All the World is a Stage - Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture

ALL THE WORLD IS A STAGE
All the World is a Stage
SWAMI TYAGANANDA
One of the important things for serious
spiritual seekers before figuring out
the nature of God is to understand the
nature of the world in which they live. How
we look upon ourselves and how we look at
the world around us is crucially important.
This influences our understanding of life and
understanding of God as well.
Our scriptures suggest different ways of
looking at the world. One of the ways is to
consider the world as one big theatre, one big
play, one big cosmic stage. Nevertheless, the
moment we are born we see the world as real.
Vedanta therefore puts the question: What is
the nature of the world in which we live? The
world that Vedanta presents us is not real.
Vedanta says, it is only a play—a cosmic one.
The whole story of creation is after all a
story. We know that in different religious
traditions there are different stories. In
Christianity you have the story of Adam and
Eve. In the Puranas there are many stories
about how the creation began.
Philosophically speaking, we have the màyà
and the panchamahàbhutas (five elements
such as space, air, fire, water and earth) and
so on. Science speaks of the big bang. No
matter how many versions are there, Vedanta
points out that it is only a play.
We can put the question: If the world is
only a play, how it has become so real to us?
In answer to that question we may say, that is
not really difficult to understand, for we
know that fiction, at times, also becomes real.
Why? Because once you are inside the story,
it looks very different from what it would
look like when you are outside. Once inside,
you begin to notice the difference between a
good actor and a bad actor. A good actor is
one who identifies himself completely with
the character he portrays. In the 1930s or 40s,
the actor, Vishnu Phadnis, who played the
title role in the hit Maharashtrian movie ‘Sant
Tukàràm’, so deeply identified himself with
the character of the saint that after the story
was filmed he gave up his career as an actor
and took to the life of a recluse!
Who would be a bad actor then? One,
who is unable to forget his identity. As the
actor is not able to forget his identity, the
audience too is not able to forget the identity
of the actor. Whether a person is a good or a
bad actor at the end of the day, he has to
abandon the role.
The question is: Every movie or play
comes to an end. When would this cosmic
drama comes to an end? The answer is—
never. This play is cyclic. A circle has no
beginning or end. It goes round and round.
So this cosmic cycle goes on. That is why it
is called samsàra-chakra, which is
constantly changing.
Sometimes people say—this world is a
dream. The dream begins when we are in
sleep and the dream ends when we wake up.
So, you see, the dream has a beginning as
well as an end. If you ask the dreamer while
he is dreaming how old is his dream world,
he would reply that the dream world is
always there—because the end of the dream
world would mean end of the world. This is
the standpoint of the dreamer while he is
dreaming.
We do not, however, see the world as a
dream. We see it as real. Since we visualize it
to be real we all become actors and not
spectators. So the only way to stop the play is
to get out of the play. But if you are a good
actor why would anybody let you go? So to
get out of this cosmic drama we need to be
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SWAMI TYAGANANDA
bad actors. Once you are out of the play you
become the audience.
How to be a bad actor?
Vedanta teaches us how to be a bad actor
in this cosmic play. The characteristic of a
bad actor is not to forget one’s true identity.
And Vedanta points out that my true identity
is that I am âtman and nothing else. Swami
Vivekananda asks, if we close our eyes and
repeat a few times ‘I’, ‘I’, ‘I’, what flashes
before our mind’s eye? First, it is the
physical appearance—the body-mind
complex. Vedanta says that it is only a role
that you are playing. That is not what you
actually are! In reality you are the Spirit or
âtman. Theistically, you may say that you
are a child of God.
Sri Ramakrishna uses the analogy of
‘pàkà àmi’ and ‘kànchà àmi’—the ripe ‘I’
and the unripe ‘I’—to explain this point. The
more we develop our affinity with God in
some ways, the closer we go towards
manifesting our true identity.
The role model of a bad actor is Sri
Ramakrishna himself. He had to play the role
of a priest of the Kali Temple at
Dakshineswar. For a time he played the role
nicely. But very soon it was discovered that
he could not play his role properly. Once,
instead of making food offerings to
Bhavatàrini, he made the offering to a cat!
And on another occasion he placed on his
own head flowers which were meant for the
Divine Mother!
When we continue to remind ourselves
who we really are—philosophically either as
Spirit or âtman which is beyond the bodymind-ego,
or look upon ourselves as children
of God—this identity becomes so strong we
find that for a while we are not able to play
our roles perfectly. Gradually, we would
become bad actors. When we change thus,
the world also changes for us. That is the
most important thing to remember. What the
world appears to us is directly related to how
we look at ourselves. When we visit the
temple of Dakshineswar we see the image of
the Divine Mother. But that very image was
viewed differently by Sri Ramakrishna. He
saw everything pervaded by divine
Consciousness. When Sri Ramakrishna went
to Benaras, he saw it as a city of gold,
svarnamayee Kàshi, ie a city effulgent with
Consciousness, whereas we do not get such a
vision when we visit the place.
