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Alain Danielou – While the Gods Play 

The role of living beings in creation is one of witnesses.  It is their perceptions that give a visible reality to the divine dream. They form the audience for the divine play (Iila) of creation.

The principle of consciousness, of perception, is therefore the centre around which living beings are constituted. However, the potentials of perception and knowledge operate within narrow limits corresponding, in each case, to a specific vision of the world. For this reason, the senses are instruments of perception, but also barriers that restrict its range.

Beings living in conditions of different duration and dimension inevitably have different images of the world, which allow them to testify to another of the many facets of the divine game.

Man's role as witness is more extensive than that of other living beings. It is man who possesses the potential to perceive, to try to figure out, the inner nature, the plan, of creation. He is an intermediary being between an animal and a god.