The Divine Play
For most of us, after we come under the influence of Sai and begin to live His teachings, our vision of the world and our whole life changes. Other dimensions of reality than the previously familiar ones impose themselves on our awareness. We discover interconnectedness between events and experiences that should by all reason be unrelated. It is as if an unseen consciousness behind the scenes is directing all our moves; and not only our moves but everyone else’s as well. It is as if our lives become a series of unfolding scenes and events on an already existent tapestry, telling the story of a great flow homeward. With this realization, we begin to see the grand play, in which we are both actors and audience. It is the play of the adorable divine child in which the divinity progressively dons innumerable bodies and forms, and plays countless roles, for its own sweet delight.
On various occasions and in various ways Bhagavan has given us a little bit of insight into this divine drama that gives Him so much joy, wherein out of the One He created the many, and then drew the many back into the One. Once He said, “…I have separated Myself from Myself so that I could love Myself…” Another time He said, “…The Divine principle is ever engaged in a constant play with itself. It wills itself attributes, manifestations, energies, elements, activities, creations, and dissolutions. It is like a lonely, imaginative child in a room filled with mirrors.
It amuses itself by playing with its own images, sometimes painting different animal bodies, plants, trees, and human bodies, some with moustaches and beards, some with hairdos and dresses, on the different mirrors to differentiate one image from another; and the images are distinct or distorted according to the angle, curve and surface of each mirror. In this way, in order to have some change and amuse Itself in Its serene loneliness, It creates this multifaceted universe as a reflection of Itself…”
With these assertions, step‑by‑step the overall play reveals itself to us, magnificent in its splendor. For out of His blissful, eternal self, He fashioned the universe and entered into it as its very substance. Having projected this huge stage for His play, He then assigned Himself a vast number of roles, as He simultaneously played the part of all the myriads of individual souls, jivas, deluded into believing themselves as small, separate and limited entities, unaware of their own true nature. They have their moments on stage and go through their parts.
They start their acting career as a dumb rock, sea or a cloud and they move on to become a plant, fish, bird, animal, cave‑dweller, and city‑dweller. They sit, move, fight, love, weep, enjoy, gain, and lose, eat, sleep, experience, and finally they fall… to run off‑stage for a quick change in costume and role, and then return for further pratfalls and heroics, in an ongoing melodrama. But throughout there is a story line. After many changes of costumes, exits, and entrances, the roles become more cheerful and loving, and the acting becomes more noble for we are reaching the high point of the drama. As one of the jiva‑players takes on the role of the spiritual seeker, the Divinity that is at once the actor, director, playwright, audience, and theater increasingly enjoys the performance for now He plays the part of jiva discovering the divine and then, to His astonishment discovering Himself as divine.
When He finally throws off all costumes and roles, His joy is unlimited, and He hugs Himself with love unbounded and overflowing. The self has recognized himself as Self after the delusion wears off. A sweet, divine smile crosses His face as He enjoys His own play, Himself playing all the parts. Now He awaits with joy the next jiva approaching realization, and He jumps back into the role of other jivas going through their pains and struggles. It is His compassion for His own creation, and His delight in the surprise ending that keeps the parts steadily flowing toward their divine culmination. What a marvelous performance He gives Himself, as He starts it all off with a big bang, and follows it with an endless variety of parts, inanimate and animate, until the first realized soul appears a great journey from the Divine to the Divine by the Divine, believing Itself to be small, limited, and separate, until the crowning final scene.
This is perhaps too whimsical an account of such a serious subject as the creation of the cosmos and the evolution of the soul; yet some inner spark of the eternal within us resonates and rings with this innocent child’s view of a universe whose very core is one of joy, delight, and play. One is reminded of an American movie from the 40’s which started with a fearsome tornado, enveloped in darkness, crossing the plains of Kansas while wreaking destruction in its path. A house with a little girl in it is pulled up and carried off by the whirlwind into the unknown. Then the movie dramatically changes from black‑and‑white to brilliant vivid color as the little girl is set down safely on a beautiful, winding yellow‑brick road, surrounded by buttercups and daffodils, leading to a magical kingdom, shining like a jewel on the distant hills. Darkness and destruction had changed into a cheerful, sunny day, ablaze with color and goodness, and filled with melodious song.
When spirituality roots itself deeply into our lives, our world turns from muted black and white into the beautiful variegated hues of the eternal play. A consummate sweetness begins to penetrate and permeate our inner being. As our devotion deepens and we attach more and more to the spiritual, and detach more and more from the worldly, we discover the Divinity that is everywhere and in everything, and whose essence is pure sweetness, joy, love, and eternal delight. When we discover our own reality, that is what we find.
The sun never knows shade, shadow, or darkness, even though the clouds, that are his own creation whisper amongst themselves about the play of their shadows on the earth; when he burns them off to get a good look at this strange phenomenon of darkness, he sees only light, the reflection of himself everywhere. That is the message of the spirit. We are in truth pure consciousness and infinite bliss. Our destiny is to evolve and free ourselves from these limiting upadhis (sheaths) and limiting environments that bind us. We can expand and become unlimited, and realize the unity, the One reality that is our true self. With that understanding, we get a glimpse of the deeper spiritual purpose of what in other contexts we have called evolution.
Evolution is an essential part of the divine leela [divine play]. It provides the succession of vehicles for this grand play of the soul sojourning in the world playing all those funny parts, but all the while struggling and longing to free itself and return to its source. Again and again, the jiva seems to get lost, alone and forlorn on the vast stage. Such a Herculean task it is to get free, and yet so little progress there is to show for all these many lives! An anguished prayer for help escapes his lips. A fervent call goes out to the Savior to come and deliver him. O what a magnificent play.
The Savior incarnated as jiva, now convincingly plays the part of jiva crying out for the Savior. The prayer is heard. Grace descends. Already manifested in every jiva, the Supreme takes on a special role. After a lapse of thousands of years, He blesses the world with birth as Avatar, to hasten jiva’s progress. A divine figure now occupies the center of the stage. He seems aglow from within, as the inner God is revealed in the perfection of the outer man, as the eternal is made manifest by the life He leads as man.
“My life is My message,” He announces. “Come follow me!” Now jiva takes heart; he finally has a light to lead him home. And where is that home? It is within himself. He has been carrying ‘home’ around with him inside, all this time. Finally he sheds the heavy chains of delusion and ignorance that have been his load for so long. Now, the fruit has ripened; he realizes his truth. And the lie of ‘I‑ness’, of individuality, attachment to life and body‑consciousness, to relations and possessions, and all the other worldly brood of attachments, leaves him forever.
Once jiva knows his reality as the One, his part in the play is over. He merges back into Him from whom he came, and who truly never left Him; he returns to being the One he always was…the Infinite, the eternal, and the blessed self.
Such joy! Such heights of love, and such sweetness! What a fine story! Evolution has done its job well. The Divine child is highly pleased with Its play.
May we all soon reach that endearing child, our own blessed Self.
Om Jai Sai Ram.
~Al Drucker
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, June 1983
