An Interview with MAyA Devi, continued.

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

Sridhar's interview with mAyA devi was wonderful. I wish it had

continued for a longer time. With these thoughts, I rested for a

while. Lo and behold! MayA Devi was right there before me. Her face

was a little blurred, so I can't describe it to you. But the profile

was so clear that it could be only Her Majesty, the Empress of the

whole Universe. She had a bewitching, at the same time enchantingly

mischievous, smile; but that is what I thought, because the blurred

face defied any precise description. But what was more thrilling,

She Herself started to talk! Here is the verbatim report. (M: MayA

Devi; K: Krishnamurthy).

---

--------------------------

 

M: Are you surprised?

K: Is it You, Mother MAyA Devi?

M: Don't you recognise Me?

K: What? Recognize? Have I seen you, before?

M: You are seeing me all the time.

K: You mean I am seeing the world all the time?

M: You are a member of advaitin list, even a moderator; what else

do you expect?

K: Mother, please don't quiz me. Please give us a message.

M: You folks are flooding yourselves with messages all the time.

Many of you don't even read them. And you want me to add my message

to all that?

K: How else do we understand your mysterious ways?

M: What are you all going to do after that understanding?

K: Well, ... I thought that would open for us the gate to Moksha;

would it not?

M: Have I not made Krishna tell you , "my MAyA is difficult to

transcend"?

K: Then, how are we ever to get at the root of the matter?

M: Again you are only showing your scholarship. What do you mean

by `root of the matter'?

K: I meant: `the rock bottom fundamental principle, without which

nothing works'.

M: But you know it is within you yourself and you are not supposed

to search outside.

K: Mother, I am not competent to win you over in any argument or

debate. Tell me clearly what is it that I should be doing, if I want

to reach The Ultimate. Why is it you are playing tricks with us,

even when we are all honestly seeking Truth?

M: I am not playing tricks with you. It is you folks who have

studied too much without giving yourself the time to pause to think

about what you have studied. Many a time I have shown you all, both

in your personal lives and in your professional lives, that you

cannot win.

K: Yes, I understand. I do keep telling that to my audience whenever

I talk or write to them. But somehow, when it finally comes to

counting my marbles, I am helpless and I would like to be one-up!

Why is it so, Mother?

M: That is exactly what I am telling you. You may want to be one-up

against others like you in this world. You will learn that is the

wrong path in its own due course. But when you want to be one-up

against Me and My ways, you are totally mistaken; and that is where

I show up. And the only force, if at all, that will help you

against my powers, is the Grace of the Lord God. If you rely on

your own capabilities more than your reliance on God, you are

already in My clutches.

K: I don't understand what you mean by `being one-up against You'. I

don't think I have ever done that.

M: Well, that is what you think. Every time you people want to

define good and evil in precise terms, that is what you are doing.

The tangled knot of life is not to be cut into an unquestionable

single law of truth and falsehood. Dharma must be sought not by

rejecting ignorance or falsehood, but rather through them in

tapasya, strength, energy and purifications. Whenever you shortcut

this trodden path and plan to arrive at the destination quickly, you

are trying to be `one-up against Me'!

K: Mother, it is all confusing. May I pray to you to lead me out of

this confusion?

M: Don't pray to Me. I am not here or anywhere. Actually I am not

what I am. I am a non-being. Pray to the Being that always is.

(And the apparition was gone!)

 

PraNAms to all advaitins and to MAyA Devi.

profvk

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "V. Krishnamurthy" <profvk>

wrote:

But what was more thrilling,

> She Herself started to talk! Here is the verbatim report. (M: MayA

> Devi; K: Krishnamurthy).

> --

-

> --------------------------

>

> M: Are you surprised?

> K: Is it You, Mother MAyA Devi?> profvk

 

Namaste Krishnamurthyji,

 

When Maya Devi assumes the apparition of Sarasvati the

scintillating dialogues can never end!

 

Also reminds me of a parable of Sri Ramakrishna : At a

banquet, the noise is deafening until the first course is served. It

abates as one gets to the last course. Then one hears the gentle

sound of slurping, then an eructation of happiness, and then on to

the silence of a nap!

 

Our postings cover the whole spectrum, but only our

discrimination can tell us what is what!!

