MAYA AND ILLUSION

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Posted by: " Uttishthata " uttishthata

Fri Oct 5, 2007 7:51 pm (PST)

 

MAYA AND ILLUSION - Swam Vivekananda

 

Coming to the principles, we find these Vedic thinkers very

courageous and wonderfully bold in propounding large and generalised

theories. Their solution of the mystery of the universe, from the

external world, was as satisfactory as it could be. The detailed

workings of modern science do not bring the question one step nearer

to solution, because the principles have failed. If the theory of

ether failed in ancient times to give a solution of the mystery of

the universe, working out the details of that ether theory would not

bring us much nearer to the truth. If the theory of all-pervading

life failed as a theory of this universe, it would not mean anything

more if worked out in detail, for the details do not change the

principle of the universe. What I mean is that in their inquiry into

the principle, the Hindu thinkers were as bold, and in some cases,

much bolder than the moderns. They made some of the grandest

generalisations that have yet been reached, and some still remain as

theories, which modern science has yet to get even as theories. For

instance, they not only arrived at the ether theory, but went beyond

and classified mind also as a still more rarefied ether. Beyond that

again, they found a still more rarefied ether. Yet that was no

solution, it did not solve the problem. No amount of knowledge of

the external world could solve the problem. " But " , says the

scientists, " we are just beginning to know a little: wait a few

thousand years and we shall get the solution. " " No, " says the

Vedantist, for he has proved beyond all doubt that the mind is

limited, that it cannot go beyond certain limits -- beyond time,

space, and causation. As no man can jump out of his own self, so no

man can go beyond the limits that have been put upon him by the laws

of time and space. Every attempt to solve the laws of causation,

time, and space would be futile, because the very attempt would have

to be made by taking for granted the existence of these three. What

does the statement of the existence of the world mean, then? " This

world has no existence. " What is meant by that? It means that it has

no absolute existence. It exists only in relation to my mind, to

your mind, and to the mind of everyone else. We see this world with

the five senses but if we had another sense, we would see in it

something more. If we had yet another sense, it would appear as

something still different. It has, therefore, no real existence; it

has no unchangeable, immovable, infinite existence. Nor can it be

called non-existence, seeing that it exists, and we have to work in

and through it. It is a mixture of existence and non-existence.

 

to be continued...

 

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Volume 2 [ Page : 90 ]

(Lecture Delivered in London)

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Brave, bold people, these are what we want. What we want is vigor in

the blood, strength in the nerves, iron muscles and nerves of steel,

not softening namby-pamby ideas. Avoid all these. Avoid all mystery.

There is no mystery in religion.

- Swami Vivekananda