Lila vs siddhanta

If an exalted soul or God descends to this planet and performs activities, in sanskrit it is called lila. The difference between lila type activities and activities of normal humans is that lila is not out of compulsion of the demands of the body and mind rather it is out of supreme independence or adherence to a divine plan. Lila therefore cannot be interpreted within the realms of normal behavior and hence cannot be applied to human beings en masse. In order for us to understand the lila of an individual requires the back up of siddhanta (perfect conclusions) based on evidence from revealed scriptures coming through the mouth of a self-realized soul.

In the western religious order such as Christianity and so forth, there is little to no siddhanta backing the lila of Jesus or other saintly characters. Hence over zealous religionists take the scriptures literally citing evidence of apparent contradictions and fight. This fighting has been going-on since the dawn of these religions. The crusades, inquisitions, jihad, anti-semitism etc are simply a manifestation of the misunderstandings of the activities of saintly people or God and with false prestige/ pride commit offense against contradicting parties. Western religious order does not have the concept of teacher-disciple lineage as they do not believe in self-realization but only salvation through a savior.

In eastern traditions such as Hinduism also we have similar scenarios where the stories of Gods are misinterpreted to suit one's own false pride stemming from a bodily concept of life. Therefore, within the teachings of the six Goswamis of Vrindavan, the stress is given to the need to understand the categorical differences between exalted souls and normal souls. The stress is given to understand the context, and inner meaning behind certain activities. One is advised not to imitate but to follow. So it is essential to have a grasp of this inner meaning or conclusions (siddhanta) coming down to us in the order of disciplic succession. When we recite stories from scriptures to a group of people or make a drama or movie out of it, without the proper siddhanta, merely reciting stories will cause disturbance in society than good.

Hare Krishna