Maya and Illusion

[Guest guest]

Then, there is the tremendous fact of death. The whole world is going

towards death; everything dies. All our progress, our vanities, our

reforms, our luxuries, our wealth, our knowledge, have that one end--

death. That is all that is certain. Cities come and go, empires rise

and fall, planets break into pieces and crumble into dust, to be

blown about by the atmospheres of other planets. Thus it has been

going on from time without beginning. Death is the end of everything.

Death is the end of life, of beauty, of wealth, of power, of virtue

too. Saints die and sinners die, kings die and beggars die. They are

all going to death, and yet this tremendous clinging on to life

exists. Somehow, we do not know why, we cling to life; we cannot give

it up. And this is Maya.

 

The mother is nursing a child with great care; all her soul, her

life, is in that child. The child grows, becomes a man, and perchance

becomes a blackguard and a brute, kicks her and beats her every day;

and yet the mother clings to the child; and when her reason awakes,

she covers it up with the idea of love. She little thinks that it is

not love, that it is something which has got hold of her nerves,

which she cannot shake off; however she may try, she cannot shake off

the bondage she is in. And this is Maya.

 

We are all after the Golden Fleece. Every one of us thinks that this

will be his. Every reasonable man sees that his chance is, perhaps,

one in twenty millions, yet everyone struggles for it. And this is

Maya.

 

Death is stalking day and night over this earth of ours, but at the

same time we think we shall live eternally. A question was once asked

of King Yudhisthira, " What is the most wonderful thing on this

earth? " And the king replied, " Every day people are dying around us,

and yet men think they will never die. " And this is Maya.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued