What is Maya? (from Swamiji's Jnana Yoga)

[Guest guest]

What is Maya ?

 

Maya is sometime erroneously explained as illusion.

The oldest idea of Maya in Vedic literature is the

sense of delusion, meaning something like magic; but

at that time the real theory had not been reached.

And Maya of the Vedanta, in its last developed form,

is neither Idealism nor Realism, nor it it a theory.

It is as simple statement of facts - what we are and

what we see around us. Maya is statement of fact of

this universe, of how it is going on. But in one form

or other we all are in Maya.

 

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. Whole of human knowledge is a

generalization of this Maya trying to know as it

appears to be. 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. We come here

weeping to fight our way, as well as we can, and to

make path for ourselves through this infinite ocean of

life; forward we go, having long ages behind us and an

immense expanse beyond. So on we go, till death comes

and takes us off the field - victorious or defeated,

we do not know. And this is Maya.

 

In our desire to solve the mysteries of the universe,,

we cannot stop our questioning, we feel we must know

and cannot believe that no knowledge is to be gained.

A few steps, and there aroused the wall of begin less

and endless time which we cannot surmount. A few

steps, and there appears a wall of boundless space

which cannot be surmounted, and the whole is

irrevocably bound in by the walls of cause and effect.

We cannot go beyond them. Yet we struggle, and still

have to struggle. And this is

Maya.

 

Time, the avenger of everything, comes, and nothing is

left. He swallows up the saint and the sinner, the

king and the peasant, the beautiful and the ugly; and

leaves nothing. Everything is rushing towards that one

goal, destruction.

 

Everyday people are dying around us, and yet men think

they will never die and this is Maya.

 

Animals are living upon plants, men upon animals and,

worst of all, upon one another, the strong upon the

weak. This is going on everywhere. And this is Maya.

 

Like moths hurling themselves against the flame, we

are hurling ourselves again and again into sense

pleasures, hoping to find satisfaction there. We

return again and again with freshened energy; thus we

go on, till crippled and cheated we die. And this is

Maya.

 

Is there no way out? Is there no hope then? We find

with all this, with this terrible fact before us, in

the midst of sorrow and suffering, even in this world

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. " 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.

 

Not only the human soul, but all creatures from the

lowest to the highest have heard the voice and are

rushing towards it; and in the struggle are either

combining with each other or pushing each other out of

the way. Thus come competition, joys, struggles, life,

pleasure, and death, and the whole universe is nothing

but the result of this mad struggle to reach the

voice. This is the manifestation of nature.

 

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 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 on not.

 

The sun is moving towards the goal, so is the earth in

circling round the sun, so is the moon in circling

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

and the air is blowing. Everything is struggling

towards that voice, and cannot be hindered; the

miseris 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 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 difference is not one of kind, but of

degree.

 

Religion begins with a tremendous dissatisfaction with

the present state of things, with our lives, and a

hatred, an intense hatred, for thispatching up of

life, and unbounded disgust for fraud and lies.There

is a being beyond allthese manifestation ofMaya, who

is superior to and independent of Maya, and who is

attracting us towards Himself, and that we are all

going towards Him. The idea that 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 is heaven becomes the God in

nature, and the Godin nature becomes the God within

this temple of 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 reach.The voice that you heard was

right, says the Vedanta, but you projected it outside

yourself, and that was your mistake. Bring it nearer

and nearer, until you find that is was all the time

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

freedom was our 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 form this fear is the

goal: not only to see intellectually, but to perceive

it, intellectually it, much more definitely than we

perceive this world. Then we shall know that we are

free.

 

Maya is explained through a small story:

 

Once Narada said to Krishna, " Lord, Show me Maya. " A

few days passed away, and Krishna asked Narada to make

a trip with him towards a desert, and after walking

for several miles, Krishna said, " Narada I am thirsty;

can you fetch some water for me: " I will go at once,

sir, and get you water. " So Narada went. At a little

distance there was a village; he entered the village

in search of water and knocked at a door, which was

opened by a most beautiful young girl. At the sight of

her he immediately forgot that his master was waiting

for water, perhaps dying for thewant of it. He forgot

everything and began to talk with the girl. All that

day he did not return to his Master. The next day, he

was again at the house, taking to the girl. That talk

ripened into love; he asked the father for the

daughter, and they were married and lived there and

has children. Thus twelve years passed. His

father-in-law died, he inherited his property. He

lived, as he seemed to think, a very happy life with

his wife and children, his fields and his cattle, and

so forth. Then came the flood. One night the river

rose until it overflowed its banks and flooded the

whole village. Houses fell, men and animals were

floating in the rush of the stream. Narada had to

escape. With one hand he held his wife, and with the

other two of his children; another child was on his

shoulders, and he was trying to ford this tremendous

flood. After a few steps he found the current was too

strong. and the child on his shoulders fell and was

borne away. Acry of despair came from Narada. In

trying to save that child, he lost his grasp upon one

of the others, and italso was lost. At last his wife,

whom he clasped with all his might, was torn awayby

the current, and he was thrown on the bank, weeping

and wailing in bitter lamentation. Behindhim there

came a gentle voice, " My child, where is the water?

You wenttofetch a pitcher of water, and I am waiting

for you; you have been goneforquiet half an hour. "

" Half an hour! " Narada exclaimed. Twelve whole years

had passed through his mind, and all there scenes

happened in half an hour! And this is Maya.

 

 

 

 

 

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