Why did God create the world?

Dear Friend,

You are asking a question every thoughtful person must ask: “Why was the creation made?”

We cannot help but ask this. But as a child who asks his mother such questions, we may have to be content with a response tailored for the understanding of a child.

To claim to know the Mind of God, the intention of Infinity is one of those “big” questions the answer to which comes when we enter fully into the Mind of God! (That is, when we achieve moksha, or liberation!)

Paramhansa Yogananda adds his assurance to that of rishis in all times and places: that God loves us, has created the worlds as an act of love, that His creation is good, and, importantly, when we are once again re-united with God, our Father-Mother, Beloved Friend, we, too, will rejoice at the glory of the creation.

Think of a great playright, say, William Shakespeare. Of what value would be a one-dimensional play-story where only good things happen? You’d be bored by page 2 and put it down. When you leave the movie theatre after watching some great story that contains laughter, evil, conflict, tragedy and finally resolution and hope, don’t you say, “Ah, that was a GOOD show!”?

So it with our souls: when we find God we will look back over many lives, with their comedies and tragedies, and say, “What a GOOD show!” We will rejoice with God for we will see that the light and shadow play of characters and many lives are but projections of the great Light of God.

More than this, however: for God’s love is immanent in His creation. We, especially in our suffering, may regret His decision to create this world, but God wants to share His love with all. We, too, having been created, affirm our separateness, our ego, and desires for material fulfillment. Most people wouldn’t have it any other way (except perhaps when we suffer, but this too, will pass).

It is also true that, as children of God, we participate in the divine impulse to create, to give life, to share life, to love, and to seek joy. It is one thing to turn our back on the delusions of maya, but God is not pleased when we condemn His creation, whether bored, disgusted, or displeased with it. His lila, His play, is invite us to find Him behind the light and the shadows and to be conscious, willing, and wise instruments for expressing His divine presence that all might awaken from His dream and into His love.

There are two ways to look at impermanence: one is as you have stated above: all is perishable. The other is that all is endless flux. But either way the key is see through the veil of delusion to the beam of Light which animates all flux. This is the secret of life and the secret to achieving transcendence of this dream creation.

The wise can live in this world untouched by its phenomenal flux, untouched (triguna rahitam) by the three gunas (qualities of nature). Such can enjoy the beatitude of God’s joy and love amidst the crash of breaking worlds.

So while we may not have yet reached the level of realization where we can fully share in the God’s eye view of creation, untainted by desires and attachments, we can learn “to be still and know” through the art and science of meditation that “I AM God.”

We can also learn to love the divinity in all people and all life, and to see His love expressed in creation, in the beauty of nature, in the intelligence manifest in all beings, in the tenderness of friendship or compassion, and in the strength of virtue and self-control.

Blessings,

Nayaswami Hriman, in Seattle WA (USA)