The great Hindu
poet Rabindranath Tagore writes of pain caused by evil as follows: -
"She is the vestal virgin consecrated to the service of immortal perfection, and when
she takes her place before the altar of the
infinite, she casts off her dark veil and bares her face to the beholder as a revelation
of supreme joy."
Thus what appears to us as the inseparable dualism of Atman and Anatman or subject and
object in creation is derived from the Absolute. It seems to be the nature or the pleasure
(Lila) of the Absolute to manifest itself in the world as the inseparable two, just as it
is an artist's nature or pleasure to manifest himself in a work of art. For no other
motive can be ascribed to God without impairing His perfection. In other words, He has
nothing to attain, which He has not already attained. He has nothing to desire, which He
does not already possess. But at the same time we
cannot identify Him with the universe in which He manifests Himself any more than we can
identify a work of art with an artist. God is, no doubt, immanent in the world, but He is
also transcendent. His immanence does not mean that He is to be totally identified with
the world any more than His transcendence means that He is to be totally separated from
the world.
|
