A PERPLEXING PROBLEM

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" A PERPLEXING PROBLEM "

The article " A Perplexing Problem " by " A Thinking Soul " published in

Sept. 73 issue of Sri Sai Leela (English) is interesting.

The answer to this quiz lies in the question itself. The questioner plainly

accepts the basic Vedantic truth that the Parabrah-man came down to the

level of limited Jiva forgetting its true nature of bliss. The Parabrahman

created the world, the various attractions therein and the Jiva naturally

gets deluded by it and hence the series of sins. The blame therefore lies

with Parabrahman only for having created all this and then tempting us in

indulging in sins. This is the burden of his logic. The logic is perfectly

alright. It is true that the series of sins occurred due to the temptations

caused by the world created by the God. But why get tempted at all ?

Temptations arise out of ignorance that the body is the Self, the outside

world is real and that the real pleasure is derived through the body from

the outside objects of the world, when in fact our seers are proclaiming at

the top of their voice, that the world and the outside objects are all

illusory and the pleasure derived from these objects is also of illusory

nature and that the Self itself is an ocean of bliss independent of the

objects. The root cause of all the sins therefore is the basic ignorance

which makes us to feel the body as the Self and make us run after this

bodily pleasure. When once this is clearly known, whither the sins,, how and

when this false identification of body as the Self began-Vedanta has no fear

to accept-has no answer. It describes this as ' beginningless - meaning the

beginning fo which is not known. But all great seers are unanimous in their

opinion that this ignorance can be brought to an end by detaching oneself

from the body and remaining as the Self all the while simply remaining as

the Witness of the bodily events also remembering all the while that the

scenery is illusory as dream and hence the fault lies with the individual

soul - Jiva - in identifying itself with the body, taking this world to be

real and hunting after worldly pleasures and then getting into misery

through this transitory and illusory pleasures - and not with the

Parabrahman as the author claims.

The question arises as to why this world was created at all. The Vedanta

declares that it is the very nature of the Parabrahman to express itself in

the form of various universes and then recede as is the nature of the -ocean

to express itself in the forms of waves and then subside. But the Jiva is at

liberty whether to attach itself to this world or to simply remain as

Witness as the Almighty himself is, without getting deluded. Simultaneously

with the expression of this illusion, the All Merciful Almighty also made a

provision through the divine scriptures to know this Truth and join in his

sporting.

Let us therefore not bother about how and why this world was created and why

it is giving us all misery and compose ourselves to get rid of this

beginningless ignorance and be one with him and join him in his sporting.

—By : Shri. P. V. Bhasekar

Kurla (East) Bombay-24 (AS)

 

 

 

(Adopted from Shri Sai Leela January 1974. This can be read from

www.saileelas.org)