Question: Somehow, the words “I Am” and “I created this World for my Play” seem inadequate to explain creation. Where did this God/Divine Light come from? Why is God there? Why all this Play? Why did we souls come into existence, even before we came to this earth? I read in Back To Godhead a very beautiful article on why and how we souls came to the earth – the article was like a story where it was said that we souls wanted to enjoy separately from Krishna and Krishna, out of His Compassion and Love, sent us to the earth. Is all this true or was the article a metaphorical illustration of why we came to earth?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
The article you describe is a factual portrayal of this cosmic manifestation as described in Vedic scriptures. God, who is known as Krishna, meaning “All-attractive”, is the source of everything while He Himself has no source or beginning. The Upanishads describe Him as being an embodiment of enjoyment – raso vai sah; and therefore He expands Himself into many and enjoys with His part-and-parcel living entities, who are co-eternal with Him. This indeed is the purpose of our existence – to enjoy eternal happiness in our loving relationship in service to God. Unfortunately, due to a miscalculated desire to enjoy separate from Him, the conditioned souls come to the material world which is full of strife and suffering, but once they rectify this desire they can return to the spiritual world.
