Point of View

An Explanation

There are two ways of looking at this creation:
1. From the top, looking down – the Creator’s point of view;
2. From the bottom, looking up – man’s point of view.

From the top it looks as though the Creator is all in all. He is the only doer, and the individual seems like a puppet tossed right and left by the wire-puller. There seems to be no free will in the individual, and therefore no responsibility on his shoulder. It is the Lord’s play. There is no why or wherefore. All the saints, when they look from the top, describe the creation as his manifestation. They see him working everywhere.

Looking from below, or the individual’s viewpoint, we come across variety as opposed to oneness. Everybody appears to be working with a will, and is influenced by and is influencing others with whom he comes in contact. The individual thinks he is the doer and thereby becomes responsible for his actions and their consequences. All the actions are recorded in his mind and memory, and cause likes and dislikes which keep him pinned down to the material, astral or mental spheres, according to his actions in an earlier life in the cycle of transmigration. The individual in these regions cannot help doing actions and, having done them, cannot escape their influences. The individual acts as the doer and therefore bears the consequences of his actions.
_{Maharaj Sawan Singh, Spiritual Gems}