The Oscars
The annual awards ceremony for the Hollywood film industry takes place in early March in Los Angeles, USA. Known as ‘The Oscars’, it recognizes outstanding achievements in various categories such as Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Actress. Stepping from the red carpet to a more timeless stage, mystics often describe the material realm as the Lord’s play. If we extend the analogy and imagine the world unfolding like an epic film, how might we be awarded a celestial Oscar?
The divine producer assigns roles based on both the karma we must resolve and the roles we auditioned for in past lives. These auditions – rooted in unfulfilled desires – manifest as scenes of love, joy, or pain in our current life-story. Therefore, it is useless to covet the parts played by fellow actors, for the divine producer is infinitely generous and will give us the chance to play all the roles we desire. As we can only enact one role at a time, this means completing one film and starting another in an endless cycle of life and rebirth.
Regardless of the role we are assigned, we should accept it gladly. What difference does it make if we play the millionaire or the beggar? True insight comes from recognizing the screenplay of our life-story as merely an illusion. This means performing our assigned roles sincerely but not mistaking the script for ultimate reality. To reach this maturity, we must resist the temptation to identify with the roles we play which binds us to our characters, and extend compassion, generosity, and kindness to our fellow actors. By anchoring our devotion in the divine producer rather than fleeting characters in our life’s play, we shall step into the eternal light and claim our everlasting reward when the final credits roll.
Just as an actor needs a masterful director to win awards, we also require the guidance of a Shabd director, a rare spiritual mentor attuned to the sound current emanating from the divine producer himself. Only under the Shabd director’s guidance can we train ourselves to become detached from the illusory screenplay of life and attain the highest honour bestowed by the divine Awards Academy: union with the divine producer. To receive this celestial Oscar, we must honour the contract with the Shabd director with utmost seriousness. The contract outlines the expectations placed upon us for the duration of the role we are currently enacting. These are:
- Trust the Shabd director’s vision even when we don’t like how the plot is unfolding.
- Avoid clinging to co-actors, whether they portray parents, spouses, or friends. They are merely players in the divine drama.
- Refrain from lamenting the departure of the actors closest to us. Death is an integral part of life’s drama, and we should not let it overshadow our experience. Filming always goes on.
- Whenever off-camera, meditate on Nam using the Shabd director’s five-word mantra: simran.
By fulfilling our contractual expectations, we free ourselves from future roles and the endless cycle of completing one film only to start another. No matter how poor our acting may be, the Shabd director encourages us never to lose hope, feel alone, or become broken-hearted, for every scene brings us closer to the divine producer. Therefore, when death ends our role, nothing from this creation remains, not even our body. Only meditation, our bridge to Sach Khand, stays with us. To escape the chaos of this worldly stage and the egos of fellow actors – as well as our own – we must meet our obligations. By following the Shabd director’s guidance and honouring our duty, our celestial Oscar is assured.
Unlike in the awards ceremony in Hollywood, when we receive our celestial Oscar, we will not return to the auditorium to sit with fellow actors, industry professionals and celebrities. We will step offstage and follow the Shabd director, who will steer us to our true home, where nothing is fake, where there is no film set and no actors, just the ultimate reality of our Satguru.