Maya and Illusion

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This is true of all sense-enjoyments, of all intellectual enjoyments,

and of all the enjoyments of which the human mind is capable. They

are nothing, they are within Maya, within this network beyond which

we cannot go. We may run therein through infinite time and find no

end, and whenever we struggle to get a little enjoyment, a mass of

misery falls upon us. How awful is this! And when I think of it, I

cannot but consider that this theory of Maya, this statement that it

is all Maya, is the best and only explanation. What an amount of

misery there is in this world; and if you travel among various

nations you will find that one nation attempts to cure its evils by

one means, and another by another. The very same evil has been taken

up by various races, and attempts have been made in various ways to

check it, yet no nation has succeeded. If it has been minimised at

one point, a mass of evil has been crowded at another point. Thus it

goes. The Hindus, to keep up a high standard of chastity in the race,

have sanctioned child-marriage, which in the long run has degraded

the race. At the same time, I cannot deny that this child-marriage

makes the race more chaste. What would you have? If you want the

nation to be more chaste, you weaken men and women physically by

child-marriage. On the other hand, are you in England any better off?

No, because chastity is the life of a nation. Do you not find in

history that the first death-sign of a nation has been unchastity?

When that has entered, the end of the race is in sight. Where shall

we get a solution of these miseries then? If parents select husbands

and wives for their children, then this evil is minimised. The

daughters of India are more practical than sentimental. But very

little of poetry remains in their lives. Again, if people select

their own husbands and wives, that does not seem to bring much

happiness. The Indian woman is generally very happy; there are not

many cases of quarrelling between husband and wife. On the other hand

in the United States, where the greatest liberty obtains, the number

of unhappy homes and marriages is large. Unhappiness is here, there,

and everywhere. What does it show? That, after all, not much

happiness has been gained by all these ideals. We all struggle for

happiness and as soon as we get a little happiness on one side, on

the other side there comes unhappiness.

 

Shall we not work to do good then? Yes, with more zest than ever,

but what this knowledge will do for us is to break down fanaticism.

The Englishman will no more be a fanatic and curse the Hindu. He will

learn to respect the customs of different nations. There will be less

of fanaticism and more of real work. Fanatics cannot work, they waste

three-fourths of their energy. It is the level-headed, calm,

practical man who works. So, the power to work will increase from

this idea. Knowing that this is the state of things, there will be

more patience. The sight of misery or of evil will not be able to

throw us off our balance and make us run after shadows. Therefore,

patience will come to us, knowing that the world will have to go on

in its own way. If, for instance, all men have become good, the

animals will have in the meantime evolved into men, and will have to

pass through the same state, and so with the plants. But only one

thing is certain; the mighty river is rushing towards the ocean, and

all the drops that constitute the stream will in time be drawn into

that boundless ocean. So, in this life, with all its miseries and

sorrows, its joys and smiles and tears, one thing is certain, that

all things are rushing towards their goal, and it is only a question

of time when you and I, and plants and animals, and every particle of

life that exists must reach the Infinite Ocean of Perfection, must

attain to Freedom, to God.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued