Really? What about all the bad things in the
world? The immense suffering of so many critically sick people, or those hungry
and homeless? The collective miseries in the world’s battle zones, the silent
pain of the mute creation – the list is endless. How can one justify such a
startling statement that so obviously runs contrary to our own clear
experiences of suffering that we see around us all the time? At some point or
the other we all would have asked in anguish, “… but why O Lord? Why should the
world be filled with such cruelty and misery?”
The
Logical Basis
Actually, the logical argument is very simple
and clear. Shri Bhagavan put it succinctly [Talk 272, copied below]:
“God is perfection. His work also is perfection”.
God can only be perfect when EVERYTHING
concerning Him is perfect, not just certain selected aspects that we choose to
pick out. If the slightest imperfection is detected anywhere, then God is not perfect,
and He is not “God”. But then, what about the immense suffering in this perfect world?
We can, of course, take the atheist’s view and say – ergo, this proves that
there is no Isvara or Perfect Being
at all; the world just randomly came into existence and everything is nothing
but a series of random events based on circumstances and the motivation of
concerned participants. Certainly logical, but perverse for those who believe
in Isvara, who feel His loving
presence all the time.
Or, granted the existence of Isvara – He of course created the
perfect world, but some other entity, an “evil entity”, brought in all the bad
things into the world. However, the moment we admit of a second creator, evil
or otherwise, beyond the control of God, the basic power of omnipotence of God
is violated. Then God is not “God”. And if we put this evil entity back within
God’s control, then it all reverts back to the fact that the Perfect God has
also created the seeming “imperfections” in the world, rendering it far from
perfect. Or, conversely, the imperfections are also perfections.
Could it be all due to their bad karma? But again, if we grant karma the power to independently cause
suffering without the control and bidding of Isvara, karma becomes
sentient, and an independent power. Then as per the argument above, God will
not be God anymore. And also, is it possible that “bad” karma inflicted all suffering entities without exception? Take the 6
million Jews brutally killed in WWII for instance. Could all have had, equally,
such bad sanchita and prarabdha karmas that they were collectively
subject to the most horrific suffering and death? Given a number as large as 6
million, surely there would have been many who were very pure souls with no terrible
blemishes in their accumulated karma. And
even ONE exception is enough to bring this
particular karma argument come crashing
down.
Unless the prarabdha
karma at play is not theirs, but OURS ….
And then we may get an inkling as to how the
World may indeed be understood to be “Perfect”.
Sri
Bhagavan’s Teachings
Of course that the world is perfect is a
fundamental part of Sri Bhagavan’s teachings. It is not a teaching that finds
frequent mention in the recorded conversations. Few pursued a direct line of
questioning such as – ‘Okay, the Perfect Lord could only create a Perfect
World; so the world is perfect as it is; but why and how could suffering too be
perfect?’ Perhaps the seeming impossibility of the idea, its sheer contrariness
with common experience dissuaded this approach. We find that most queries were put to Sri Bhagavan more
from the view of finding a solution for the suffering seen in the world. And
for all such altruistic sort of arguments put up by devotees, Sri Bhagavan would
simply reply with the instruction to first bother with ‘their own selves’, to
find out ‘who is it that wants to remove the suffering in the world’. In the
alternate, Sri Bhagavan would say – that yes, the World appears imperfect when seen as the
world, but is perfect when seen as Brahman.
Whereas, in my humble opinion, the inescapable
logic from Sri Bhagavan’s teachings, and the tenets of higher Advaita, can only lead to the conclusion
that – the World is of course Perfect when seen as Brahman (who is to see what in that state!) but is also Perfect AS
IT IS. In short, all the mess we see in the world, the miseries, the suffering
et al, are ALL also PERFECT.
Sri
Bhagavan’s “Talks”
Sri Bhagavan’s conversations that touch on this
difficult topic make for fascinating reading. Talk 272 below presents the
viewpoint of the typical devotee who is unable to fathom how there could be
misery and suffering in God’s world at all, and next, what can realistically be
done to get rid of it. And Talk 487, in Sri
Bhagavan’s gentle but profound way, carries the discussion further.
Talk 272:
D.: There are widespread disasters spreading havoc in the world e.g., famine
and pestilence. What is the cause of this state of affairs?
