Weekly Definitions: MAyA

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Namaste.

 

Ddennis-ji suggested to me that I write a note on mAyA, for the

Weekly Definitions Series. I know mAyA cannot be confined to just a

short note as a weekly definition. I was wondering what I should do.

I recalled the following imaginary conversation Sridhar and I had

with mAyA long ago (#20708, of Jan.2004 and its sequel), when, lo and

behold! MayA Devi was right there before me. Her face was a little

blurred, so I can't describe it to you. But the profile was so clear

that it could be only Her Majesty, the Empress of the whole Universe.

She had a bewitching, at the same time enchantingly mischievous,

smile; but that is what I thought, because the blurred face defied

any precise description. But what was more thrilling, was that She

Herself started to talk! Here is the verbatim report. (M: MayA Devi;

K: Krishnamurthy).

----

 

M: Are you surprised?

K: Is it You, Mother MAyA Devi?

M: Don't you recognise Me?

K: What? Recognize? Have I seen you, before?

M: You are seeing me all the time.

K: You mean I am seeing the world all the time?

M: You are a member of advaitin list, even a moderator; what else do

you expect?

K: Mother, please don't quiz me. Please give us a message.

M: You folks are flooding yourselves with messages all the time. Many

of you don't even read them. And you want me to add my message to all

that?

K: How else do we understand your mysterious ways?

M: What are you all going to do after that understanding?

K: Well, ... I thought that would open for us the gate to Moksha;

would it not?

M: Have I not made Krishna tell you , " my MAyA is difficult to

transcend " ?

K: Then, how are we ever to get at the root of the matter?

M: Again you are only showing your scholarship. What do you mean

by `root of the matter'?

K: I meant: `the rock bottom fundamental principle, without which

nothing works'.

M: But you know it is within you yourself and you are not supposed to

search outside.

K: Mother, I am not competent to win you over in any argument or

debate. Tell me clearly what is it that I should be doing, if I want

to reach The Ultimate. Why is it you are playing tricks with us, even

when we are all honestly seeking Truth?

M: I am not playing tricks with you. It is you folks who have studied

too much without giving yourself the time to pause to think about

what you have studied. Many a time I have shown you all, both in your

personal lives and in your professional lives, that you cannot win.

K: Yes, I understand. I do keep telling that to my audience whenever

I talk or write to them. But somehow, when it finally comes to

counting my marbles, I am helpless and I would like to be one up! Why

is it so, Mother?

M: That is exactly what I am telling you. You may want to be one up

against others like you in this world. You will learn that is the

wrong path in its own due course. But when you want to be one up

against Me and My ways, you are totally mistaken; and that is where I

show up. And the only force, if at all, that will help you against

my powers, is the Grace of the Lord God. If you rely on your own

capabilities more than your reliance on God, you are already in My

clutches.

K: I don't understand what you mean by `being one up against You'. I

don't think I have ever done that.

M: Well, that is what you think. Every time you people want to define

good and evil in precise terms, that is what you are doing. The

tangled knot of life is not to be cut into an unquestionable single

law of truth and falsehood. Dharma must be sought not by rejecting

ignorance or falsehood, but rather through them in tapasya, strength,

energy and purifications. Whenever you shortcut this trodden path and

plan to arrive at the destination quickly, you are trying to be `one

up against Me'!

K: Mother, it is all confusing. May I pray to you to lead me out of

this confusion?

M: Don't pray to Me. I am not here or anywhere. Actually I am not

what I am. I am a non-being. Pray to the Being that always is.

(And the apparition was gone!)

-------------------------

 

With this `conversation' at the back of my mind, let me now write

what I have comprehended over the years about the incomprehensible.

 

Encountering mAyA means contending with all the following eight

intangibles:

 

1. Her Incomprehensibility.

2. Her Miraculousness.

3. Her Infinite Power.

4. Her Intranscendability.

5. Her Universality.

6. Her Omnipresence.

7. Her Ordained Subordinateness.

8. Her Non-existing Existence.

 

MAyA is incomprehensible. That is why all Masters say: Don't try to

understand mAYA with your intellect. Pray for transcending the

effects of mAyA with the help of the Supreme Presence in you.

 

MAyA is miraculous. She can perform all the miracles of Nature as

well as all the miracles that appear to mystify our scientific

understanding. She can hide what is Real but She can also make the

non-real appear as real.

