Life and Death: The World Is A Stage

By K S Ram

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances...” wrote William Shakespeare, one of the greatest dramatists of all time. Shakespeare saw the world as a large theatre. If all the world is indeed a stage, and life is a play, and all of us are mere actors, then this view leads to some interesting corollaries.

Who is the author and the director of this play?

Obviously, God. The Indian view that creation is God's leela - play - supports this view. What do birth and death signify? Birth corresponds to "Enter" and death to “Exit” in a play. Feeble-minded people in the world often lose courage in life and commit suicide. This extreme step, in terms of theatre, is like an actor losing his head and abruptly walking off the stage in a huff even before his part in the play has ended. Murder, similarly, is like someone pushing a fellow-actor off the stage to stop him from further participation in the drama. Both are tantamount to disrupting the play, and so amounts to corrupting the script of God. Little wonder therefore that all religions unequivocally denounce both murder and suicide as vile sins.

A play has all kinds of characters: king, nobleman, peasant, tradesman and more. All are equally dear to the author. All combine to contribute to the total effect of the drama.

Nobody is superior, nor is anybody inferior merely by virtue of her calling in life. Excellence depends on how well you discharge your duty, rather than on how 'exalted' a duty you have been called to discharge. This brings to mind the significance of swadharma - one's native calling - in life.

Dwelling on this point, Krishna declares: “One's own dharma, though imperfect, is better than the dharma of another well discharged... Full of fear is the dharma of another.” (Bhagavad Gita, III.35).

Illustrating the truth of this verse, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa observes that “A

professional farmer does not lose courage and he continues to cultivate even if there be a terrible drought for 12 long years. But a weaver who takes to tilling for a change of occupation gets disheartened if rain fails for one season.”

An actor in a play conforms to the script, which represents the will of the author-playwright, just as a person in life should surrender to the will of God. Such surrender is the supreme act of religion, according to Islam. Likewise, “Thy will be done, O Lord!” is the essence of the Christian's daily prayer. We should accept the will of God, whatever it be, with an humble 'Amen'.

Actors on the stage may fight, kill or love, but nothing disturbs their deeper mental state. They never forget that it is a play after all, and that they are simply and faithfully enacting the author's script. They remain detached always. This is equilibrium born of knowledge. How would a person be, if she successfully adopts this condition of equilibrium in actual life?

The Lord says: “He who is the same to foe and friend and also in honour and dishonour, who is the same in cold and heat, in pleasure and pain, who is free from attachment, to whom censure and praise are equal, who is silent - uncomplaining - content with anything, homeless, steady-minded, full of devotion - that man is dear to me.” (Gita, XII.18-19).

The essence of the teaching of the Gita is to transform karma into karma yoga: to be active in body but detached in mind. This, in fact, is how any good actor conducts herself on stage.

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See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul

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