M.: To whom does all this appear?
D.: That won’t do. I see misery around.
M.: You were not aware of the world and its sufferings in your sleep; you
are conscious of them in your wakeful state. Continue in that state in which
you were not afflicted by these. That is to say, when you are not aware of the
world, its sufferings do not affect you. When you remain as the Self, as in
sleep, the world and its sufferings will not affect you. Therefore look within.
See the Self! There will be an end of the world and its miseries.
D.: But that is selfishness.
M.: The world is not external. Because you identify yourself wrongly with
the body you see the world outside, and its pain becomes apparent to you.
But they are not real. Seek the reality and get rid of this unreal feeling.
D.: There are great men, public workers, who cannot solve the problem of
the misery of the world.
M.: They are ego-centred and therefore their inability. If they remained in
the Self they would be different.
D.: Why do not Mahatmas help?
M.: How do you know that they do not help? Public speeches, physical
activity and material help are all outweighed by the silence of Mahatmas. They
accomplish more than others.
D.: What is to be done by us for ameliorating the condition of the world?
M.: If you remain free from pain, there will be no pain anywhere. The trouble
now is due to your seeing the world externally and also thinking that there is
pain there. But both the world and the pain are within you. If you look within
there will be no pain.
D.: God is perfect. Why did He create the world imperfect? The work shares
the nature of the author. But here it is not so.
M.: Who is it that raises the question?
D.: I - the individual.
M.: Are you apart from God that you ask this question? So long as you
consider yourself the body you see the world as external. The imperfections
appear to you. God is perfection. His work also is perfection. But you see it
as imperfection because of your wrong identification.
D.: Why did the Self manifest as this miserable world?
M.: In order that you might seek it. Your eyes cannot see themselves.
Place a mirror before them and they see themselves. Similarly with the
creation. “See yourself first and then see the whole world as the Self.”
D.: So it amounts to this - that I should always look within.
M.: Yes.
D.: Should I not see the world at all?
M.: You are not instructed to shut your eyes from the world. You are only
to “see yourself first and then see the whole world as the Self”. If you
consider yourself as the body the world appears to be external. If you are the
Self the world appears as Brahman.
Talk 487
(extracts from):
D.: What
is that Self-Realisation which removes the discontent? I am in the world and
there are wars in it. Can Self-Realisation put an end to it?
M.: Are
you in the world? Or is the world in you?
D.: I do
not understand. The world is certainly around me.
M.: You
speak of the world and happenings in it. They are mere ideas in you. The ideas
are in the mind. The mind is within you. And so the world is within you.
D.: I do
not follow you. Even if I do not think of the world, the world is still there.
M.: Do
you mean to say that the world is apart from the mind and it can exist in the
absence of the mind?
D.: Yes.
M.: Does
the world exist in your deep sleep?
D.: It
does.
M.: Do
you see it in your sleep?
D.: No,
I don’t. But others, who are awake, see it.
M.: Are
you so aware in your sleep? Or do you become aware of the other’s knowledge
now?
D.: In
my waking state.
M.: So
you speak of waking knowledge and not of sleep-experience. The existence of the
world in your waking and dream states is admitted because they are the products
of the mind. The mind is withdrawn in sleep and the world is in the condition
of a seed. It becomes manifest over again when you wake up. The ego springs
forth, identifies itself with the body and sees the world. So the world is a
mental creation.
D.: How
can it be?
M.: Do
you not create a world in your dream? The waking state also is a long drawn out
dream. There must be a seer behind the waking and dream experiences. Who is
that seer? Is it the body?
D.: It
cannot be.
M.: Is
it the mind?
D.: It
must be so.
M.: But
you remain in the absence of the mind.
D.: How?
M.: In
deep sleep.
D.: l do
not know if I am then.
M.: If
you were not how do you recollect yesterday’s experiences? Is it possible that
there was a break in the continuity of the ‘I’ during sleep?
D.: It
may be.
M.: If
so, a Johnson may wake up as a Benson. How will the identity of the individual
be established?
D.: I
don’t know.
M.: If
this argument is not clear, follow a different line. You admit “I slept well”,
“I feel refreshed after a sound sleep”. So sleep was your experience. The
experiencer now identifies himself with the ‘I’ in the speaker. So this ‘I’
must have been in sleep also.
