We know who and how this world was created but do not know why? If I know the objective then I can align my doing accordingly. If God wants all of us to be like him and merge into him, why create Maya for distraction from merging to God?
—Abhishek, USA
Dear Abhishek,
This is a deep question which is asked by sincere seekers everywhere. There are some excellent answers to this question on our ananda.org website. Here are two answers, of many:
https://www.ananda.org/ask/why-did-god-create-us/
https://www.ananda.org/ask/why-did-god-create-suffering/
I would like to pick this up from the perspective of one who asks the question. Whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, our ego (that part of our consciousness that is identified with the body) thinks it will find comfort in knowing ‘why’ and ‘how’ we got there. In this way the ego hopes to control future events so it will or will not happen again. The ego also has opinions about the circumstances such as: ‘what happened is so unfair’ or ‘look how great this is and I made it happen’.
We are placed on this earth so we may learn lessons that advance us on the path to merging back into God, our Soul’s true home. Understanding God is completely beyond our human level of comprehension. To understand why God created us and created maya (delusion) would require that we unite our consciousness with the mind of God. God’s plan for us and every atom of His creation is that we advance step-by-step to return to His home. As we walk this path a central attitude we develop is trust in God. This trust develops from experience as we observe that even the greatest challenges in our lives, when seen after some time and perspective, yield great spiritual benefit and growth for us.
Realization of our oneness with God is known as samadhi. Swami Kriyananda writes “To attain this state, one must eliminate all desires and expectations. One must have no wishes regarding how he is treated. Should he be condemned to die burning at the stake, he should be indifferent to this fate, which is to say, he should accept it with equanimity… When one ceases to be pulled by life in either direction; when he is affected by neither emotional joy nor sorrow; pleasure nor pain; gleeful acceptance nor grim rejection; smiling happiness nor tearful suffering — when none of these states affect one in the slightest, one’s mind becomes a flawless mirror to everything as it is.” (from Demystifying Patanjali). How would we achieve this state of consciousness without experiencing challenges to test and refine us? It is one thing to say ‘yes, I want this attitude’ and quite another to attain it. But indeed it is our destiny to do so.
God bless you on your journey,
Nayaswami Mukti
