That Brahm has got a law: “As you sow, so shall you reap.” So that Brahm power is very just. The incarnations (‘Avatars’) of that Brahm power, when they come into the world, their job is to punish the wicked, uphold the righteous and set the world agoing.
Generally this matter is only hinted at, I tell you. Just now I will give you an example. A king is appointing an authority as a commander-in-chief. He is also appointing an authority of the viceroy (or royal governor). The two authorities work for the sake of the king. It is the king who has given them that power. But their work is different. The commander-in-chief orders, “All right, go . . . !”
When a city is in trouble, the civil officers hand over the town to the military. What do they do? They punish the wicked, fire (on) and kill somebody, save the honor of the righteous, and when it is in order, they hand it over to the civil (authorities). (…)
the commander-in-chief knows fully well that he is empowered by the king to destroy, kill, et cetera. But the viceroy never says things like that. The viceroy says, “I convey to you the orders of the king”.
There are incarnations of the positive power who say like that (as the viceroy does). They are the Saints. Those who come like the commander-in-chief and others (incarnations or avatars), they say, “I order, fire!” It is a different expression (of authority), although both powers (positive and negative) know at heart that they have got this power from God; this is done only to have the world into expression. Otherwise, there would have been no world. And so our actions bring on this thing: all of the troubles coming up, and this and that thing. And the incarnations of the positive power, or the Saints, they look after the souls to go back to God.
And the world never ends: it goes on – changing – from “Kali”, the Iron Age, to the Golden Age. So, mind is the negative power working within each man. And its work is always to keep you away from God – to keep you engaged in the world. So, naturally, punishment is there: killing is there, wars are there and these (punishments) alter. Sometimes plagues are there. And the righteous people come up.
Now the Golden Age arises from the Iron Age: that (Golden Age) won’t fall down from heaven all at once. So spiritual awakening is there – in the East and West, both. People are for that: they are fed up with all these things (materialism, punishments) and they want some way out. And also the other way, (positive power) work is going on.
The negative power does not spare the incarnations of the negative power. The negative power also punishes them (the avatars). I will give you an instance: Rama killed the brother of Ravana. Then Rama came in the incarnation of Lord Krishna. And that man who was killed, he came as a dacoit (bandit) in the wilderness and he killed Krishna. Then he came to Krishna (as Krishna lay dying) and said, “I have done wrong”. Lord Krishna replied, “No, no, I killed you before”. So, the negative power does not spare his incarnations.
So, the day of judgement is also individual, and also as a whole, as a class. (…)
Well, it (this world) is to punish those who are wicked; it is a reformatory, you see. I told in my talk the other day that a spiritual revolution is going on now. And it is not a revolution against the bodies, but against the evil propensities of the mind. Mind is a slave of the negative power. Had there been no negative power, there would have been no world whatsoever.