D.: Yes.
M.: So
‘I’ was in sleep, if the world was then there, did it say that it existed?
D.: No.
But the world tells me its existence now. Even if I deny its existence, I may
knock myself against a stone and hurt my foot. The injury proves the existence
of the stone and so of the world.
M.: Quite
so. The stone hurts the foot. Does the foot say that there is the stone?
D.: No.
- ‘I’.
M.: Who
is this ‘I’? It cannot be the body nor the mind as we have seen before. This
‘I’ is the one who experiences the waking, dream and sleep states. The three
states are changes which do not affect the individual. The experiences are like
pictures passing on a screen in the cinema. The appearance and disappearance of
the pictures do not affect the screen. So also, the three states alternate with
one another leaving the Self unaffected. The waking and the dream states are
creations of the mind. So the Self covers all. To know that the Self remains
happy in its perfection is Self-Realisation. Its use lies in the realisation of
Perfection and thus of Happiness.
D.: Can
it be complete happiness to remain Self-realised if one does not contribute to
the happiness of the world? How can one be so happy when there is a war in
Spain, a war in China? Is it not selfishness to remain Self-realised without
helping the world?
M.: The
Self was pointed out to you to cover the universe and also transcend it. The
world cannot remain apart from the Self. If the realisation of such Self be
called selfishness that selfishness must cover the world also. It is nothing
contemptible.
D.: Does
not the realised man continue to live just like a non-realised being?
M.: Yes,
with this difference that the realised being does not see the world as being
apart from the Self, he possesses true knowledge and the internal happiness of
being perfect, whereas the other person sees the world apart, feels
imperfection and is miserable. Otherwise their physical actions are similar.
D.: The
realised being also knows that there are wars being waged in the world, just
like the other man.
M.: Yes.
D.: How
then can he be happy?
M.: Is
the cinema screen affected by a scene of fire burning or sea rising? So it is
with the Self. The idea that I am the body or the mind is so deep that one
cannot get over it even if convinced otherwise. One experiences a dream and
knows it to be unreal on waking. Waking experience is unreal in other states. So
each state contradicts the others. They are therefore mere changes taking place
in the seer, or phenomena appearing in the Self, which is unbroken and remains
unaffected by them. Just as the waking, dream and sleep states are phenomena,
so also birth, growth and death are phenomena in the Self which continues to be
unbroken and unaffected. Birth and death are only ideas. They pertain to the
body or the mind. The Self exists before the birth of this body and will remain
after the death of this body. So it is with the series of bodies taken up in
succession. The Self is immortal. The phenomena are changeful and appear
mortal. The fear of death is of the body. It is not true of the Self. Such fear
is due to ignorance. Realisation means True Knowledge of the Perfection and Immortality
of the Self. Mortality is only an idea and cause of misery. You get rid of it
by realising the Immortal nature of the Self.
3rd May, 1938
The same lady continued: If the world is only a dream, how should it be harmonised
with the Eternal Reality?
M.: The
harmony consists in the realisation of its inseparateness from the Self.
D.: But
a dream is fleeting and unreal. It is also contradicted by the waking state.
M.: The
waking experiences are similar.
D.: One
lives fifty years and finds a continuity in the waking experience which is
absent in dreams.
M.: You
go to sleep and dream a dream in which the experiences of fifty years are
condensed within the short duration of the dream, say five minutes. There is
also a continuity in the dream. Which is real now? Is the period covering fifty
years of your waking state real or the short duration of five minutes of your
dream? The standards of time differ in the two states. That is all. There is no
other difference between the experiences.
D.: The
spirit remains unaffected by the passing phenomena and by the successive bodies
of repeated births. How does each body get the life to set it acting?
M.: The
spirit is differentiated from matter and is full of life. The body is animated
by it.
D.: The
realised being is then the spirit and unaware of the world.
M.: He
sees the world but not as separate from the Self.
D.: If
the world is full of pain why should he continue the world-idea?
