plane, such as the vital plane, would work to manipulate our responses for their own benefit or enjoyment. Since most people have little direct experience with beings on these other planes, they tend to disregard this potential source of what they experience in the outer world. That is however like saying that because we cannot see it, electricity has no impact. There are individuals who have had direct experience of vital beings and their interactions in the human world, and they report what could be expected based on what others see occurring in the outer world. In other words, just as electricity has a cause and an effect, so too do the vital or mental beings and their action have cause and effect.

We see in all the great religious traditions, and even in the great literature of the world, an individual or multiple individuals having such relations and interactions. Jesus was tempted by the devil. Buddha was confronted by Mara. Moses had direct interaction with God to free the Israelites from Egyptian slavery and to lead his people to Palestine and to establish the 10 Commandments to be followed by them. Zoroastrianism described the conflict between Light and Darkness. The Rig Veda told of the hiding of the light and the need to liberate it from the control of the forces of darkness. Hamlet was visited by the ghost of his father who drove him to action of revenge. Richard III of England was visited by the spirits of those he had wronged in his ascent to the throne. Brutus had an experience just prior to a decisive battle that evidenced the action of vital powers to undermine his confidence. The Puranas are filled with stories relating the interaction of various gods with human individuals to accomplish some purpose in the world. All of these forces are seen to act with conscious intention and to act upon situations, events, circumstances and individuals in the external world we inhabit and within which we live and act.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “There are forces, and subliminal experience seems to show that there are supraphysical beings embodying those forces, that are attached in their root-nature to ignorance, to darkness of consciousness, to misuse of force, to perversity of delight, to all the causes and consequences of the things that we call evil. These powers, beings or forces are active to impose their adverse constructions upon terrestrial creatures; eager to maintain their reign in the manifestation, they oppose the increase of light and truth and good and, still more, are antagonistic to the progress of the soul towards a divine consciousness and divine existence. It is this feature of existence that we see figured in the tradition of the conflict between the Powers of Light and Darkness, Good and Evil, cosmic Harmony and cosmic Anarchy, a tradition universal in ancient myth and in religion and common to all systems of occult knowledge.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pp.86-87