Lila - the Divine Play

Once a group of actors came to Mahaprabhuji from Vrindavan, the birthplace of Lord Krishna, to perform a play. When they appeared before him he declined their offer.

"Yogis and swamis do not need this kind of theatre, for in meditation their concentration is always on the Divine Play."

To make clear what he meant, Mahaprabhuji sang a bhajan for them which contains the essence of yoga.

GAGANA MANDAL ME RASA RACHAYA

Enter your inner space for the play there,
Concentrate your consciousness on your lover, on God.

The petals of the lotus are opened and in full bloom,
In it is the Divine Play.

Here is the sound of the white bee,
Here the dance of the black swan takes place,
Where water is thirsty and air desires to sit down by fire,
Where the fire is cool and water burns.

Only a few Realized ones know this play,
Pure consciousness, innocent like the child,
provides the spark,
The Yogi kindles the fire but the fire makes the Yogi,
There, where stone is salty and salt has no flavour.

The ruler of this play is Shiva's Divine Consciousness,
Who meditates on him can see this Divine Play
And reach the inaccessible, which is beyond all knowledge.

Liberation hangs by a single thread,
Sri Alakh Puriji gave the key
And Paramyogeshwar, Sri Devpuriji, my Divine Master
Holds it in his hands. 

Mahaprabhuji continued:
 

ULTINAL LAGHI TRIVENI

The three rising streams are united in Triveni[1] full of nectar,
The Yogis who unite with God enjoy it.
One blossom opens downward, then all blossoms above awaken[2],
If the blossoms unite with each other you will see the Formless.
Between the blossoms, flows the play of your destiny,
There flickers the flame of your life,
Beyond this flame you discover the eternal shrine of Divine Light,
Your Self is united with it.
This is the Divine Play, only a few succeed to share in it,
Swami Deep saw it and Realized, the world is only a shadow.

I am happy to tell you the result of this meeting was that those actors, who had until then made a living by playing the role of Divine personalities, began to meditate to seek the Divine Play within.

[1]triveni = "three banks", it is the three nadis of ida, pingala and sushumna that unite in triveni. The nectar is the flow of prana, which is the result of the merging of these streams.

[2]blossom here means "lotus" or chakra. The bloom which opens downward symbolises the muladhar chakra. If this energy rises and unites with the other chakras, then the arousal of the kundalini occurs, which leads one's consciousness to samadhi.

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