M.: Does
the realised being tell you that the world is full of pain? It is the other one
who feels the pain and seeks the help of the wise saying that the world is
painful. Then the wise one explains from his experience that if one withdraws
within the Self there is an end of pain. The pain is felt so long as the object
is different from oneself. But when the Self is found to be an undivided whole
who and what is there to feel? The realised mind is the Holy Spirit and the
other mind is the home of the devil. For the realised being this is the Kingdom
of Heaven. “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” That Kingdom is here and
now.
The Pratibhasika Outlook - Realm of the Eka-Jiva:
So, how can we go from “the World is Perfect as the
Self” to be able to state that the “World is also Perfect AS IT IS”? How can one’s
own pain and suffering, and that of others, all the wars, genocides, rapes, murders
in the world, the filth on the streets, or the burning of the rain forests,
extinction of species, and so on, be also “Perfect”? For that, using Advaita terminology, we have to step out
from the comfort of the Vyavharika
zone into the searing heat of the Pratibhasika,
into the realm of Eka-Jiva (one-Jiva). Let us employ Advaita’s great tool of a three-fold division
of one’s outlook to understand the nature of the world from a higher viewpoint.
(Note: The third category, Paramarthika, is treated as being beyond the scope of this write-up
as the narrow focus is just to show that “the World is also Perfect as it is”. Actually
Sri Bhagavan’s uncompromising replies to devotees on the lines of “the world is
Perfect when seen as the Self”, come from the Paramarthika viewpoint, the realm of Ajata.)
Sri Bhagavan in His conversations here and there,
has explained some aspects of the 3 outlooks. Here is one on the outlook of the
Jiva from the Vyavaharika viewpoint (Talk 399):
“The man sees the world in all its variety, surmises the creator and
believes in himself as the subject. All these are thus reduced to the three
fundamentals, jagat, jiva and Isvara. He learns the existence of the creator
and tries to reach him in order to gain immortality. If one is thus released
from bondage, there are all other individuals existing as before who should
work out their own salvation. He more or less admits the One Reality underlying
all these phenomena. The phenomena are due to the play of maya. Maya is the
sakti of Isvara or the activity of Reality. Thus, existence of different souls,
objects, etc., do not clash with the advaitic point of view.”
What really is the role and life goal of the
individual self, the Jiva, in the
world? Is it to seek success and wealth and thus happiness for himself and
family? Along the way try to help others and reduce their miseries? Combine all
this with leading an honest life? Offer prayers to God and ask for good things
to happen to us and our family? Occasionally visit an ashram or Swamiji and
have satsang to purify oneself? Offer
charity via money and deed, and thus hope to earn punya by our good works? And thus to obtain satisfaction from a
life gainfully spent, righteously, of hard work, to wrest happiness for oneself
and family and for others, from an inimical world which offers constant
hardships and calamities? If so, then this outlook would come squarely in the Vyavaharika zone. We then view the
happy events in our life with glee and triumph, and with sorrow and resentment
the bad things happening to us. We look aghast at the suffering of others and
wonder what previous sinful act they committed so as to suffer so much now. Or,
trouble ourselves over how so and so could have such an evil nature so has to
commit such and such a ruthless, violent act.
Admittedly most of us would look at the world
from this viewpoint. And this post is not in any manner demeaning of such a
life or viewpoint. Nor even is it held that this outlook is completely untrue.
The 3 Advaita categories are all just
progressively deeper and more profound outlooks towards the same set of perception
data. Each gives a progressively truer picture of the nature of the Self and
the World. And each becomes progressively more contrary to our day to day
experiences in the world and thus more difficult to accept as a practical
living philosophy. To understand that the world is actually perfect AS IT IS,
we have to step into the Pratibhasika
zone.
Sri Bhagavan on the Pratibhasika (Talk 399):
“The jagat, jiva and Isvara are all cognised by the seer only. They do not
have any existence independent of him. So there is only one jiva, be it the
individual or God. All else is simply a myth.”
So, in the Pratibhasika,
the realm of Drishti-Shrishti and Eka-Jiva, there are no others. There are only different bodies – inanimate
and animate, human or otherwise. The Self is obscured by Avidya to give rise to the Eka-Jiva,
the one Jiva, whose prarabdha karma is spread out into the
wondrous world that we all see around us. To use Sri Bhagavan’s favourite dream
analogy, the waking-Arvind in sleep creates a dream-Arvind and a dream-world
populated by dream-characters. The dream-Arvind has good and bad experiences in
this dream-world and interacts with the dream-characters both animate and
inanimate, human and non-human, as if they were all real. The dream-world
appears to the dream-Arvind in alteration as being full of happiness, or
nightmarish, full of serene sights, or maybe troubling ones.
