Maya and the evolution of the conception of God

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But all this patchwork would not do. As the explanation assumed

greater proportions, the difficulty which is sought to solve did the

same. If the qualities of the god increased in arithmetical

progression, the difficulty and doubt increased in geometrical

progression. The difficulty of Jehovah was very little beside the

difficulty of the God of the universe, and this question remains to

the present day. Why under the reign of the almighty and all-loving

God of the universe should diabolical things be allowed to remain?

Why so much more misery than happiness, and so much more wickedness

than good? We may shut our eyes to all these things, but the fact

still remains that this world is a hideous world. At best, it is the

hell of Tantalus. Here we are with strong impulses and stronger

cravings for sense-enjoyments, but cannot satisfy them. There rises a

wave which impels us forward in spite of our own will, and as soon as

we move one step, comes a blow. We are all doomed to live here like

Tantalus. Ideals come into our head far beyond the limit of our sense-

ideals, but when we seek to express them, we cannot do so. On the

other hand, we are crushed by the surging mass around us. Yet if I

give up all ideality and merely struggle through this world, my

existence is that of a brute, and I degenerate and degrade myself.

Neither way is happiness. Unhappiness is the fate of those who are

content to live in this world, born as they are. A thousand times

greater misery is the fate of those who dare to stand forth for truth

and for higher things and who dare to ask for something higher than

mere brute existence here. These are facts; but there is no

explanation--there cannot be any explanation. But the Vedanta shows

the way out. You must bear in mind that I have to tell you facts that

will frighten you sometimes, but if you remember what I say, think of

it, and digest it, it will be yours, it will raise you higher, and

make you capable of understanding and living in truth.

 

Now, it is statement of fact that this world is a Tantalus's hell,

that we do not know anything about this universe, yet at the same

time we cannot say that we do not know. I cannot say that this chain

exists, when I think that I do not know it. It may be an entire

delusion of my brain. I may be dreaming all the time. I am dreaming

that I am talking to you, and that you are listening to me. No one

can prove that it is not a dream. My brain itself may be a dream, and

as to that no one has ever seen his own brain. We all take it for

granted. So it is with everything. My own body I take for granted. At

the same time I cannot say, I do not know. This standing between

knowledge and ignorance, this mystic twilight, the mingling of truth

and falsehood--and where they meet--no one knows. We are walking in

the midst of a dream, half sleeping, half waking, passing all our

lives in a haze; this is the fate of everyone of us. This is the fate

of all sense-knowledge. This is the fate of all philosophy, of all

boasted science, of all boasted human knowledge. This is the

universe.

 

What you call matter, or spirit, or mind, or anything else you may

like to call them, the fact remains the same: we cannot say that they

are, we cannot say that they are not. We cannot say they are one, we

cannot say they are many. This eternal play of light and darkness--

indiscriminate, indistinguishable, inseparable--is always there. A

fact, yet at the same time not a fact; awake and at the same time

asleep. This is a statement of facts, and this is what is called

Maya. We are born in this Maya, we live in it, we think in it, we

dream in it. We are philosophers in it, we are spiritual men in it,

nay, we are devils in this Maya, and we are gods in this Maya.

Stretch your ideas as far as you can, make them higher and higher,

call them infinite or by any other name you please, even these ideas

are within this Maya. It cannot be otherwise, and the whole of human

knowledge is a generalisation of this Maya trying to know it as it

appears to be. This is the work of Nama-Rupa--name and form.

Everything that has form, everything that calls up an idea in your

mind, is within Maya; for everything that is bound by the laws of

time, space and causation is within Maya.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued