लीला

Lila

līlā

divine playCreation as God's spontaneous play rather than an act of need.

Editorial overview

In simple words

Lila means play. Some traditions say God creates the world not because God needs anything, but freely and joyfully, like play. The stories of Krishna and Rama are also called lila.

What is it?

Lila expresses the idea that the divine creates, sustains and acts in the world spontaneously, out of fullness, and not to fulfil any lack. The Brahma Sutras use the analogy of play to answer the objection that a perfect Brahman would have no motive to create. In devotional traditions lila also names the deeds of God's incarnations, especially Krishna's childhood and youth in Vrindavan, which devotees remember, enact and meditate on. Shaiva and Shakta traditions similarly describe the cosmos as the play of Shiva or the Goddess.

Scholar’s note

Brahma Sutra 2.1.33 gives the lila argument. Shankara accepts it while noting that ultimately creation is an appearance; Ramanuja and later Vaishnavas treat lila as real expression of God's nature. Gaudiya theology distinguishes manifest and unmanifest lila. Kashmir Shaivism speaks of Shiva's krida (play) in the five acts. In Tulsidas and Surdas, lila is an aesthetic and devotional category.

How its meaning differs

Editorial overview

Each tradition in its own terms. None is ranked.

Vedanta

The Brahma Sutras argue that Brahman creates without motive, as in play, so creation does not imply any lack in Brahman.

Advaita Vedanta

Advaita accepts the play analogy at the empirical level while holding that, ultimately, creation is an appearance of Brahman.

Bhakti traditions

For devotional traditions, the lila of Krishna or Rama is real and eternal, and remembering and hearing it is itself a spiritual practice.

Kashmir Shaivism (Pratyabhijna / Trika)

The world is Shiva's free play of self-concealment and self-revelation.

Shaktism

The Goddess is described as playfully creating, sustaining and dissolving the universe.

Where it appears in the Gita

Full text available

4.6

अजोऽपि सन्नव्ययात्मा भूतानामीश्वरोऽपि सन्।

(मैं) अजन्मा (और) अविनाशी-स्वरूप होते हुए भी (तथा) सम्पूर्ण प्राणियोंका ईश्वर होते हुए भी अपनी प्रकृतिको अधीन करके अपनी योगमायासे प्रकट होता हूँ।

4.9

जन्म कर्म च मे दिव्यमेवं यो वेत्ति तत्त्वत:।

हे अर्जुन! मेरे जन्म और कर्म दिव्य हैं। इस प्रकार (मेरे जन्म और कर्मको) जो मनुष्य तत्त्वसे जान लेता है अर्थात् दृढ़तापूर्वक मान लेता है, वह शरीरका त्याग करके पुनर्जन्मको प्राप्त नहीं होता, (प्रत्युत) मुझे प्राप्त होता है।

9.9

न च मां तानि कर्माणि निबध्नन्ति धनञ्जय।

हे धनंजय! उन (सृष्टि-रचना आदि) कर्मोंमें अनासक्त और उदासीनकी तरह रहते हुए मुझे वे कर्म नहीं बाँधते।