The Purpose Behind Cosmic Drama

One existential question often asked by all and sundry relates to the purpose behind God’s creation. After all, why is it that God created this world full of suffering and pain? Is there any grand design or purpose behind it all? While there is no readymade answer to such questions, the spiritual thinkers and philosophers have all been surmising about them for quite some time now. The truth is we can only hazard some plausible explanations and justifications about the same based on some experiential and logical conclusions.

To begin with, let’s imagine the existence of an all-powerful God sitting alone and idle with not much to do, none to interact with, none to talk to or none to preside over. Even if God had the idea of everything in the world, animate and inanimate, the concept of a tree or a mountain, the concept of a human being or a bird would have no meaning, unless and until they are all materialized and brought into actual existence. The conceptions of various emotions and feelings would similarly have no meaning unless and until they are created and brought into actual play through a live drama to find out and appreciate their true nature and nuances.

So, lo and behold, the Almighty, either to kill his boredom, to examine the potency of His own power and creativity, to keep examining and testing His own creativity and to further stretch the limits of His supremacy, He created the humongous cosmos, the multiverses and divided Himself into infinite souls by creation of infinite variety of living beings including humans to express different aspects of His intelligence and capability in the every unfolding drama that would play out under His supervision.

So, God apparently created this world not only to keep Himself engaged and entertained, but also to groom capable associate souls to keep expanding His intelligence and to keep stretching the limits of His creativity. The God, like a child, loves to play with the toy that He creates in the form of this ever-changing cosmic drama.

            Through the creation of ming-boggling variety in the infinite cosmos, God has given us choices to pick out the best to cultivate and nurture the same carefully according to the divine law of nature. The differences among the peoples of the world in terms of race, caste, language, religion etc should not create a division among us, but they actually give us the choice to nurture the same to the best of our ability as per our choices and liking without being at the loggerheads with each other.

Thus, we, being made in God’s image and endowed with divine qualities, can develop and improve all such elements of nature, physical and abstract, to nurture the best qualities and capacities to develop the ideal man and the ideal world. All the talented, gifted, successful and famous individuals actually have no independent existence of their own. The graveyard is a testimony to this truth. All these gifted and successful persons actually extend and expand divine authority. No soul can actually identify and recognize their own achievements and attainments of their previous lives.

We all are here to learn and evolve in the school of life in our upward spiritual journey and on the way, we improve, extend and expand God’s authority and creation. The only positive aspect of our sectoral success in life is the reinforcement of our natural tendencies which express themselves easily in the next life. For example, one, who was a good mathematician or musician in the previous life, may forget all her/his relations, mathematical formulae or musical notes, but s/he would have a felicity with mathematics or music in the next life. S/he would learn and progress faster in mathematics or music in the next life than those with different past-life tendencies. The latter shall reveal their talents or felicities in different fields as per their past-life experiences. The same thing happens with our behavioural tendencies as well. A good person in the past life shall be a good person in the next life.

So, a successful person in the past life usually have a headstart in their next life. Hence, it is up to us to learn faster, better and conscientiously for a better afterlife or next life. The normative consensus in the world point to this unilinear directive development of human civilization to bring out the best amongst us to bring about the God’s kingdom on earth or anywhere possible. The history of human civilization has been a history of a battle between good and evil, with good always being promoted to bring about and sustain a positive harmony in the world.

We came into this world through the will of the God. But He has given us the freedom to live according to our will. Although the force of our endless desires is strong, the potency of divine will in us is stronger. It is this divine will that goads us in our bid to keep on the path back to the Almighty. After all, God made this world not only as His hobby, but also because He wanted to make perfect souls that would evolve back to him. God has given us the freedom to be good or evil, as we might like to choose. He allows us even to deny God’s existence. However, the purpose of our life remains becoming good and perfect using our free will.

One can ask how do we know this that we should endeavour to become ‘good’ and not transform ourselves into wily and nasty individuals. This can be sensed by the fact that doing bad or evil does not generate happy hormones inside our body or create positive emotions. We feel so uncomfortable or churlish after doing something bad. But we feel so uplifted and elevated by doing something altruistic or good. We feel so happy and satisfied when someone appreciates our help or heaps praises upon us for our good acts.

