"The World is Perfect"

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.

 

 

 

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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 …

 

Epilogue II [23.11.2021]

My dad Shri Narendra Mohan Lal
14.12.1927 - 23.10.2021

Love you Pa, miss you ...