Maya and Freedom

[Guest guest]

What happens then? The scene begins to shift. As soon as you know the

voice and understand what it is, the whole scene changes. The same

world which was the ghastly battle-field of Maya is now changed into

something good and beautiful. We no longer curse nature nor say that

the world is horrible and that it is all vain; we need no longer weep

and wail. As soon as we understand the voice, we see the reason why

this struggle should be here, this fight, this competition, this

difficulty, this cruelty, these little pleasures and joys; we see

that they are in the nature of things, because without them there

would be no going towards the voice, to attain which we are destined,

whether we know it or not. All human life, all nature, therefore, is

struggling to attain to freedom. The sun is moving towards the goal,

so is the earth in circling round the sun, so is the moon encircling

round the earth. To that goal the planet is moving, and the air is

blowing. Everything is struggling towards that. The saint is going

towards that voice--he cannot help it, it is no glory to him. So is

the sinner. The charitable man is going straight towards that voice,

and cannot be hindered; the miser is also going towards the same

destination; the greatest worker of good hears the same voice within,

and he cannot resist it, he must go towards the voice; so with the

most arrant idler. One stumbles more than another, and him who

stumbles more we call bad, him who stumbles less we call good. Good

and bad are never two different things, they are one and the same;

the different is not one of kind, but of degree.

 

Now, if the manifestation of this power of freedom is really

governing the whole universe--applying that to religion, our special

study--we find this idea has been the one assertion throughout. Take

the lowest form of religion where there is worship of departed

ancestors or certain powerful and cruel gods; what is the prominent

idea about the gods or departed ancestors? That they are superior to

nature, not bound by its restrictions. The worshipper has, no doubt,

very limited ideas of nature. He himself cannot pass through a wall,

nor fly up into the skies, but the gods whom he worships can do these

things. What is meant by that, philosophically? That the assertion of

freedom is there, that the gods whom he worships are superior to

nature as he knows it. So with those who worship still higher beings.

As the idea of nature expands, the idea of the soul which is superior

to nature also expands, until we come to what we call monotheism,

which holds that there is Maya (nature), and that there is some Being

who is the Ruler of this Maya.

 

Here Vedanta begins, where these monotheistic ideas first appear. But

the Vedanta philosophy wants further explanation. This explanation--

that there is a Being beyond all these manifestations of Maya, who is

superior to and independent of Maya, and who is attracting us towards

Himself, and that we are all going towards Him--is very good, says

the Vedanta, but yet the perception is not clear, the vision is dim

and hazy, although it does not directly contradict reason. Just as in

your hymn it is said, " Nearer my God to Thee, " the same hymn would be

very good to the Vedantin, only he would change a word, and make

it, " Nearer my God to me. " The idea that the goal is far off, far

beyond nature, attracting us all towards it, has to be brought nearer

and nearer, without degrading or degenerating it. The God of heaven

becomes the God in nature, and the God in nature becomes the God who

is nature, and the God who is nature becomes the God within this

temple of the body, and the God dwelling in the temple of the body at

last becomes the temple itself, becomes the soul and man--and there

it reaches the last words it can teach. He whom the sages have been

seeking in all these places is in our own hearts; the voice that you

heard was right, says the Vedanta, but the direction you gave to the

voice was wrong. That ideal of freedom that you perceived was

correct, but you projected it outside yourself, and that was your

mistake. Bring it nearer and nearer, until you find that it was all

the time within you, it was the Self of your own self. That freedom

was your own nature, and this Maya never bound you. Nature never has

power over you. Like a frightened child you were dreaming that it was

throttling you, and the release from this fear is the goal: not only

to see it intellectually, but to perceive it, actualise it, much more

definitely than we perceive this world. Then we shall know that we

are free. Then, and then alone, will all difficulties vanish, then

will all the perplexities of heart be smoothed away, all crookedness

made straight, then will vanish the delusion of manifoldness and

nature; and Maya, instead of being a horrible, hopeless dream, as it

is now, will become beautiful, and this earth, instead of being a

prison-house, will become our playground; and even dangers and

difficulties, even all sufferings, will become deified and show us

their real nature, will show us that behind everything, as the

substance of everything, He is standing, and that He is the one real

Self.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

[Guest guest]