But again, the catch here is, we must not be carried away by praise, appreciation or fame stemming from our good acts as the world still being so diverse and unequal, with different souls being at different levels of spiritual evolution that our acts carry different meanings to different people. And our good acts should be carried out not with an eye to rewards or for selfish interest, but  for the satisfaction and joy they bring about in the process. So, the good acts should be done without an eye to the rewards. The rewards of our good and positive actions are the satisfaction of our being able to perform such acts themselves.

It is said that when the source of joy is transient and non-permanent, the joy can’t last forever. Hence, the joy emerging from the praise or fame immediately turn into sadness if one’s joy becomes conditional upon them. The temporary nature of source of our joy makes the joy itself temporary. We should actually be aiming at imbibing eternal bliss and joy. We should be able to nurture and cultivate the habits of staying happy and joyful by being fixed in the carrying out the works of God. By trying to continue the soul-uplifting works, we could keep ourselves transfixed in the same joyful state of mind all the time.

Another question always being asked relates to the existence of suffering as an inalienable part of God’s cosmic drama. After all, why did God create suffering as part of His cosmic drama? The truth is God has never created suffering or pain in the world. Actually, it is we who have created pain and agony for ourselves by transgressing the divine norms, rules and laws. It is our unlimited and often unethical desires which create pain and suffering for us in this physical world. Don’t we keep engaged all the time in hoarding things beyond our needs, often at the expense of others, using unethical means.

God is said to have endowed each of our souls with an unlimited GB pen-drive where we can store as much learning and lessons as we want. But instead of doing so, we keep engaged in creating and amassing things beyond our needs in this physical world, something that we would leave behind. And we do this while neglecting, starving, impoverishing, depriving and retarding the upward evolution of our soul, something that would be there permanently with us. It is this attachment to things physical and banal that create suffering for the soul when he lives in this world. Because in the process of her stay in this world, the individual creates negative experiences and tendencies for the soul which make it unhappy and troubled. It is these negative tendencies and experiences that creates a hellish experience for the soul in the afterlife as well. Sufferings and miseries are, thus, a necessary disciplining tool to keep us on the straight and narrow, to goad us on the right path and to eventually ensure our union with the Almighty.

Mind you, a man who does not get along with others is the one who does not get along with himself. No wonder why such people see disharmony wherever they go. Such people remain ever so unhappy and disturbed. While harmony conserves our mental and spiritual energy; disharmony dissipates it. A pure heart is the result of pure thoughts and emotions. Our world inside us determines our happiness outside. If we have positive thoughts and emotions, if our consciousness is peaceful and contented, the same will reflect itself in our day-to-day life. So, one who is an angel at home, shall be an angel in his social interactions also.

Similarly, it is our soul vibrations that decide our fate in the afterlife. Depending upon the positivity or negativity of the vibrations we carry, the fate of our afterlife is decided. Those with positive vibrations have heavenly experiences while those with negative vibrations and tendencies experience a hell after their death. With a positive cerebral-mental framework, we can definitely ensure the heaven for ourselves in the life after death. The more positive and powerful these vibrations become gradually, the faster we can get out of the cycle of life and death.

Human brains are generally larger than that of the animals, with the exceptions of those of elephants and whales. Being more complex, a human brain contains the greatest capacity for complex thinking, discernment and discrimination. Thus, humans alone are capable of advanced level of abstract thinking and discrimination and consequently, of God-realization.

We need to learn to live simply and take life more easily, trying to fathom the purpose behind our existence and that of this world. The greatest sin is ignorance, not to know what life is all about. Once we know this larger purpose behind our existence, all our troubles and pain shall disappear. We can, thus, have the real happiness. Happiness lies in giving ourself time to think and to introspect. We need to be alone once in a while, to spend some time in silence every day on learning the right lessons and in meditative practices relating to God-realization.

