MAYA - THE ILLUSION OF THE MATERIAL WORLD

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Maya

The illusion of the material world

The living entity's original constitutional position is pure spirit. But a human

being who identifies with the material body may be said to be in maya. Maya

means "not this." In the twilight, a curled-up rope is sometimes mistaken for a

snake. The imagined snake is "not this" rope. One thing is mistaken for another.

Thus beguiled by maya, the conditioned living entity considers the body to be

the soul.

However, how can we mistake the rope for a snake unless we know what a snake is?

The conception of a snake is not in itself untrue or unreal. The false identity

is untrue or unreal. Similarly, the material body is a product of maya, the

material energy of the Lord, and maya is dependent on Krishna, like clouds

produced by the sun. By the heat of the sun, sea water is evaporated and

transformed into clouds. Just as a cloud is a transformation of the energy of

the sun, maya is a transformation of Krishna's spiritual energy. Therefore it

is real; it is not false, as is sometimes concluded from the example of the

snake and the rope.

The Material Connection

If you are thirty years old, thirty years ago your body did not exist, and in

another fifty years it will be gone. Similarly, the material world is ever

manifest and again annihilated, just as waves in the sea rise and recede. Thus

the material world is a product of maya, just as the body is.

When the material world manifests, the living entities who do not wish to

acknowledge the authority of the Supreme Lord are given a chance in the

material world to pretend to be what they are not. To accommodate their

countless desires, maya manifests 8,400,000 species of life. The living entity

in the body of one of these species comes under the control of maya because the

body, being matter, acts according to maya's laws. In the body of a dog, one

must act like a dog, and in the body of a demigod, one acts like a demigod.

The material word is a prison without bars, and the inmates are confined by

constantly diverting their attention toward sense gratification. Thus their

real knowledge is forgotten and they are satisfied with any miserable

situation. The lower species, like the plants and animals, have consciousness

so dull that they cannot understand whether they are happy or distressed. Hogs

are satisfied eating stool, because they take as enjoyment what would be

suffering for us.

The Divine Connection

Everything takes place in the realm of maya because of the combination of the

body and the spirit soul. This combination is made possible by the Supreme Lord

Himself. Krishna, the original father, injects all living entities into the womb

of maya by His mere glance. Just as the fragrance of a flower placed before

one's nose is touched by one's sense of smell, yet the smelling and the flower

are detached, maya can do nothing without Krishna, yet He has nothing to do

with the material world directly -- He is always in His supreme abode.

He is all-pervading by His energy. The energy of Krishna is one, but it works in

diverse ways, like electrical energy, which can be used to refrigerate or heat.

So for our understanding, we divide Krishna's energy three ways -- into the

spiritual, the material, and the marginal. Maya, the material energy, is an

expansion of Krishna's spiritual energy, and the living entity is the marginal

energy because the living entity must take shelter in either the spiritual or

the material energy.

Liberation

In the material struggle for existence we are defeated, for there is no

possibility of overcoming the miserable conditions of old age, disease, and

death. But the spirit soul does not need to enter temporary bodies. The soul

does so only due to ignorance or forgetfulness of Krishna. Therefore in the

human form of life, our intelligence is developed, so we should change our

consciousness by trying to understand Krishna. Then we can be liberated from

maya.

- Aravind Mohanram