We can look upon this world as a play of the Divine, lila, as it is called. It is a play wherein the human soul and the divine are eternal companions, whereas all other forces in the universe are arranged to assist or hinder the play, much like the game of Snakes and Ladders. Fate is the dice that is thrown on the vast board of Time and Space. The dice is thrown on by the soul whose goal is to arrive first at a state of freedom, – freedom from Ignorance (that binds and conditions and thereby enslaves it to forces of nature), freedom from a state of darkness and unconsciousness (about its own truth), freedom from a state of suffering (due to false attachments), freedom from a state of death (that divides creation into two seemingly unbridgeable halves of material and spiritual life), to a state of Truth and Light and Bliss and Immortality.
There are rules of the game, though. There are subtle laws that operate in creation, cosmic laws which are meant to keep us oriented to the interconnectedness of the cosmos and push us towards the Goal if we begin to stray too far. One such law is the law of sacrifice, Yagya, which means that none of us is an island and all elements of creation are interconnected with each other. There is yet another law that is related to this one and it is known as Rta Chit, or the Law of Right and Truth. It means that everything has its true place and it needs to reach its true place in the universe, much like a Chinese puzzle. Now to make the game bit more interesting or rather challenging, there is a power that constantly opposes the original plan or the law of Truth. It is like a spoilsport whose work is to make the game more and more challenging. It is the shadow of god that imitates everything Divine and hence keeps the soul circling in the circuits of ignorance making us believe that the disturbed arrangement is what is originally meant to be. Its purpose is to confuse the player. Yet it is allowed because even though it makes the game extremely complicated, sometimes taking things to a dead extreme, yet it serves the purpose of bringing out of the human soul the highest and best divine potentials. For ultimately Freedom and Truth and Bliss and Immortality come as the soul aligns itself more and more to the Divine will within it and eventually fulfils itself by growing one with the Divine.
Now, when the human soul becomes conscious of the play, of its subtle laws, above all knows that the Divine, who is its eternal companion, is always with it, then it finds a delight in the play. But when it knows this not and wonders why it is here amidst this appalling vastness where immense forces clasp and clash and wrestle and embrace, it shrinks like Arjuna and wants to flee the horror. It even declares it to be some monstrous game engineered by Chance and Accident. So the way is to very simply align ourselves more and more with the divine Will through a state of Remembrance and Offering (so as to tune oneself more and more to the Divine), doing works no more for the ego-self which is an artificial and temporary construct to latch us to the ignorance but for the greater and truer Self in us, by aspiration and prayer and surrender and seeking for the divine it finds support and help to go through the challenging passages and reach faster and in a smoother way. But this choice too is given to the soul to connect with the Divine, who is always with it or to try everything on its own.
Finally, once it navigates through this game and arrives at its own divine status, then it has the final choice to either quit the play or else to be with its eternal companion and work in the world as a free being, Jivanmukta and help in the divine Work and the grand fulfilment of His Will and Purpose in creation.
These are some of the broad outlines of the Divine Play, or the Lila of God, as it is called.
Affectionately
Alok Da
Source: Youth and the Present Challenge (RH 031)
YT Link: https://youtu.be/4E1STRLyMxU
