A World of Illusion

Imagine that the universe is so infinite that the life you are living, on a daily basis, is nothing more than an interactive video game. We know from our increasingly advanced development of computers (and high definition televisions and monitors) that so much is possible with smaller and smaller hardware. If we human beings, limited by time and space, can create alternate realities and artificial intelligences *that* convincing and realistic . . .  isn't it highly plausible that a God with unlimited power and potential can create a whole universe full of nothing but fictional characters and stories for entertainment purposes? And isn't it highly plausible that an all-powerful God could make this universe feel and appear so real that the participants in his game would be willing to fight to the death defending their limited corners of this game? Ultimately, every character in the game must face his mortality . . . and then what? The great "reset" button? Is that all we are living for . . . to rise and fight another day? Honestly, I hate video games and find them absolutely, mind numbingly, boring.

When life seems empty and meaningless to me, which it does so often, I remember from my studies that Meher Baba would elaborate on this theme often. Many, many times . . . daily, in fact, probably . . . he told people that the multifarious universe was simply an illusion. He called our waking lives "a dream within a dream." Eruch Jessawalla, a close disciple and interpreter for Meher Baba in his silence, is quoted as saying, "Baba says that all these things are illusion. When we come to know and realise the Eternal Truth this illusion vanishes like a dream in the night. The appearance of the Truth makes one realise that the illusory life one has led was nothing but a dream."

It is such a comfort in times when I am feeling unloved or unwell to feel that it is simply my imagination. I so often find myself asking, "How can *he* *she* *they* . . . all of those who claim to love and care . . . actually behave this way?" The point is NO. It is NOT love and caring. It IS an illusion. We KNOW what we know. And we FEEL the truth . . . no matter what anybody says to us about how we are *supposed* to feel or behave. Our "loved ones" are not the ultimate authorities in this game . . . in fact they are more likely to be our nemeses. In our hearts, we KNOW love. We know what it is, what it should look like, how it should feel. We know when we are lacking it, we know when we have found it. No amount of pretense or show can bring that knowledge to us, no matter what age we are.

If you really think about it, we are living daily in a world where fear keeps us from facing the truths of life. In the words of the great sage and songstress, Adam Lambert, "You see the fake in everything that is real . . . so afraid, don't want to be part of it . . . you hate the paradox, you put us in a box." And, today, I choose Reality . . . where LOVE abounds . . . and the "illusion" disk is put back inside its little plastic case, and shelved alphabetically next to "illness."