 

May the apparition bless us with that discrimination!

 

Regards,

 

Sunder

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "V. Krishnamurthy" <profvk> >

Part I

K: How else do we understand your mysterious ways?

> M: What are you all going to do after that understanding?

> K: Well, ... I thought that would open for us the gate to Moksha;

> would it not?

 

Part II

> M: That is exactly what I am telling you. You may want to be one-up

> against others like you in this world. You will learn that is the

> wrong path in its own due course. But when you want to be one-up

> against Me and My ways, you are totally mistaken; and that is where

> I show up. And the only force, if at all, that will help you

> against my powers, is the Grace of the Lord God. If you rely on

> your own capabilities more than your reliance on God, you are

> already in My clutches.

 

Part III

> M: Don't pray to Me. I am not here or anywhere. Actually I am not

> what I am. I am a non-being. Pray to the Being that always is.

> (And the apparition was gone!)

>

> profvk

Namaste All, I was trying to get the perspective on Maya and from the

excerpts above - demarcated into three parts -some practical

perspectives seems to emerge.

 

Part I is an approach where the jiva realizes that Maya is a veil

between it and Brahman. Here since the jiva believes in self effort

it can pray to Maya ( in the form of Shakti, uma etc.) and she in her

infinite kindness reveals Brahman. There is another mode where the

devotee requests her to move/ lift the veil so that Brahman can be

realized. One example is that of Laxmana(jiva) requesting Sita (

Maya) to move a bit so that he can have Rama (Brahman)in view all the

time. I do not like this symbolism so much as it treats my mother as

some kind of an impediment .

 

 

Part II- Maya here says that all human problems are related to the

ego sense. Here she tellsus that we keep loosing as long as we do

karma with a ego sense. She also tells us that is all Karma is done

with a sense of dedication to the Brahman ( or say Krishna), then

God's grace works to remove the veils and reveals itself.

 

Part III. This is more like Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi speaking. We are

already Brahman ( not jivas whose vision of Brahman is obsucured by a

veil). Just trying to realize that state through vichara makes it

clear that there is no veil (Maya) and that there is nothing on the

other side of the veil where we mistakenly think we are. When someone

asks him how we can achive reality or reach Brahman he never tires of

telling them that ' this question is like being in Ramanashram and

asking for the path/ way to ramanashram'.

 

I also agree with profji in that detailed studies into our scriptures

without the necessary focus on meditation, bhakti, vichara etc. could

delude us in the sense that studying and discussing/debating hotly

become an end in themselves, with the goal of evolution forgotten-

more so if one-upmanship unconsciously becomes a motive force.Maya

exerts her prowess even on the learned scholars!!

 

Sometime later, I want to raise a question on the symbolism of

Shakti/Uma or Sitadevi as Maya ( Related to this the role of Indra -

dity of mind - who must have gotten the head of Deva status through a

lot of penance but often does despicable things- e.g in Ramayana).

 

Let me retire for some contemplation now . Many thanks for all the

Kindness.... i can sense the flow of grace in this group.

 

Sridhar

[Guest guest]

--- "V. Krishnamurthy" <profvk wrote:

>> M: Don't pray to Me. I am not here or anywhere.

> Actually I am not

> what I am. I am a non-being. Pray to the Being

> that always is.

> (And the apparition was gone!)

 

Namaste Professor,

It sounds as if this fine lady has graduated from a

Uni-versity.

I think that it is about time that we took the

challenge to her and her academic cleverness. Let us

pretend that she is real and in a flash she will be in

our power, unable to evade our imagination she will be

our plaything bobbing on the sea of consciousness; a

vehicle for our warm desire and will. As long as we

remember that it is our pretence we cannot lose this

game; she will be our prisoner. Unable to come and go

as she pleases. Even if by magic she appears to be

Sarasvati.....'Oh you wonderful vision, please tell me

who the yaksha is'.....we may stand firm in the place

of authority.

Meanwhile, apologies for such an intrusion into your

game of addition and subtraction; reminds me of that

Vedic maths sutra: by one more than the one before:

ekAdhikena pUrveNa.

 

Ken Knight

 

>

> PraNAms to all advaitins and to MAyA Devi.

> profvk

>

>

>

 

 

 

 

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