Lila

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

Recently I have been giving more and more awareness to the subject of Lila and hoping that I myself can see this creation more and more in this perspective. The challenges and the let downs of life can be very disappointing unless we have a broader view of this phenomena of creation that God has set us in: A view that the Masters also have. That is that the world is only a play. A cosmic dream that God has created for our entertainment and not for us to get so much involved in that we find it overwhelming. I remember a friend that was the head monk at a Ramakrishna/Vivekananda Monastery. He use to ask me if I was chasing after dreams. This statement has had more and more meaning to me over the years and since I have a little more experience with the ups and downs of life that we are subject to in the Maya of God's Lila.

Steve Hydonus

While searching on the internet I found these definitions and explanations of Lila:



We humans seem hard-wired to wonder about the really big questions, such as who we are, and what--if anything--God is. C. G. Jung once said that although he could not prove the existence of God, as a psychiatrist he knew that the human mind was built to have an experience of God. In other words, just as our minds have “programs” that enable us to feel sadness, anger, and ecstasy, and to think creatively and learn a language, so too have we a program that can help us “read” life in a spiritual way. Even if we have not experienced this program personally, it is reasonable to assume that it exists, simply because so many sane and wise people, throughout time, have reported its benefits. Providing that we can locate, download, and learn how to operate this program, it can give us a pretty amazing experience, an experience that many people call, among other names, God. 

'The greatest spiritual masters are those people who have accessed and mastered the most powerful applications of this program. When asked about the really big questions of life and death, creation and evolution, they give us a remarkably consistent set of answers, sometimes called the “cosmic game” or the “divine play”.

by Martin Boroson ©2000

I also found this:

Written by The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica

lila, ( Sanskrit: “play,” “sport,” “spontaneity,” or “drama”) in Hinduism, a term that has several different meanings, most focusing in one way or another on the effortless or playful relation between the Absolutebrahman, and the contingent world. For the monistic philosophical tradition of Vedanta refers to the way that brahman is expressed in every aspect of the empirical world. Some philosophers argue that lila springs from the abundance of divine bliss, which provides a motive for creation.

In the devotional sects, lila has other and more particular meanings. In the Shaktatraditions, lila is generally understood as a certain sweet and playful goodness that characterizes a universe whose essential nature is Shakti (the powerful, energetic principle). It is associated with the goddesses Lakshmi and Lalita. The concept takes on other shadings and plays a central role in Vaishnavism. In North India, the adventures of the god Rama, depicted in the epic Ramayana, are regarded as his “play,” implying he entered the action as an actor might engage a drama—deeply involved, but with an element of freedom that prevents his being constrained by the “play” of life as lesser beings must be.

Among the worshipers of the god Krishna refers to the playful and erotic activities in which he sports with the gopis, or young milkmaids, of Braj—especially his favourite,Radha. His interactions with others who surround him in this pastoral setting—whether heroic, playful, or deeply sad—also qualify as lila. One of the most powerful images associated with this tradition is that of the circle (ras) dance, in which Krishna multiplies his form so that each gopi thinks that she is his partner. It provides the touchstone for a series of staged dramas called ras lilas that replicate Krishna’s paradigmatic “sports” so as to draw the devotees into an appropriate “mood” or emotion of love and lila so that they experience the world itself in its true form as divine play. Similarly, the dramatic reenactment of the events of the Ramayana are known as Ram Lila, celebrating the deeds of the god Rama in such a way as to draw his devotees into his cosmic play.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

Below I quote Mahavir from another site. This quote points directly to the experience of Lila. An experience of this creation that many of us are opening up to.


Mahavir_, on 02 May 2014 - 10:06 AM, said:



True Jitendra, it shows God's own feeling toward mankind. But I dont think we can appreciate the subtle inner play from a purely human perspective. The anger of the avatars is a show of anger. Like Sri Ramakrishna said, it falls to ashes like a burnt rope. So I dont think they have much trouble nipping it in the bud at that stage. In Christ's case, He knew it was the will of God that he be made to pay for the karma of others, so His emotion would have been toward God rather than the actors unconsciously playing their parts. That is why He cried out to God, why He had forsaken Him, rather than level anger at the persecutors. In His state of consciousness He wouldve seen others were just like puppets dancing on the strings of His Father's will. In truth it was all between Him and His own Absolute Being.

 

Sometimes what we think we see on the outside is happening for deeper internal reasons.


Sometimes the internal reasons of which he speaks are quite different then what we would have thought about a situation.
External events and karma are triggered to open us to all kinds of inner understanding. If we could just have an even mind and be open to what life is offering us.

Jitendra