243. If God did not take upon Himself the burden of tempting men, the world would very soon go to perdition.
244. Suffer yourself to be tempted within so that you may exhaust in the struggle your downward propensities.
The temptations are the tendencies that pull us back, downwards, such as greed for money, lust for power, ambition, attachment, sex, fear etc. Behind them all is the play of ego and desire. These are all hidden in man and do not go away simply by closing our eyes or running away from the ocassions where one may be tempted. And until they are conquered completely the soul will never be fully free. Hence God uses the strategy of Himself tempting the seeker by bringing him face to face with these tendencies and thereby exhausting them by learning through the painful consequences. He becomes the one who tempts, the one who gives us the fruits or the consequence of our desires. He seems to challenge and oppose our aspiration as a loving father would yet defeat his child several times by playing against him. The child cries each time he falls but the father stretches his hand to lift him up and rejoices to see him get up every time. The level of the opposition increases so that the strength and wisdom grows. It is all His Play, His ways of teaching and training us. We may find it cruel and feel miserable when we were misled by the temptation and fell. But behind it all there is His Love. He becomes the tempter as well the opponent denying us our desires.
These downward tendencies need to be exhausted either subjectively by observing, recognising and rejecting them, or objectively by going through the experience and learn by the painful consequences.
In the ultimate analysis all is His Play, His Love, His Grace.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
