Lila (Sanskrit:लीलाlīlā) orleela (/ˈliːlə/) can be loosely translated as "divine play". The concept of lila asserts that creation, instead of being an objective for achieving any purpose, is rather an outcome of the playful nature of the divine. As the divine is perfect, it could have no want fulfilled, thereby signifyingfreedom, instead of necessity, behind the creation.[1]
The concept of lila is common to bothnon-dualist anddualistphilosophical schools ofIndian philosophy, but has a markedly different significance in each. Within non-dualism, lila is a way of describing allreality, including thecosmos, as the outcome of creativeplay by the divine absolute (Brahman). InVaishnavism, lila refers to the activities ofGod anddevotee, as well as the macrocosmic actions of the manifest universe.
There are multiple theories about the derivation oflila. It may be derived from the Sanskrit rootlal, which suggests playfulness of children or someone delicate.[2]
According to Edwin Bryant,lila cannot be translated as "sport" or "game," since those words suggest a motivation of competition. In contrast,lila is "pure play, or spontaneous pastime,” which has no purpose other than experiencing joy.[3]
Lila first appears in theBrahmasūtra 2.1.33 as "lokavat tu līlākaivalyam" "लोकवत्तु, लीलाकैवल्यम्", (However, [it is] butlīlā, as [occurs] in daily experience.) This sutra responds to the objection that Brahman is not the cause of the world because causation requires motive. The reason given is that Brahman's act of creation islila, in the same waylila takes place in the world.Shankara, in his commentary, likens Brahman to a king whose needs have been fulfilled, but engages in recreational activity. In another comparison, he says that it is Brahman's nature to create freely as it is our nature to inhale and exhale. Further,lila is not a necessary attribute of Brahman i.e. Brahman does not have to engage inlila.[2]
InVaishnavism, lila refers to the activities ofGod and his devotee, as well as the macrocosmic actions of the manifest universe,[4] as seen inSrimad Bhagavatam, verse 3.26.4:[5]
sa eṣa prakṛtiḿ sūkṣmāḿ
daivīḿ guṇamayīḿ vibhuḥ
yadṛcchayaivopagatām
abhyapadyatalīlayā
"As his pastimes, that Supreme Divine Personality, the greatest of the great, accepted the subtle material energy which is invested withthree material modes of nature."
Per the Bhagavata, the highest form of liberation is participation in Krishna's lila.[6]
Samkara argues that Brahman does not create with a self-serving motivation because it islila, like naturally breathing in and out. Samkara uses the analogy of a king engaged in a game. While the act is conscious and premeditated, it does not have an ulterior motive. However, an act that is lila still involves responsibility, for which God implements the principle of karma.[7] Samkara sees Brahman's lila through individual souls as only containing imagined suffering.[8]
Lila indicates a spontaneous sportive activity of Brahman as distinguished from a self-conscious volitional effort. The concept of Lila signifies freedom as distinguished from necessity.
— Ram Shanker Misra,The IntegralAdvaitism ofSri Aurobindo
ForRamanuja, while lila does not entail an ulterior motive, it is not a necessary to Brahman. Lila includes God manifesting as anavatara for the benefit of individuals, and so is premeditated.[2]
The relation ofPurusa toPrakrti—the unfolding force of nature—becomes here a relation of male to female. This is expressed in the Siva temple in the core image of the sivalinga, an expression of male (linga) and female (yoni) union. The basiccosmogonic motif of an unfolding or flowering cosmos is expressed here specifically in the relation of male to female, as well as in terms of consciousness and intentionality (in the concept of lila as the divine play of male and female). As such, the coresaivite image of cosmogony as the flowering of consciousness and sexual union rather than the sacrificial act. This theme resonates with other Hindu doctrines, such asTantra andSakta.
— Heinrich Zimmer andJoseph Campbell,Philosophies of India
The Vedantic yogi never tires of stating thatkaivalya, "isolation-integration", can be attained only by turning away from the distracting allure of the world and worshiping with single-pointed attention the formless Brahman-Atman; to the Tantric, however—as to the normal child of the world—this notion seems pathological, the wrong-headed effect of a certain malady of intellect. (...) "I like eating sugar," asRamprasad said, "but I have no desire to become sugar." Let those who suffer from the toils ofsamsara seek release: the perfect devotee does not suffer; for he can both visualize and experience life and the universe as the revelation of that Supreme Divine Force (shakti) with which he is in love, the all-comprehensive Divine Being in its cosmic aspect of playful, aimless display (lila)—which precipitates pain as well as joy, but in its bliss transcends them both.
— Rohan Bastin,The Domain of Constant Excess: Plural Worship at the Munnesvaram Temples inSri Lanka
The basic recurring theme in Hindu mythology is the creation of the world by the self-sacrifice of God—"sacrifice" in the original sense of "making sacred"—whereby God becomes the world which, in the end, becomes again God. This creative activity of the Divine is called lila, the play of God, and the world is seen as the stage of the divine play. Like most of Hindu mythology, the myth of lila has a strong magical flavour. Brahman is the great magician who transforms himself into the world and then performs this feat with his "magic creative power", which is the original meaning of maya in the Rig Veda. The word maya—one of the most important terms in Indian philosophy—has changed its meaning over the centuries. From the might, or power, of the divine actor and magician, it came to signify the psychological state of anybody under the spell of the magic play. As long as we confuse the myriad forms of the divine lila with reality, without perceiving the unity of Brahman underlying all these forms, we are under the spell of maya. (...) In the Hindu view of nature, then, all forms are relative, fluid and ever-changing maya, conjured up by the great magician of the divine play. The world of maya changes continuously, because the divine lila is a rhythmic, dynamic play. The dynamic force of the play is karma, an important concept of Indian thought. Karma means "action". It is the active principle of the play, the total universe in action, where everything is dynamically connected with everything else. In the words of the Gita Karma is the force of creation, wherefrom all things have their life.
— Fritjof Capra,The Tao of Physics (1975)
Duringraslila plays, human actors re-enact Krishna and Rama's divine play to remember the deities and experience their presence.[4]
InPushtimarga worship, devotees experience the sentiments oflila through practices such as adorning the image of Krishna, singing devotional songs, and offering food.[9]
According to aGaudiya interpretation of the Bhagavat Purana, Krishna'slilas on earth are a manifest counterpart to his unmanifest eternallila in his abode.[10]Gaudiya Vaisnavas practicelilasmarana, or visualization of Krishna's lilas.[11]
Lila is comparable to the Westerntheological position ofPandeism, which describes the Universe as God taking a physical form in order to experience the interplay between the elements of the Universe.[12]
"The Lila Solution" is a proposed answer to theproblem of evil. It suggests that God cannot be blamed for sufferings because God is simply playing without any motivation. Lipner argues that since God is not "playful" by nature, but effortlessly acts as such, God maintains the law of karma and rebirth even while playing.[2]
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