It is good to be a Bad Actor

Girish Chandra Ghosh was the disciple of Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa Ji. He was a grave tippler, as well as the producer, director and an actor in his theatre company. Thakur Ji had equal love for His disciples, despite their grave habits.

One day, Girish Ghosh was playing the role of Ravana (demonic king of Lanka, who had abducted Mother Sita). In a particular act, the spectators were watching and listening to the conversation between Ravana and Mother, sitting in Ashok Vatika in Lanka. The enactment as a demon was marvelous. The audience was spellbound to the stage, avoided to even blink the eye, missing a gesture. Few patrons could not stop themselves, and gathered their shoes and flung them at Ravana (Girish Chandra on stage).
Girish Ji tilted his head towards the audience, and thanked them. He collected the shoes shot at him, and placed them over his head. He was pleased by the response, as the expression of the demonic depiction was so lively, people wished to abolish him on their own, considering him to be real.

To understand the deeper aspects of this simple incident, we should go back and revise our school curriculum. We have read about Shakespeare in our school days. His works have some enlightening plays and poems. One of them is “All the World’s a Stage”.

Let us live this poetry, while reading this blog, know and understand about the real director and producer of the show.
We all are actors, sent to this gross world. The world is the stage. The script has its own sequence. We have been assigned some roles to perform, for a particular time span, or some times in a fluctuating manner.
We saw that Girish Chandra Ghosh was playing like Ravana on the stage, but, once his role was completed, he was the same Girish, in the green room. His demonic actions were not prevalent, after the show. He removed all the royal robes of a king, and behaved as an ordinary man.
I think this should to be done always. The king on stage, must remove all the fake robes from his body as well as the mind, and reform his conducts back to normal. We may have understood it theoretically, but we are like those patrons, who were deeply severed by the misconducts of Ravana, and bulleted their shoes. This may seem crazy, but it is the fact.
Let us understand it from a different perspective; as we all are actors, not directors, or the playwrights, roles, the choice of costumes, light, camera-man, backdrop music, orchestra, instruments, expenditure and the rest are not decided by us, as if were the producer of the show. We are unaware of the producer at birth, and live a life as a backbencher, die without knowing the director. And, even if we are aware of the director, we try to take up His responsibilities over our head, rather than enjoying the show with “awareness”. The gears and garments appear as if we had brought them, from our mother’s womb. We think that this stage is ought to remember the footprints of a great actor, who led his entire life, for its glory, and was finally martyred amidst his handful kins, into ashes, or eaten by worms (I don’t know about the rites and rituals you shall undergo!!). The grandest and most famous artists and stagers, their talents were no match to the grandness of the Lord of the Death. All of them wailed while leaving their body, seeing themselves gathering another attire, for a different enactment. The portrayal over the stage seems to be so vivid, that we try to grasp the past and the future in our arms, just like children try to grab their favorite toy, if displayed on a screen. We start yelling at ourselves, fixing the facts, ‘we are the body, and we can do everything by our prodigy pro-mind; our mind is a genius. It tells us all kinds of predictions and notifications before hand, and thus we are saved from any social, economic or family-related calamities Hail Mind, Mind is great, this instrumental body is great.’ These words are the best humors to a yogi, He sees the inside out, as if through a transparent glass. The ‘thought’-tapes swirling and uncoiling in the cassette of mind delude us, and we start believing in the virtual predictions. The costumes appear as if they are ours, the time is ours, the family, children, home, money, cars, society…… to the world is ours. The director didn’t even invite our will for giving any advice or consultation over any part of the show, but we try to accentuate our actions, by jumping and hopping diagonally like a silly monkey. People begin pondering that the world runs steadily, because of their “tedious” tasks they do day and night, getting up, taking a bath, consuming food, to office, back home, party at times, dinner at 12, back to bed at 2 (what a regime?). This writing is full of contempt. Is that so? But, it is the fact, I am also a sincere participant of this programme of mockery. Let us enjoy it, and see life with a different perspective.

Under the guidance of our Guru, we become aware of ‘The Fact’, “we are neither the instrumental body nor the monkey mind, but the Soul ourselves, which is the Almighty”. But, without adequate practice, we continue playing with body and mind as rackets for hitting the shot balls. We are not ready to give the racket to our teacher, for He may play, on our behalf. He is not a common man, but has won all the kinds of National and International tournaments of “Life”. He is always ready to play on our behalf, but we want to prove our “I” on the stage, for some ovations. The real life becomes reel life, like the unwinding tape in audio tapes, busy adorning the body and mind, forgetting the real embellishment of Soul. We portray our futile talents to a crowd filled with millions of congruent heads, just like us.
The real Self is the Soul. Shivoham, Shivoham, Soham, Soham…. We don’t have time to ponder over reality. The Playwright has designed the script according to His Divine will, the rectitude of His works is unquestionable. We arose from the figment of Allah and we are His.

In the Girish‘s theatre company, there were few artists, who were inefficient, and couldn’t portray the assigned roles on stage. He kicked them off the jobs, as they were useless for him. They didn’t lure the throng to occupy the seats, and payed them nothing, except ridicule. It is best for us, not to do good enactment on show, as better the performance, greater the echoes of applause, the bigger the balloon of ego and rest is known to us; we shall keep acting and punching at illusionary crooks across ‘lives’, and think ourselves to be the best “gladiators” of the planet. But, if we become the worst actor, the Director will think that he is unable to move a pinky of his hand, without his redressal, and will take us in His arms, and deprive us of enjoying the phantasm of the planet. When we will become a loose puppet, working under the directions of the Divine strings, He shall lift us, and place us in the state of Deep Bliss. Even, a slightest voluntary involvement of the puppet will leave it bereaved over a great lose of potential life.

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The deep but latent reality is that we are witnessing the doer as Allah, but the deluded mind has blindfolded our eyes. Nevertheless, we continue to punch and box nothingness. The people, the bad actors, are the best. Allah pulls them out of the ongoing drama, and lift us up in His arms, and loves us immensely. We start living in this physical coat of skin, with the mind immersed in Bliss, and experience the Pure Transcendental State. The mind remains unstirred by the gravest ghoul-like passions, and tastes the Ambrosia of Atmaananda (Blissfulness of Soul). We become obstinate to the world, just as He acts as the bystander of ‘our’ acts, “we” (The element ‘I’) suffer. Once we surrender “our” (‘I’) possessions at Thy Divine feet, then He takes care of our responsibilities.
In the enunciation of Gita Ji, Sri Krishna has asked Arjuna to surrender everything, to Him, and He shall bear all the pains and preparations of the battle.

अनन्याश्चिन्तयन्तो मां ये जना: पर्युपासते |
तेषां नित्याभियुक्तानां योगक्षेमं वहाम्यहम् ||

Islam means ‘submission to the Divine Will’. Once we submit ourselves, all the anxieties and liabilities perish. The greatest antipode is we want to perform the show on our own. And, if acting progresses and brings hail to the name of the person, then sufferings are ensured. Let us beware of hidden invitations…..