Sri Aurobindo always said that cruelty was one of the things most repugnant to him, but he explained it as the deformation of an intensity. We could almost call it the deformation of an intensity of love - something not satisfied with half-measures, something driven to extremes (which is legitimate) - it's the deformation of the need for extremely strong sensations. I have always known that cruelty, like sadism, is the need to cut through a thick layer of totally insensitive tamas [[Tamas: the principle of inertia and obscurity. ]] by means of extremely violent sensation - an extreme is needed if anything is to be felt through that tamas. I was always told, for example (in Japan it was strongly emphasized to me), that the people of the Far East are very tamasic physically. The Chinese in particular are said to be the remnants of a race that inhabited the moon before it froze over and forced them to seek refuge on earth (this is supposed to account for their round faces and the shape of their eyes!).... Anyway (laughing), it's a story people tell! But they're extremely tamasic; their physical sensibility is almost nil - appalling things are required to make them feel anything! And since they naturally presume that what applies to them applies to everyone, they are capable of appalling cruelty. Not all of them, of course! But this is their reputation. Have you read Mirbeau's book? page 266 - Mother's Agenda , volume 2 , 18th July - 1961