Sri Aurobindo
Karmayogin
Political Writings and Speeches — 1909-1910
Karmayogin: A Weekly Review
Saturday 17th July 1909 — No.4
Facts and Opinions
Our “Inconsistencies”
A third point is the proposition that out of evil cometh good and 
that everything that happens or can happen is for the best.
Here our contemporary finds an inconsistency, for did we not say that just now everything works for the upraising of India because there is an upward trend which all forces assist.
“Curiously enough,” he says, “the writer thinks the two propositions identical.”
Curiously enough, we do.
We say that just now India is being raised up and everything tends to God's purpose in raising her up, even calamity, even evil, even error.
He uses them for His purpose and out of evil bringeth good.
We said “just now”, because it is not true that God has always raised up India and always there has been an upward trend; sometimes He has cast her down, sometimes there has been a downward trend.
Even that was for the good of India and the world as we shall take occasion to show.
Where then is the limitation or the inconsistency?
The limitation in the phrase “just now” applies to the upward trend, to the particular instance and not to the principle that out of evil cometh good, which is universal and absolute.