The Divine Connection

The performance of an accomplished actor on the stage is independent of the role he is playing on the stage, the performance of the other actors, and the setting of the stage. However, the quality of the play will definitely depend upon all these factors. Still, the best quality of the plays may not be appreciated by the spectators because of the inability of the spectators to relate to the play. On the other hand, the worst quality of the play may be well appreciated by the spectators because they relate to that play. An actor who plays in the gallery may be a popular actor but may not be the most accomplished actor.

As a person moves along the path of the spirit, the goalpost starts shifting from appreciation by the spectators to the best quality of the play and finally to the best of the performance in any play. Such a person realizes that the appreciation of the society will always depend upon their level of consciousness and therefore social appreciation or validation can not be an intended outcome on the spiritual path. The quality of the play will also depend upon the co-performers, the stage setting, and the script. A person moving along the spiritual path will therefore have to get over the fixation with the appreciation of the spectators and the quality of the play. He will have to focus on the quality of his performance. This requires continuous awareness of "being an actor" and "not being the role".

Most of the actors on the stage are so obsessed with their roles that they just want to be there on the stage as long as possible. Their mind has somehow categorized certain experiences on the stage as pleasant and certain others as unpleasant. They want the pleasant ones to get repeated and to avoid the unpleasant ones. Entire lives are busy with this repetition. This is the manifestation of the “Tamasik” element in human beings.

Somehow collective ignorance also plays heavily with our brains. The same mirror neurons, which help us learn to walk and to talk by mirroring others, force us to seek social validation, and therefore often social criticism makes us quite uncomfortable. That is the reason why so many of us play to the gallery and make social validation or appreciation the goal of our life. That is how we set high ambitions in terms of wealth, power, and fame since these are the most appreciated desirables in this society. This is the manifestation of the “Rajasik” element in our life.

The desire for "harmony at the stage" is the desire of the intellect. Intellect has a basic instinct to arrange and organize. It always wants to set up systems and harmony so that we can achieve maximum outcomes with the least effort. That has helped humanity evolve from being small communities to big communities like nations. It has helped us set up massive systems like currency, stock exchanges, public transport systems, chain of hotels, internet, and e-commerce. This is the manifestation of “Saatvik” element in human beings.

However, most of the time, such  “desire for harmony” is also founded on the “Tamasik” desire to gather money, power, or fame. Behind most of these systems lies a hidden desire of the capitalist to earn more and more profit. He develops products that fulfill the desire of the masses to get repetitive pleasant sensations. Sometimes this “desire for harmony” may just be a facade behind which exists the entire superstructure of social validation. At times, this “desire for harmony” may be a creation of the “obsession with the role” and a desire to make the play better.

A person moving along the spiritual path has a realization, may be faint or clear, that this is one of the stages on which he is to perform. He is not much attached to the stage of the co-performers. He enjoys performance and gives his best in all the roles. He knows that at the end of the play what matters is whether he gave his best or not. In that state of awareness, the natural inclination of such a person would be “Saatvik” however such “efforts for harmony” would have altogether a different core. At the core would be an effort to help all the actors gain awareness of “being an actor” and make them realize their potential so that they can give their best. The center of life will be “consciousness” rather than any of the "form" that consciousness has taken. Efforts would be focussed on creating an ecosystem wherein each of the "an actor" on the stage" can give his best performance.

That's the reason why the realization of "being an actor" and the remembrance of the "divine connection" is the first step in the spiritual process. Till one realizes that all the efforts are driven by different desires centered around the obsession with the "role in the play". Even the most "Saatvik" actions without this realization would be the most narrow and self-centered activities. That's why we have to practice mindfulness to be aware of our true nature every moment so that we do not fall into the trap of Maya and that's far easier said than done.