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Incomprehensible Lila
We cannot fathom god's Lila, because we have not, and cannot have, any idea of the inner essence and purpose behind the incidents that happen to us in life. Lila is the manifestation of concretization of the divine spirit that animates our consciousness, our lives. We feel buoyant and happy at the very sight of a rainbow. That is why Wordsworth sings;
I My heart
leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky.
A flowing river also creates a peculiar sensation of pleasure in our hearts,
sometimes it even swells us with exuberant joy.
The experience of profound, of the deep peace and grandeur that some natural beautiful scenery provides, creates ineffable spirits in our self. We have the same supernatural feeling when a healthy laughing child or a very charming expression of some noble feeling or thought catches our attention. In this way, any very attractive manifestation of beauty or art thrills us. All such things delight our minds and hearts, because they can easily touch our senses and so deeply impress us. But that is God's lila in gross physical forms.
Only when our being has grown sufficiently receptive to the acceptance of God's lila of higher, subtler kind, we can perceive the infinite super-sensual nature of the form (the Sat-guru) that has manifested itself as the earthly representative of godliness.
It is because the human body constitutionally possesses sense (mental and physical) that can experience thrilling sensations at coming across material forms of beauty (like that of charming natural scenery) that we feel exalted in joy and spirit at those sights. This is the rasa (essence filled with joy and providing joy) of material forms.
God's rasa is far less easy to enjoy, as it is, far more abstruse. It is supramental. It can be experienced by us because we cannot go beyond our mental plane and our life is guided by that plane. We cannot make heads or tails of God's rasa as long as our being is confined within the mental circle and does not soar beyond it.on and younger brothers within the limits of my financial stringency at that time*.
Planes of Consciousness
There are numerous planes of consciousness in a human being. There are different stages of intellectual knowledge also. These (stages) exist on the bases of his different internal levels (psychic, vital, etc.). Although they should not be called by the high term of "planes of knowledge or understanding" (in the correct sense), they nevertheless influence us. When we live according to our lower urges, our knowledge or understanding of things is guided by our lower nature. Thus our views, opinion and understanding are always in consonance with the planes of consciousness on which we live.
A present we live according to the dictates of dualities (i.e. of our prejudices for the against, blind fondness for the disgust with, etc.) and yet we think we can know the ways and characteristics of men who live on different planes of divine consciousness.
This is a vain-glorious presumption on our part stuck as we are in the mud of grossly material thinking and living. A baby can never regard the world in the respect we do. In the same way, if we want to understand what consciousness of divine life means, we have got to raise our state of life sufficiently high to understand such.*
* "Devo
bhutva devam yajet" ("After being godly,
worship God.") "You can't understand Shakespeare,
unless there is a Shakespeare in you," they say.
Hence I say, it is indispensable for us to create internal spiritual strength.
Without it we cannot free our self from the chains of worldly thoughts, tendencies,
and settled modes of behavior. How do we acquire that inner strength? We get
it, when we are
able to continue, without fail, to abstain from yielding to the urges I have
referred to and remain aloof from them. Only then shall we remain unperturbed
by the circumstances and incidents of our lives, even though we may be leading
a worldly life. As this process of self-improvement through detachment goes
on and on, we shall attain the state which has crossed the bounds of dualities
and the three gunas (Sattwa, rajas, and tamas). At that state we shall understand
what the manifestation of Life Divine and God's lila really mean and live
a divine life ourselves.
Bookish Knowledge harmful
Let us be content with "one step is enough for me." Knowledge of philosophical niceties, at our present stage of understanding, is like indigestion created by filling up the stomach with food without being hungry. We are still struggling from the right path, still rolling in the jail of impurities, and yet we indulge in vain thoughts and talk about exact meanings of abstruse ideas like Brahma, Maya and Mithyavad. We think we have an intellectual grasp of these ideas, but ours is merely bookish knowledge. It will do us no good. It will only keep us lost in reveries of thoughts, presumptions, attitudes, and prejudices and make us stray from our constant musings on our goal of Divine Life. Such book-lore, instead of being a help, becomes a hindrance, for it makes us egotistic.
Instead of trying to achieve such distracting knowledge, we should concentrate on learning the art of such behavior that results in peace, cheerfulness, patience, and equibalance during life's difficulties. Only from the constant practice of the art of proper living, shall we gain internal strength. Such high sounding talk about Brahma and Maya will only retard our progress, heavy-laden as we are with other obstructions, pet fondness, and aversions. They will on the contrary make us sink lower still in life owing to the self-conceit they create.
Philosophical Conundrums
Please, therefore, never take any part or interest in discussions on profound philosophical ideas or expositions on different schools of thought or comparisons between them. We shall gain nothing at all from such airy reflections. That they teach us the correct views of these meta-physical concepts is an entirely mistaken presumption. Nor should you ever enter into comparisons between the philosophies propounded by saints, alive or deceased. It is our interest to refuse to form or express any opinion on their varying tenets and on the ways of living and sadhana of their followers in their ashrams. Such opinions are like those of the frog in a well on the vastnesses of different seas. Compared to the lives and shining lights of those saints and sages and the manifestations of the divine through their personalities, we are still blind men grouping in the dark room of our earthly ways of living. It is the meanest folly on our part to attempt to estimate the height of their greatness.
Senseless Comparison
Some people go to the length of judging and comparing the different philosophies of saints and sages and even docketing their grades in spiritual greatness. When I see them doing so, I feel deeply pained. I feel, "O you When you have not taken even one step in sadhana, how will you ever be able to understand a saint's philosophy which is the direct result of his realization of the Oversoul?" There is no sense in entering such meaningless discussions on those saints' differing actions. It is best for us at least (for Pujya Sri Mota's dear ones) not to let our minds be occupied in vain pursuits. Please do wake up, be on the alert. When even a slight sensation or an itch for discussion on such topics arises in your mind, dismiss it summarily. For us, wisdom lies in getting only inspiration from the perfected lives of saints, in order that we, too, may gain our goal of the experience of Eternal Life quickly.
I want to tell you all emphatically that it is totally improper on our part to evaluate a saint's spiritual worth so long as we have not fully grasped his philosophy in al its aspects, or even if we have done so intellectually, so long as we have not ourselves experienced Life Eternal."
I have heard quite a lot of men saying,"Mahatma Gandhi committed this or that mistake." My reaction to those criticisms is: "Dear brogher! First show, by your actions half of the valor he has exhibited in his life and then be the judge of his actions. If you look upon his life as an example you should emulate in order to attain power and glory like him, that would be a constructive attitude." It would be really helpful to us, if we felt inspired by the lives of mahatmas. We could then take at least one step forward on our path toward the development of our lives. But that inspiration and progress are possible only when our hearts are drenched with love and devotion for the saints we met.
Purifying Contact of Saints
By God's grace, this jiva was never tempted to compare the spiritual statures of saints. My whole soul was bent upon only one objective - that of getting a fillip for proceeding further on my path of life's development and of weakening the power of the lower urges of my thoughts, leanings, and behavior. As for one who is always full of zeal for self-reform, mentally, heartily, and intellectually, no unhealthy urge to estimate any saint's spiritual worth ever disturbs him. No such idea occurs to him even for a fleeting moment. When I find some dear ones engaging themselves in discussions on matters beyond their ken, I realize how petty-minded, how low in life's standing, they still are. This is the honest expression of my view on the matter. If some people think I am mistaken, let them. I have written this for those who are prepared to see a warning in my words and save themselves, by God's grace, from the pitfalls I have pointed out.