Equal Enjoyment Only Through God’s Grace

[dattaswami]

Equal Enjoyment Only Through God’s Grace

 

Shankara thus proved that God and the soul can equally derive entertainment or enjoyment from watching the creation-cinema consisting of tragedies, comedies and a variety of other scenes and situations. However, there is an important practical difficulty in this. The essential secret of being constantly entertained by both the tragedies and comedies is in remaining unattached or uninvolved with the creation. This is the biggest challenge for the soul. In theory, the soul can have the God-like state of constant entertainment as long as it considers itself to be Brahman (awareness) alone. But, the question is, how long can the soul remain in that state without getting involved in the world?

 

For God, who has produced the creation-cinema, it is natural and automatic to realize the unreality of creation and remain unattached to it. He has created every scene and situation in the creation-cinema. Every moment, it is crystal clear to Him that this world is His own creation that is meant for His own entertainment. Creation is very obviously unreal with respect to Him. So, He can effortlessly remain in the state of an unattached spectator and continue to enjoy creation. Even when God enters creation as a human incarnation and is an active participant in the creation-cinema, He can internally remain the same unattached spectator. This is seen from the life of Lord Krishna, who enjoyed even the tragedy at Prabhasa that caused the end of His entire family.

 

Moreover, He also witnessed and enjoyed the death of His own body when He was shot in the foot by a hunter. However, the soul is made of the same fundamental elements and qualities that constitute creation. It is a part and parcel of creation. The soul was not involved in the process of producing this creation. Unlike God, the soul does not have the experience of creating this world. So, the soul cannot realize the creation to be unreal. Whenever a soul watches creation, it gets attached to it. Additionally, the soul is also a participant in the creation-cinema. This makes the soul even more susceptible to getting attached to the creation-cinema. Once attached to the creation-cinema, the soul loses its constant entertainment through the tragedies and comedies of creation. It becomes the ‘doer’ and the ‘enjoyer’. It suffers and enjoys alternately. Thus, the constancy of the soul’s entertainment is interrupted. In fact, the soul, right from its birth has always been in the attached state. It is the soul’s very nature to get attached to creation and the soul is totally helpless in this matter. It has never experienced the God-like state (Advaita) of being an unattached spectator of the world. Hence, the soul has only enjoyed the world intermittently. It has never achieved the ideal God-like constant entertainment throughout all the happy and miserable moments in life.

 

Thus, Shankara’s reduction of the difference between God and the soul to zero (Mithya) is merely a theoretical assumption. Practically, there is a huge difference in the status of God as the Creator of the world and that of the soul as a created item. This difference cannot be neglected. Then, how can the soul ever attain the God-like unattached spectatorship or Advaita? Shankara said that the soul can achieve that state only with the grace of God (Ishwaraanugrahat eva… Shankara). This is the most profound and critical statement. It clearly marks the main obstacle in the attainment of that state and it also indicates the direction that one must take to attain it. Without His grace, it is impossible to remain as an unattached spectator of creation. Yet by reminding oneself repeatedly that one is awareness (Brahman) alone, the soul can experience that state of unattached spectatorship for short periods. This is helpful in removing the stress developed from the miseries and problems that one faces in the world. But, alas, it is only temporary.