Questioner: Is life a battle?
Baba: Yes, it is a battle and, if rightly fought, would bring infinite anand [bliss].
Questioner: Why should it be a battle?
Baba: Necessarily, otherwise existence would be a drag. If there is no darkness, one cannot appreciate light; if there is no ignorance, one cannot appreciate knowledge — they can’t exist without the other. Both are essential on the opposite poles.
Questioner: Why is there so much evil in the world?
Baba: It is as one takes it. In reality there is nothing but God, good, and bliss, but because of ignorance man doesn’t see it and takes the different degrees of expressions of good as evil. Even so, it is essential for the eradication of duality. Passing through different phases and experiences of this duality, man evolves in consciousness and understanding of the one Reality— which alone exists.
–Silent Teachings of Meher Baba, compiled and edited by Naosherwan Anzar, p142