Maya and the evolution of the conception of God

[Guest guest]

We have seen how the idea of Maya, which forms, as it were, one of

the basic doctrines of the Advaita Vedanta, is, in its germs, found

even in the Samhitas, and that in reality all the ideas which are

developed in the Upanishads are to be found already in the Samhitas

in some form or other. Most of you are by this time familiar with the

idea of Maya, and know that it is sometimes erroneously explained as

illusion, so that when the universe is said to be Maya, that also has

to be explained as being illusion. The translation of the word is

neither happy nor correct. Maya is not a theory; it is simply a

statement of facts about the universe as it exists, and to understand

Maya we must go back to the Samhitas and begin with the conception in

the germ.

 

We have seen how the idea of the Devas came. At the same time we know

that these Devas were at first only powerful beings, nothing more.

Most of you are horrified when reading the old scriptures, whether of

the Greeks, the Hebrews, the Persians, or others, to find that the

ancient gods sometimes did things which, to us, are very repugnant.

But when we read these books, we entirely forget that we are persons

of the nineteenth century, and these gods were beings existing

thousands of years ago. We also forget that the people who worshipped

these gods found nothing incongruous in their characters, found

nothing to frighten them, because they were very much like

themselves. I may also remark that is the one great lesson we have to

learn throughout our lives. In judging others we always judge them by

our own ideals.

 

That is not as it should be. Everyone must be judged according to his

own ideal, and not by that of anyone else. In our dealings with our

fellow-beings we constantly labour under this mistake, and I am of

opinion that the vast majority of our quarrels with one another arise

simply from this one cause that we are always trying to judge others'

gods by our own, others' ideals by our ideals, and others' motives by

our motives. Under certain circumstances I might do a certain thing,

and when I see another person taking the same course I think he has

also the same motive actuating him, little dreaming that although the

effect may be the same, yet many other causes may produce the same

thing. He may have performed the action with quite a different motive

from that which impelled me to do it. So in judging of those ancient

religions we must not take the standpoint to which we incline, but

must put ourselves into the position of thought and life of those

early times.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued