pUrNamadah pUrNamidam- Maya - the divine enchantress !

[Guest guest]

hey chit-ranjan-ji!

 

i am mad at you! you made be break my Vow! well, i just could not

resist the temptation ( another word for Maya shakti) ... Your post

certainly deserves the attention it gets after all those long winding

discussions - i felt like "alice in advaitaland" - smiles!

 

YEs! the word - maya can have multiple meanings

 

the most common one is "Illusion" or "delusion" or may be "mirage"

 

Yes , maya is synonymous with "magic" - may be even

with "witchcraft" - - we call this "jadoo" in hindi " it is often

jokingly said " kaun se maya jaal mein fus gaye ho" ( how did you fet

entangled in the web of maya? )

 

Can "maya" be explained?

 

can you explain the "mirage"" in a desert! to the thirsty man,

the "mirage" is real!

 

i unearthed this hymn from rig veda (a web source)

 

The nAsadIya hymn says-

 

It was not Non-Being, nor was it Being

...............

That which was coming into Being was covered by void

...............

The wise discovered in their hearts

the bond of Being to non-Being.

...............

Whence is this creation? Is it founded or not?

The presiding Deity in the skies knows it,

or perhaps He does not.

 

 

so, advaitins, the big question is is Maya real or unreal?

 

i already know the answer to this question

 

i can hear all advaitins respond in unison

 

"Brahman alone is REal!"

 

but what about all this world we see around us?

 

how do you explain it?

 

by the inexplicable "maya" ! or better still, the Maha Maya. can you

explain away the influence of Maya , the divine enchantress? She

dances and she dances and all of us come under her magic spell!

 

chitranjanji usaed the word "magic" to describe the meaning of

Maya ...

 

i will designate the term "mystery" or mystique!

 

to a tantrik, maya is as real as "brahman"

 

in fact, he uses the maya shakti to transcend from the mundane to the

divine !

 

advaitins like to deny the existence of 'maya' because they feel it

keeps them in bondage - -to Samsara ...

 

Maybe so! maybe not!!

 

but to saguna upasakas , Maya is as real as mayeshwera ! ( krishna is

called mayeshwera)

 

and i can understand why advaitins are scared of the word "maya"

because for them it is synonymous with sense enjopyments! so, they

feel it "binds" them?

 

but from discussions here, you know that advaitins are also bound

by "intellectual" enjoyments - not just 'senses' -look at the

outpourings of messages on this thread from both sides of the

platform!

 

i end with this quote from ashtavakra gita

 

If one thinks of oneself as free, one is free, and if one thinks of

oneself as bound, one is bound. Here this saying is true, "Thinking

makes it so." 1.11

 

**********************************************************************

billji, are you reading this? your unconditional love brought me back

into this web ( of Maya) ! smiles

[Guest guest]

on another note,

 

we do like to hear from the

 

following members

 

1) savitriji 0- the other female member whose posts are well written

and thoughtful and at times provocative ! but we do need to know

about all sides of a picture

 

2) prabhuji - i do miss you, believit or not ! it is like going to

Brindavan and not finding Krishna!

 

3) professorji- it will be nice to hear from you before you leave for

india - it was your beautiful translation of "saundarya lahari" which

filled this ASvaita group with the beauty and splendor of Saguna

upasana of DEVI !

 

4) BALAJI- ViVEKANANDAJI- WE ARE MISSING YOUR " VIVEKA" HERE ... the

discriminating sword!

 

love

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

Adiji asked me to come over here and help her out with the maya

discussion. Oh, how clumsy of me to come out and say it like this!

Well, too late now... :-)

 

What a vast subject! And what difference does my opinion make?

 

I think Adiji made a lot of good points. Let me make a few of my own.

 

Maya is simply that ignorance which makes us think that anything,

whether ourself or the world, is OTHER than the Divine. Is this not

how we normally think?

 

Philosophically, maya is that ignorance which makes us see egos and

objects as DISCRETE, SELF-SUSTAINING entities, that is, as something

other than Brahman. In that sense it is 'bad' insofar as this

delusion prevents realization. Realization is the realization that

we are Brahman.

 

However, maya is also the 'magic' of the appearance of the world.

And this world is indeed beautiful and magical to those who have any

poetry in them. I hope we all do.

 

There is no contradiction. We must simply realize that the magical

display of the world is not other than the Divine, and everything is

resolved. This goes for conjugal love too, or perhaps even

not-so-conjugal love. The jury is out on that one, since times are

changing! People are free to do with their lives what they wish, and

enjoy or suffer the consequences. It's all a learning experience.