 

MAyA's power is limitless. Even the great Sages who by the severity

of their penances acquire wonderful powers either by yoga-siddhi or

simply by the Grace of the Supreme have been known to have succumbed

to the effects of MAyA. Even the good things that happen to us can

draw us into the vortex of mAyA.

 

MAyA is intranscendable, meaning, She is known to have been the cause

of all effects. So long as we are in the world of effects, which we

always are, we are not one with the Cause of all causes. The

attractions towards sense-objects is what makes us stay in the world

of effects. This attraction is nothing but mAyA.

 

MAyA is universal, in the sense that without mAyA there is nothing

that exists, nothing that existed, nothing that will exist.

 

MAyA is omnipresent almost as the Supreme Reality Itself. One is

mistaken for the other; this is our second nature.

 

MAyA has been ordained to be subordinate to the Supreme and only to

the Supreme.

 

YA mA sA mAyA – this is the definition of mAyA. What does not exist

(absolutely) is mAyA.

 

Advaita recognises the truth of all the above eight. The esoteric

meaning of GitA (VII – 4) indicates it. The non-advaitins, in their

attempts to establish something other than advaita have always to

negate one or more of the above. And in doing this, they fall into

the trap of one or more of the same mAyA, which they try to negate.

 

For example, some question the locus of operation of mAyA.

But `operation' is an effect. And, as we saw above, mAyA transcends

all effects. Some others seek authority for the statements about

mAyA. Expressing authority through word of mouth or by writing is

itself a mAyic action and so one commits the error of self-

reference. Others think that release from the world of mAyA is to go

to a different world of existence with the divines. Not at all. The

final release is to be relieved of the bondage of mAyA. It can happen

in this world itself.

 

Others think that Brahman has transformed Itself into this universe

which is distinct from It. It is the Miracle of mAyA that makes

Brahman appear as this universe while Brahman still remains

unchanged. Not only Brahman appears as this universe but also as the

individual Jivas each with a separate inner organ. Further, there are

thousand other things which happen according to the rules of cause

and effect. The affairs of this universe are happening in spite of us

according to some schedule chalked out for them. If we observe all

this carefully, maybe from the absolute point of view everything is a

MAyA but in the mundane world of daily parlance, there is an

admirable order that must have been initiated or chalked out by a

very powerful force, far more powerful than all the powers that we

know. That power is what is called Ishvara (God). And this Ishvara

is taken by some to be itself the effect of mAyA. They ignore the

fact that mAyA is subordinate to that very Ishvara, who, from the

absolute point of view, may however not be absolute! It is

Brahman,that, appearing to be in association with MAyA, is the

Ishvara who monitors and manages both the universe and the JIvas. All

this world of JIvas rolls about under His control. When that is so,

for us to transcend this curtain of MAyA, and to get out also of His

control so that we may realise the Brahman that is the core of Him

as well as us, is not possible without the sanction of that power,

namely Ishvara. In other words only by the Grace of Ishvara can our

mind be overcome and Brahman-realisation can happen. We may be

subject to the whims and fancies of MAyA but He is in total control

of it. So even when He `does' so many activities under the guise of

MAyA, He is always the actionless Brahman . Thus even if we aim at

the MAyA-associated Almighty, he absorbs us into the Brahman that

has no trace of MAyA.

 

Except for those rare ones whose good samskara from previous lives

is really strong all others are just unable to think seriously of

getting themselves out of the rut of worldly activities and of the

pulls and pushes of the mind. This mind itself is the creation of

mAyA.

 

Brahman which is the same as Atman is the only thing which is

untouched by MAyA. Even a little mixture of MAyA will make it

different. Ishvara Himself has such a mixture of MAyA.The universe

which is totally mixed with that MAyA is being administered by that

Ishvara, who has MAyA with him (*MAyA-sahita Ishvarah*). Brahman does

not do any such thing as administration of the universe. Brahman has

nothing to do with the universe or its affairs. Of course it is the

substratum, basis of the universe; but from that Brahman it was MAyA

that produced the vision of the universe. Brahman is not related to

the universe.

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

PraNAms to the Controller of mAyA.

profvk

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should be included. Thanks

 

Thanks Profvk-ji for putting it in such a nice and clear way that a

beginer like myself can now understand(wrong word!!) the concept of

maya

 

advaitin , " V. Krishnamurthy " <profvk

wrote:

>

> Namaste.

>

> Ddennis-ji suggested to me that I write a note on mAyA, for the

> Weekly Definitions Series. I know mAyA cannot be confined to just

a

> short note as a weekly definition. I was wondering what I should

do.