Suffering, Maya and Leela revisited

[Guest guest]

Further to an earlier exchange with Brad and others about

Suffering, Maya and Leela; the following response has come

to us from a monk of the Ramakrishna order. We share this

message with the list. jay

 

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Dear Jay,

 

I was searching one file and I happened to see your

two <emails> enclosed.

 

Please tell Brad to write a story. To write an interesting story

he himself will surely conceive at least one negative and one

positive character - generally named as Hero and villain.

Then ask ‘why has he conceived a negative character

(a villain) in his story when he is averse to negative ideas’?

His villain will be as intelligent as he is and if the story is effective

one, the suffering the villain is causing will be also harsher one

which hero will overcome and ultimately will be glorified.

 

If he answers - " I have written it out of fun " - then it is near Lila

theory. (He will corroborate the Lila theory also when he admits

that he likes to see the movies which have much struggles by

the hero and ultimately hero wins. He enjoys most where hero

knows almost everything and can overcome everything. Ask

him why he enjoys hard fought football match where he wants

his party to win inflicting sorrow to the opponent). Still by Lila

theory the suffering is not explained properly. The psychic

mechanism in this case is that when we conceive or see

we always do it in duality (in contrast) though I, the

conceiver/seer, am always non-dual. We can not see picture,

which is all white on a white paper. One party football game

is not possible.

 

The whole world is being seen by me, the seer, within me

as all perception is happening within me according to the

medical science. Secondly, according to it, if we see red rose

the red colour of the rose is reflected one and perceived. In that

case what is the real colour which that rose possesses? Again

the image is inverted, how it is being reverted again if at all it

is being done? Therefore, I am only perceiving the world and

its’ suffering as also projecting and imagining it outward to enjoy

it as it were (Suffering also is one type of enjoyment (rasa) and

all enjoyment is suffering to the discriminating soul). Thus the

whole world we conceive on the reality- the Self- is a seeming

world, an apparent reality, a projected reality. In Swamijis

(Swami Vivekananda) words Maya is 'statement of fact'. The

reality is the Atman and world is its statement as it were, where

statement is not exact reality though we imagine so.

That is Maya explanation.

 

We see and experience seeming suffering due to our seeming

attachment to our body mind complex out of ignorance

(Avidya or Maya). And since the rationality is also in the domain

of Maya - apparent reality, it can not explain Maya or suffering.

It is like the villain of the story who can not answer the question

why he came to existence or you can not ask in your dream why

you are dreaming. Maya is also called avidya (not known properly)

then how one can know the Reality through it.

 

Suffering cleanses the Mirror of our heart or it can be said that it

teaches us to look inward. We need to know this art of inward

looking to realise our true original nature or see God who is within us.

 

With best wishes and namaskars,

 

Swami Chandrashekharananda