:-)

 

I think it is possible to enjoy the vivid and magical illusion while

remaining established in the divine. A poor but convenient example

is Disneyland, especially that ride where you seem to be flying

through space. (Maybe I'm thinking of Universal Studios.) We all

know it's not 'real' but enjoy it anyway. No harm in that.

 

Hari Om!

Benjamin

[Guest guest]

--- adi_shakthi16 <adi_shakthi16 wrote:

> hey chit-ranjan-ji!

>

> i unearthed this hymn from rig veda (a web source)

>

> The nAsadIya hymn says-

>

> It was not Non-Being, nor was it Being

> ...............

> That which was coming into Being was covered by

> void

> ...............

> The wise discovered in their hearts

> the bond of Being to non-Being.

> ...............

> Whence is this creation? Is it founded or not?

> The presiding Deity in the skies knows it,

> or perhaps He does not.

 

 

Namaste,

This was/is to be my starting point next month

when we look at this topic in the Vedas. To divert you

away from too much Rgveda for the moment, have a look

at Panchadasi II.50 where the teacher directly refers

to this hymn:

nAsadA sInno sadAsIt tadAnIM kiM tvabhUttamaH

 

The discussion, on existence and nothingness,

actually begins earlier with the word mAyA in verse

34:

vIyadAdernAmarUpe mAyayA suvikalpite

ShUnyasya nAmarUpe ca tathA cet jIvyatAM ciram

'The names and forms of the elements like space etc.

are imagined by mAyA on the non-dual brahman. If you

also say that name and form of the 'nothing' is also

superimposed on the non-dual brahman, may you live

long. ' Trans.Sudhanshu Chaitanya

 

In fact this whole section on existence is relevant to

this month's topic and may well have been quoted

before...I cannot remember now.

 

In my earlier posting I made reference to the

'division into four' which is a recurring theme

although I related it then to the four levels of

speech.

However, in Pancadasi II. 54 and 55 you will find

further reference back to the Rgveda. In this case the

Purusha Suktam. I will just give the English for these

verses as my dog is demanding a walk:

'the mAyA shakti does not occupy the whole of Brahman,

but is localised in a part of Brahman as the power to

get modified into a pot which exists in smooth and wet

earth only ( not in the total earth.)

The Purusha Suktam declares that the things and being

are in a quarter of the brahman and the three quarters

of it remains in effulgent glory. Thus the scripture

also talks about the localised existence of mAya in

brahman.'

 

So your vow has been broken but by whose will was it

made in the first place?

 

I hope that this does not resuscitate all the earlier

dialogue on the nature of infinity, or is there

someone out there already asking how we can have a

quarter of that which is perfect? I will bow out of

such a discussion,

 

Happy illusions and new vow-making

 

ken Knight

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at HotJobs

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[Guest guest]

thank you my own dear benji and ken for all your embellishments to

my crude picture of Maya !

 

yes, indeed ! she is enchanting to those who know her ; fearful to

those who do not know her and Divine to those who know the

difference !

 

anyway, our beloved benji talked about disneyland!

 

but i am the primitive woman ...

 

i like to talk about Plato's allegory of the cave ?

 

"Plato likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms to prisoners

chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is

the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire. Between the fire

and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can

walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up puppets

that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable

to see these puppets, the real objects, that pass behind them. What

the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects

that they do not see. "

 

Such prisoners would mistake appearance for reality.

 

Aew we all prisoners of books we read (shritis) ?

 

 

**********************************************************************

 

we are all prisonors of our our conditioned thinnking! Time to break

loose !

 

love

[Guest guest]

Namaste Adiji

>anyway, our beloved benji talked about disneyland!

>i like to talk about Plato's allegory of the cave ?

 

 

Plato's cave! What a classical reference! Superb!

 

That shows a lot more 'class' than my silly Disneyland reference!

 

I think maybe Plato spent his youth in India just like Jesus. :-)

 

Hari Om!

Benjamin

[Guest guest]

Namaste Adiji,

 

I'm happy (no, thrilled really) that you've broken your vow! The list

won't be the same without all those delightful posts of yours! You

may of course admonish me or punish me for making you break the

vow. :-)

 

Regards,

Chittaranjan

 

 

advaitin, "adi_shakthi16" <adi_shakthi16>

wrote:

> hey chit-ranjan-ji!

>

> i am mad at you! you made be break my Vow! well, i just could not

> resist the temptation ( another word for Maya shakti) ... Your post

> certainly deserves the attention it gets after all those long

winding

> discussions - i felt like "alice in advaitaland" - smiles!

>

> YEs! the word - maya can have multiple meanings

>