Mystic Mantra: The world is your stage

Recently it was reported in the Western media that Emma Watson, at the age of nine, went from being a normal kid to one of Hollywood’s most famous child stars overnight when she took the role of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series. The attention was sudden — and very hard for Emma to deal with. People were asking her, “What do you think of this? Who are you, who are you, who are you?”

She did not have any answers to such queries then and was terrified by the huge attention she was getting. At times she felt lonely as many people do. Loneliness is not always bad if one wants to ponder over the existential questions of life. It can become a real blessing in disguise. I guess this is what happened to Emma. Being in such a space, she may have had her moments of meditation which opens the door to self-realisation. She could figure out “Who am I”. Sometime later, Emma realised that she was separate from her character Hermione: “For the first time in my life, I feel like I have a sense of self that I’m comfortable with.” Perhaps, by this time, she started reading the discourses of enlightened master Osho and gained more confidence as an individual.

This confidence was extended to her love life, too. “As a child of divorce, I am endlessly fascinated with finding the perfect formula for making it work,” she said. “But I think the biggest lesson I learned is that there aren’t any rules. (As Indian guru Osho said) ‘Love never becomes wise, and that is its wisdom.’ Sit with the discomfort. Don’t run away from it. Lean into it, take your time with it. So many people jump into things just because they can’t stand the discomfort of not knowing.”

Meditation is really essential for those individuals who pursue the profession of acting, as Osho tells us about his own experience: “Many people come to me and ask, ‘Why do so many actors come to you?’ My experience is this, that acting is one of the most spiritual professions in the world. Because an actor moves into so many actings — sometimes he is this, sometimes that — so many identities that he becomes loose. Then one day he suddenly starts thinking, ‘Who am I? One day I am Abraham Lincoln, another day I am George Washington, another day I become this and that,’ and every day he goes on changing. In one film he is one, in another film he is another. Sometimes he is a saint and sometimes he is a sinner. Only then can he be a perfect actor…”

The enlightened mystic adds: “To me, acting is one of the most spiritual professions. And if you take life as an acting, you will start moving towards spirituality. Take life as an acting, you will start moving towards spirituality. Take life as acting a great drama. The world is a vast stage. You are a mother — that is only one role. You are a father — that is only one role. You are a businessman — another role. You are a brother to somebody — another role. You are a son, husband — another role… a thousand and one roles if you watch. And you go on changing your faces. When your servant comes to see you, you have a different face.”