Sri Aurobindo has written-“…Whenever he chooses to take the full pleasure of ignorance, of the dualities, of strife and wrath and tears and weakness and selfishness, the tamasic and rajasic pleasures, of the play of the Kali in short, he dims the knowledge in India and puts her down into weakness and degradation so that she may retire into herself and not interfere with this movement of his Lila…”I am not able to understand these lines. How can Divine do this only for his Lila🤔? Please elaborate.

Lila means the Divine unfolding in creation.  This unfolding sometimes requires the veiling of the Light just as some plants need shade and others brightness to grow. So too there are many parts of humanity closer to the animal and cannot suddenly leap towards a divine superhumanity. They cannot come near the Light that India carries until it is somewhat dimmed as happened during the Middle Ages. The light and power of India was dimmed so hordes of mlecchas poured in as locusts. They looted, plundered, converted according to their animal and rakshasic nature. But in the bargain carried away the Gita and the Vedanta. Now slowly they too are growing somewhat in the light. As they rise, right now mainly individuals, they begin to appreciate India better and come now not to loot money but as a beggar seeking for wisdom. They return back converting few others to the high ideals of Sanatana Dharma. It is a slow and long process by human time standards but if you see closely not really so long given the eclipsing of India for several several centuries but in the end the world looking up towards India in less than a century. These cosmic events take place over centuries and hence cannot be understood by individuals who are preoccupied with one brief life. It is only as we grow vast that we begin to understand it better and can see the trajectory clearly. 

Besides one has to thoroughly get rid of the Islamic and Christian conception of God who is seated elsewhere and doing it to others. It is a pity that Indians do not know the conception of God in Sanatana Dharma which is one cause of so much misunderstanding of God’s ways. It is He who has become all this. He is not like someone sitting out there and doing it to us for pleasure. He is above, within, everywhere and in everything and playing with Himself, doing this to Himself. We do not understand it because we are so much identified with the role we are playing as hero, villian etc that we forget that we ourselves are Divine playing out the role of dying, of pleasure and pain but truly in our depths unaffected, stainless, smiling. 

Affectionately,

Alok Da