The question arises: Why our visions are
so different? The answer is, what we see
externally is a very dim reflection of what we
see within. Sri Ramakrishna saw within
nothing but the Mother. And hence what he
saw outside was nothing but the Mother. Our
propensity is to see things composed of gross
matter. So what we see outside is the material
world. It appears real to us only because the
limited identity that we cling on to is real to us.
Vedantic message
Now, Vedanta has a simple message for
us all. If we are asked who we really are, we
would answer that we are human beings. But
if you look deeper you might ask yourself the
same question with the word real in it—Am I
really a human being? Vedanta says, no, you
are not. You are only playing the role of a
human being. You are in fact a divine being.
Spiritual life demands that we remind
ourselves often about who we really are. If
we consider ourselves to be real human
beings, that would be a very advanced state in
spiritual life. When we do japa or meditation,
that is the time when we let go our roleplaying
identities for the time being and try to
connect ourselves with our true identity . We
then let go our identity with all other human
relations—children, husband, wife, et al.
We usually identify ourselves with so
many things and interests in life that our true
identity gets buried beneath them. Vedanta
asks us to disown all such identities when we
meditate and remind ourselves that we are
the children of God. ‘I am the àtman’. ‘I am
the spirit.’ If we are able to do that
successfully even twice a day, there is hope.
If we practise this we may make progress
gradually. First we may remind ourselves at
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ALL THE WORLD IS A STAGE
least twice a day. Then, after a practice of a
few weeks, we may remind ourselves of our
true identity say, five or six times a day.
Then after six months, maybe every hour.
Find moments in life to remind yourself that
you are a child of God. There lies in that
relationship a deeper identity.
The roles that we are all playing now are
momentary and all of us are suffering from
great agony, all feeling somewhat weighed
down by the memories of the past and worries
about the future. If you walk down the road
you will find faces full of stress and strain and
bogged down by its effect. It is very difficult
to come across faces with innocent carefree
laughter, and to find a truly happy person!
Such has become the state of our lives today.
Everybody is worried about something or the
other. If we can stave off these worries even
for a few minutes each day and stop playing
our roles for a while, we begin to remove the
baggage we are carrying. The moment this
baggage is unburdened you will find that it is
easy to smile. If we ponder these issues a little
we will find that all our identities are very
fragile and short-lived. Everything is
momentary. If only we would know how to
let go, the world would change for us that
very moment. But curiously we feel safe
when we cling on to the fleeting identities.
We cannot get rid of this clinging. However,
giving up clinging does not mean giving up
everything; it means just changing our
standpoint. Instead of being a player in this
world, be a witness, become an observer.
Sri Ramakrishna once said that if a fried
seed of rice is sown in the soil it would not
germinate. Just so, if a man is fried in the fire
of knowledge he cannot take part in the play
of creation anymore. He is then a jivanmukta
(liberated while living in the body). Such
persons view the world as a shadow, while it
appears to us to be very much real. Since
they see the world as shadow they are not
affected by it. We see it as real and are
affected by its changing face.
According to Vedantic thinking, the
world itself is not much of a problem. The
jivanmuktas saw the world. Sri Ramakrishna
at Dakshineswar saw the world. He laughed,
joked, talked and preached to people who
visited him. Then, what is the difference?
This difference is significant. We see the
world as real, but they see it as a shadow.
That is why they are not affected by it. We
too are not affected by a horror movie
because we are in the audience. All the
horrific things happen on the screen.
Similarly, we have a choice. We may see the
good or bad happenings of the world as real,
or we may see them as parts of the play. If we
can see the world as a play we have the
freedom to continue enjoying the movie
(cosmic play) no matter how terrible it might
seem at times.
You may now ask the question: How
long we are to sit and watch the play? You
do not have to watch at all if you are
unwilling. At any moment you may leave the
theatre hall.
We may look at the world as màyà, as a
cosmic sacrifice, as a yajna, or as a divine
yoga. In the Gità (11.8) Sri Krishna tells
Arjuna, ‘pashya me yogam aishvaram’. So,
there are many different ways of looking at
the world. Viewing it as a stage is one such
idea. There is a saying in one of our
scriptures that if something is not going to
happen, is not going to happen. If something
is going to happen, nobody can stop it from
happening. This awareness destroys the
poison of anxiety and removes all delusion.
So play your role well without forgetting
your real identity. But remember, what is
going to happen shall happen; and what is not
to happen will not happen. If we remember
this, we will be able to let go our false,
ephemeral identities and become truly free. •
* Swami Tyagananda is Minister-in-Charge, Ramakrishna Vedanta Society, Boston, U.S.A. This
article is based on the transcript of his lecture delivered at the Institute on 20 August 2011.
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