We often squander our energy by carping and cribbing about others, trying to mould people the way we want them to be, the way it suits us. But that’s wrong. Making everyone in the same mould shall make the world monochromatic, with no variety in the world. As five fingers together make a grip or different colours make our life colourful. They all serve a purpose. Similarly, different people with different mindsets and thought patterns have a specific purpose in our life. So, we must not think much about reforming others. Our tendency or inclination to reform others or control other’s lives is the foremost reason for many of our woes and suffering in this life. This often creates a lot of heartburns on both sides and spoils our social relations with those who matter to us. Hence, we should find time to focus on reforming ourselves rather than those around us.

If we are able to reform ourselves, the world shall automatically reform and be a better place to live in. We should try to find and discover our individual rough edges and chisel them out as we go along the life’s journey. The greatest field of victory is our own home. If we are an angel at home, we can be an angel everywhere. If we know that all the living beings are inalienable parts of the same divine energy and consciousness, we shall know that we are all kindred souls. As such, there should be no conflict or differences among us. Most of our troubles and disturbances emanate from a wrong understanding of our world and because of the creation of artificial divisions in the society.

Every night in sleep, God takes all our troubles to show that we are not a mortal being; we are an immortal spirit, made in God’s image. Don’t we do things at will in our dreams without the mediation of any physical body. Often, we fly or go from one location to another thousands of miles away in a jiffy. This is God’s way to remind us of our capacities and capabilities as His children. God wants us to remember this truth and realization about our own hidden powers during our conscious state. If this happens, we would know not to blame anyone for all our troubles, to know that we could be the master of our own destiny and to not be bothered by the anomalies of our mundane life.

However, so long as we have a desire to dominate other people spiritually or materially, we will not find soul freedom or eternal bliss and happiness. In our passion and excitement to acquire and achieve mundane stuffs, we often dissipate too much of our energy which could otherwise be directed towards God realization. In fact, excitement means we are directing too much of our energy to a certain part of our body while starving other nerves of that life force. When we get angry, we send tremendous volts of energy into the brain and the heart. It is proven that disproportionate frisson of emotions such as anger and fear so overload the nerves that they often cause our body to malfunction, sometimes even stopping the heart and causing the death.

As untrained warriors are soon killed on the battlefield, so are the persons untrained in the art of preserving their inner peace are quickly riddled with the bullets of worry and restlessness in life. This happens because of our ignorance of the purpose behind the creation and our own existence. That’s why we need to eliminate our ignorance through deeper and regular meditation to know the will of the God. As the adept sages have suggested, we can enter heavenly astral and causal worlds and commune with God through the control over our breath. The divine love can’t be found in a social gathering, while we are disturbed or engaged with everyday mundane preoccupations.

The God can be discovered in silence and solitude through deep meditation. He who lives in the bodily temple without ever being affected by the changing sensory perceptions, remaining even-minded during pleasure and pain, becomes a true being among men. As we know, the image of the moon gets distorted in an agitated turbid water, but we see its clear image in still waters. Similarly, we can have a clear image of the Divine, if we can still and quieten our mind through deep meditative practices without getting disturbed by different things.

What’s surprising is that people these days have so much time to worry and suffer, but they have no time to meditate. If we don’t have time for God and spiritual practices, why should God have time for us? It is through meditation that we can find our way to the God. God is said to be always pursuing us with His boundless love. He never tires of keep supplying us with all our needs and granting our wishes all the time, without asking anything in return. The only thing God expects from us is our love and affection.

If we love Him deeply, we shall find Him. As His son, we have a right to ask for anything from Him. The magical power by which God transforms His infinite consciousness into finite dream images and gives them a dream reality is called Maya. God is always trying to pull man back to Him and Maya is also simultaneously trying to pull the man back to itself. There is a continuous tug of war between man’s spiritual quests and his attachment to Maya. Man is free to move towards either. Our continuous evolution means that we are going away from God and into the clutches of Maya.