Carrying on with the analogy further, let us
take as a given that the waking-Arvind will inevitably go into a dream state.
Also as given that the dream will play out based on a stock of accumulated
material of specific happy and sad qualities, analogously, the vasanas of the waking-Arvind. Ordinarily
the dream-Arvind would get so deeply immersed in the wondrous dream that he
would never wake up. Or alternately, just keep lurching from one dream into
another, all without end. But out of great compassion for the dream-Arvind, the
waking-Arvind picks out certain happy and miserable events from the available
material, and actually designs the entire dream-sequence beforehand. Nothing is
random in it. And thus the grand plan is carefully put together so as to advance
the dream-Arvind along, through alternate bouts of happiness and misery, to the
point of waking up. [Note: The terms "waking-Arvind" or "dream-Arvind" are employed to make clear, firstly, that there are 2 distinct experiencer entities for the 2 states of waking and dream; and secondly, to make clear that the Eka-Jiva outlook is centric to the one Jiva whose prarabdha karma has expanded into the world seen and experienced by that one Jiva. The reader may well substitute her/his name instead of mine.]
And so it is from the Pratibhasika outlook. The world arises when the Jiva arises and is withdrawn when he
subsides, as for example in deep sleep. The Self or Isvara, lovingly chooses from the potli (sack) of accumulated karma
seeds (sanchita karma) of the one Jiva, those seeds which are to fructify in
this world-sequence. The sequence is perfectly designed to roast the Jiva over fire to just the right degree,
alternating with appropriate relief and happiness, so as safely remove all
dross, and make him pure; and then, if not to actually ‘startle’ him into
oblivion and let the Self shine forth, at least let the Jiva advance further up the road to Self-realization.
In the realm of Pratibhasika then, the life-goal of the ego-Arvind changes
dramatically, from that of extracting righteous success and joy in the world (the
Vyavaharika outlook), to that of a
fierce one-pointed focus on self-improvement, culminating in Self-realization.
That is the only goal for the individual from this viewpoint. And thus
everything that the ego-Arvind experiences whether happy or sad, the
miserable sights he sees regarding “others” in the world, are all carefully designed
by Isvara to enable the underlying Jiva grow in spiritual terms. And if one
understands that this is the grand plan, then we may understand that the Perfect
Isvara has indeed designed the
Perfect World.
Arthur Osborne in “Leaves from the Autobiography”
(Mountain Path 1983, pg 9) articulates it beautifully:
“… The only real measure of success in life is
the state of mind and character one has attained when the time comes to leave
it; the only full success is spiritual enlightenment, realization of the Self.”
Sri Bhagavan puts it bluntly [“Conscious
Immortality” (1998 reprint of the 1996 edition), Pg 160 ; also in Talk 219]:
“The only useful purpose of this birth is to turn within and realize.
There is nothing else to do.”
A fascinating statement of Sri Bhagavan’s on
this theme is recorded by one C. V. S. Aiyer of Chittoor when he visited
Skandashramam on 19.6.1918 (Mountain Path 1982, Pg 23, “Quotations from the
Maharshi”; also appearing in Mountain Path 1979, Pg 158):
“A man might have performed many karmas in his previous births. A few of
them alone will be chosen for this birth and he will have to enjoy their fruits
in this birth. It is something like a slide show, where the projectionist picks
a few slides to be exhibited at a performance, the remaining slides being
reserved for another performance. It is possible for a man to destroy his karma
by acquiring knowledge of the Self. The different karmas are the slides, karmas
being the result of past experiences, and the mind is the projector. The
projector must be destroyed, and there will be no reflection, and no samsara.”
(The 1979 version has the words “magic lantern
show” for “slide show” and “showman” for “projectionist”)
Perhaps the same item was picked up by Paul
Brunton and recorded by him in “Conscious Immortality” (Pg 130 in the 1998
reprint of the 1996 edition; Pg 127 in the 2013 edition):
“Individual human beings have to suffer their karma, but Iswara manages to
make the best of it for His purpose. God manipulates the fruit of karma; He
does not add or take away from it. A human being’s subconscious state is a
warehouse of good and bad karma. Iswara chooses from this warehouse what will
best suit the person’s spiritual evolution at the time, whether pleasant or
painful. Thus nothing is arbitrary.”
