On The Meaning of Leela, and the Dance of Creation
"You are the dancer and the dance."
May 2007

By DEEPAK CHOPRA

orms are always the end-product of a process, and over time every form is dissolved into another process. Creation and destruction are two aspects of the same ongoing flow. So far, we aren't in deep water, but the problem is that any duality is untrue to the ultimate Advaita, or non-dual view that lies at the heart of Vedanta. Since the human mind seems constructed along dualistic lines, its struggle to understand non-duality runs against the grain. Therefore, it is much simpler and feels more natural to seize one side of a dualistic argument and defend it even though every culture has the concept of Oneness, Allah, Brahman, Yahwah, the Absolute--an all-encompassing divine force.

Living your own life depends on duality. It's hard not to think in terms of opposites when everything is a choice, when the brain is constantly accepting and rejecting, when judging between right and wrong is so prevalent. India is extremely fortunate to have a non-dual legacy, because for all intents and purposes every other world religion has abandoned it.

As Divya points out, our heritage isn't moral, in the sense that God dictates a strict line between the holy and the unholy. There is no purpose in the universe the way Judgment Day implies a purpose to Christians. Nor is there even a spiritual purpose in a person's life, in the sense that obeying God's commands and hoping to win heaven instead of hell brings purpose to Christians, Muslims, and other faiths.

What we have instead is Leela, the play of creation. Which on the surface seems like an empty, aimless concept. After all, every society vastly prefers work to play. Yet in what way is dancing without purpose? To exhibit grace and beauty is a purpose. So is holding your balance while moving. So is organizing your limbs with control and skill. So is keeping centered and focused on what you are doing.

If you can accept that a dance has purpose, then Leela turns out to be the connection between the Absolute (Shiva) and manifestation (Shakti), between eternal, silent, unmoving, unqualified Being and the universe of becoming, with its infinite diversity. Leela isn't doing a brainless seductive dance. There is balance, organization, centeredness, etc. Which is what the word "design" implies once we take it beyond the simplistic notion of a tinkering God who sits in a workshop making the universe the way a cobbler makes shoes.

Indians love the concept of seeing creation as a dance between Shiva and Shakti.

It appeals to our sensuous side, and there is a certain maturity to accepting that the cosmos may not be linear or mechanical after all. But beyond the pretty imagery, I don't think many people apply the Leela to their own lives. In what way is the dance of gods and goddesses relevant to you and me?

The practical side of Leela is that besides being a pretty image, it tells us that design is imbedded in chaos. When you are centered in your own dance, this becomes self-evident, because there is no such thing as living randomly. From our center radiates desire, action, process--patterns are formed from the cellular level of the body and the subtle mental levels.

Leela tells us that the basic pattern of life is desire. Knowing that, we can accept our desire nature and not try to repress or judge against it. Leela is also about the qualities inherent in dance: grace, balance, control. This tells us that life itself has those qualities; therefore, we can aspire to them as individuals.

Leela is centered, because it takes focus to dance. From the intent "I want to dance," the whole body must be organized and set in motion. This tells us that intent and centeredness are linked.

So far, we haven't touched on morality. Leela transcends moral codes, and for many people that's a big problem. They cling to the dualistic world because it rigidly dictates right and wrong (this clinging continues despite the many complaints people utter about being straitjacketed in codes of right and wrong).

But the most basic thing about Leela, as about dance itself, is that play is about delight and freedom. Leela is about the delight and freedom of creation, which somehow we have turned into moral strictures, boundaries, and every kind of restriction. When spirituality really clicks in, the first feeling one gets is of immense relief. It's such a burden to approach life as a huge responsibility, to constantly worry about moral codes and social judgments.

Once this initial relief wears off, however, a perplexing phase follows in which play seems impossible to achieve. We are so full of conditioned responses that our days are pulled back into work, family, money, status, possessions, etc.--the whole machinery of duality rolls forward unstoppably. You can't throw all of this away and simply start to dance. Not entirely. But you can give over a bit of your life every day to what you know to be the true foundation of life:

• Ease, lack of struggle
• Appreciation
• Grace
• Freedom, particularly the free flow of desire
• Joyousness, innate bliss
• Trust in Nature's organizing power
• Knowledge that you are the dancer and the dance
• Understanding that your life has a purpose (Dharma) that fits into the overall movement of the cosmos.