Involution means going back to Him. However, going back to God by the involuntary process of nature is a very slow process. But the discriminating man can expedite it by his strong desire for liberation, by means of regular and disciplined meditative practices. When we try to contact God through such spiritual practices, intuitive perception of truth often guides us in everything we do. Right behind the darkness of our closed eyes are the wondrous forces and eternal reality of the universe.

When we watch a movie, we like an engaging movie with a lot of action rather than a dull movie. When we are finished with the movie, we know for sure that nobody was killed and nobody was suffering. Same is the case with our world which is nothing but a dream of the God. This has been very well described in the Bhagwad Gita. The same is the case with our dreams where we realize the magnificent power of our consciousness. If we know that all our sufferings and pain are nothing but myth associated with physical body and are an aid in our upward spiritual evolution, we shall not get perturbed. We, as eternal souls, are here only to learn our lessons and get back to our eternal home at the end of this learning cycle.

If our mind remains anchored in the God, we will never suffer. God is always holding our hand and guiding us on to the right path. While we see only a chapter, the God knows the entire story, the whole book. The perspective of a child is limited by the womb. He does not know and can’t imagine that there is or there can be a better life beyond the womb, under a loving mother. He does not realize that a loving mother is all around him. Similarly, we don’t realize that there is a beautiful world and a loving God beyond this painful physical world.

When we seek God, we don’t get Him; we only lose what is not Him. When we seek light, we don’t get it; we start losing the darkness and the light is all around us. Similarly, through good associations and good habits, we can find our way out of the darkness which brings us nothing but pain and suffering. Lord Krishna said in Bhagwad Gita, “Among thousands of men, perhaps one tries for spiritual attainment; and among the blessed true seekers that tries to reach me, perhaps one perceives me as I am”. The Lords knows what we think and if we love Him truly, He will reveal Himself to us. God expects nothing from us but our true love.

A true devotee is always awake in his infinite spiritual nature, and asleep in his material nature. A cow, grazing calmly, does not bother about its calf. But if we go near the calf, the cow comes to us immediately for its protection. Similarly, a true devotee may be outwardly busy with his work, but is always focused on God. All paths lead to God. Everything has come out of God and must go back to him. Don’t we feel hurt, if someone does not acknowledge our help or gifts. Similarly, God also feels hurt, if we don’t express our gratitude after receiving so much from him. God, if at all, is only begging for our love and wants us to remember Him. No work can be greater than finding him who created us. To find God, we must find sometime everyday to be with him alone. 

We must be willing to suffer to find God. Renunciation, sacrifices and penance are not an end, but means to an end. Devotion is one offering that tempts God. As we don’t check the seed’s fate after planting it, but allows it to grow. Similarly, we must not check for immediate outcomes of our spiritual practices. We should just keep tending to them.  But we must be extremely patient in our divine pursuits. We find it so difficult to meet a very important person. A VIP meets us only when he finds us worthy enough. Similarly, the master of the multiverses or God shall meet us only when we are good enough or deserving enough to meet Him. Life’s journey has a deep meaning to teach us the importance of seeking God.

When we shoot an arrow, it travels with its force until that force dissipates. We, too, were propelled from God and our desires are the force that keep us moving away from him. When our desires are exhausted and dissipated, we will be drawn back to God again by the power of his gravity. The dewdrop that separates itself from the lake and floats in isolation on the lotus leaf will be dried up unless it returns to the lake. Same is with our divinity.

This earth is a stage and the God is the stage manager. If everyone insisted on being kings and queens, an unfolding cosmic drama would be impossible. True happiness is possible only when one plays his part rightly and not otherwise. On the last day, God shears everyone of all possessions and titles. What we have acquired in our soul is all that we take with us. We should never be discouraged when our role is difficult.  When we are through with our acting, we will be received as a child of God.

Hence, our children should be taught the habit of sharing and caring; that money, success and prosperity should be shared with others as trustees. Those who share their good fortunes attract wealth and abundance wherever they go. He who is motivated by selfish desires neglects his assigned role in helping the drama of God’s creation.