Another blunt statement from Sri Bhagavan appears
in “Day by Day”, Pg 211 (1995 Reprint):
“All the activities that the body is to go through are determined
when it first comes into existence. It does not rest with you to accept or
reject them. The only freedom you have is to turn your mind inward and renounce
activities there.”
In
Conclusion
We have seen how the ideas presented above of
Pre-determination, Drishti-Srishti, and
Eka-Jiva can be used to show that the
world events and sights are also “Perfect” as
they are. Not just that, the events and sights are also designed to
perfectly execute and convey the misery that they represent. Though the world and all in it are presented
as being illusory, the impact that the illusory event has on the illusory Jiva is very real. That is, after all,
the raison d’etre of every event and sight in the Jiva’s life. Thus not for a moment does this article decry or seek
to pooh-pooh the suffering that is seen in the world. And the whole point is
that the illusory Jiva has the real
choice to stoically absorb the real impact of this illusory event, and use it
to further his spiritual progress.
Thus the firm conviction of the “Perfect” nature
of the seen world immediately becomes a very useful tool in sadhana.
For, instead of wasting precious time and emotional resources in bemoaning
the multifarious sad events around us, we understand that it all comes from Isvara for our spiritual betterment. Our
job is to put up the right attitude to it all, that of the non-doer, of being the instrument for Isvara to play His music through. We gratefully accept the punches
as designed to knock out the dross from within us. And equally gratefully take
the caresses too, but with humility and alertness so that we do not lose ourselves in
the joy of the moment, and stray from the path of spiritual evolvement
and Self-realisation. Vairagya thus happens
automatically, and we may find that Atma-vichara
becomes easier.
--------------
Epilogue
Folks, it is exactly 3 months today since the
passing away of my mom. She would have turned 90 on 5th January. She had been bed-ridden
for 15 months after a bad fall, multiple fractures in the hip area, and
consequent medical procedures. Slowly she had become weaker and weaker and
ultimately succumbed to multiple organ failures. Needless to say the physical
suffering was immense. But she bore it all with great
fortitude and good cheer. She would tell me – “why do you have a glum face? I
am almost 90, I have to go sometime no? And Bhagavanji
is washing away all the maila (accumulated
impurities) on me.” She was quite unschooled in Advaita, or any other doctrine for that matter. But had been a
lifelong bhakta, esp of Devi Mata.
For the last 27 years before her fall, she had woken up at 3 am every morning,
had a bath, and sat in our little puja room to do her Devi Stuti till 6.30 am. A few days before her passing, she had to be rushed
to hospital with severe breathing difficulty and other complications. She
had been recovering well, and one thought we could go home in a few days. Then on the day of her passing in hospital, just
after breakfast, she suddenly became all excited and told me – “Do you see that
beautiful lotus flower? What lovely colours! See, see, how
beautiful Mahalakshmi Mata is! She has come to see me and is saying that I have
to go with Her at 7 o’clock”. And so it was. She left us on 11th October 2019.
She meant the world to me.
 |
| My mom Mrs. Pushpa Rani Lal - few months before her passing on |
In a life which has not exactly been a bed of
roses, the last 6 months or so still qualify as amongst the worst personally. I
learnt that it is relatively easy to handle one’s own suffering, but that of a truly
loved one quite impossible. And though, I always believed in the “Perfect
World” idea through many tough times, I must admit that this time I was forced
to address the issue again - “can all this be ‘Perfect’ too?”
They say that sometimes you best explain things to
yourself when you try to explain them to others. And it is to clear my head of
clutter that I wrote out the above piece over many months, a few lines one day,
a paragraph another time. It was never actually intended to be put up on the
blog. But then, with a few modifications here and there, why not. It also happens to be Sri Bhagavan's Jayanti today. And in this dream
it may perhaps make for an interesting read for another ‘body’ out there …
 |
| My dad Shri Narendra Mohan Lal 14.12.1927 - 23.10.2021 |