Dear CP

 

Why consider ourselves to be slaves of Maya

 

Maya is an essential ingredient of existance

 

WE need to grow to understand the mystries of Maya and appriciate the Creation

as a whole' Need to go back as near as possible to Sankara's works and be tuned

to handling the concept o0f Maya without feeling enslaved.

 

 

 

" C. P. Kumar " <cpkumar wrote:

 

Is there no hope then? True it is that we are all slaves of Maya,

born in Maya, and live in Maya. Is there then no way out, no hope?

That we are all miserable, that this world is really a prison, that

even our so-called trailing beauty is but a prison-house, and that

even our intellects and minds are prison-houses, have been known for

ages upon ages. There has never been a man, there has never been a

human soul, who has not felt this sometime or other, however he may

talk. And the old people feel it most, because in them is the

accumulated experience of a whole life, because they cannot be easily

cheated by the lies of nature. Is there no way out? We find that with

all this, with this terrible fact before us, in the midst of sorrow

and suffering, even in this world where life and death are

synonymous, even here, there is a still small voice that is ringing

through all ages, through every country, and in every heart: " This My

Maya is divine, made up of qualities, and very difficult to cross.

Yet those that come unto Me, cross the river of life. " " Come unto Me

all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. "

This is the voice that is leading us forward. Man has heard it, and

is hearing it all through the ages. This voice comes to men when

everything seems to be lost and hope has fled, when man's dependence

on his own strength has been crushed down, and everything seems to

melt away between his fingers, and life is a hopeless ruin. Then he

hears it. This is called religion.

 

On the one side, therefore, is the bold assertion that this is all

nonsense, that this is Maya, but along with it, there is the most

hopeful assertion that beyond Maya, there is a way out. On the other

hand, practical men tell us, " Don't bother your heads about such

nonsense as religion and metaphysics. Live here; this is a very bad

world indeed, but make the best of it. " Which put in plain language

means, live a hypocritical, lying life, a life of continuous fraud,

covering all the sores in the best way you can. Go on putting patch

after patch, until everything is lost, and you are a mass of

patchwork. This is what is called practical life. Those that are

satisfied with this patchwork will never come to religion. Religion

begins with a tremendous dissatisfaction with the present state of

things, with our lives, and a hatred, an intense hatred, for this

patching up of life, an unbounded disgust for fraud and lies. He

alone can be religious who dares say, as the mighty Buddha once said

under the Bo-tree, when this idea of practicality appeared before him

and he saw that it was nonsense, and yet could not find a way out.

When the temptation came to him to give up his search after truth, to

go back to the world and live the old life of fraud, calling things

by wrong names, telling lies to oneself and to everybody, he, the

giant, conquered it and said, " Death is better than a vegetating

ignorant life; it is better to die on the battle-field than to live a

life of defeat. " This is the basis of religion. When a man takes this

stand, he is on the way to find the truth, he is on the way to God.

That determination must be the first impulse towards becoming

religious. I will hew out a way for myself. I will know the truth or

give up my life in the attempt. For on this side it is nothing, it is

gone, it is vanishing every day. The beautiful, hopeful, young person

of today is the veteran of tomorrow. Hopes and joys and pleasures

will die like blossoms with tomorrow's frost. That is one side; on

the other, there are the great charms of conquest, victories over all

the ills of life, victory over life itself, the conquest of the

universe. On that side men can stand. Those who dare, therefore, to

struggle for victory, for truth, for religion, are in the right way;

and that is what the Vedas preach: Be not in despair; the way is very

difficult, like walking on the edge of a razor; yet despair not,

arise, awake, and find the ideal, the goal.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued