MAYA AND ILLUSION

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Posted by: " Uttishthata " uttishthata

Mon Oct 8, 2007 8:04 pm (PST)

 

MAYA AND ILLUSION - Swam Vivekananda

 

Then, there is the tremendous fact of death. The whole world is

going towards death; everything dies. All our progress, our

vanities, our reforms, our luxuries, our wealth, our knowledge, have

that one end -- death. That is all that is certain. Cities come and

go, empires rise and fall, planets break into pieces and crumble

into dust, to be blown about by the atmospheres of other planets.

Thus it has been going on from time without beginning. Death is the

end of everything. Death is the end of life, of beauty, of wealth,

of power, of virtue too. Saints die and sinners die, kings die and

beggars die. They are all going to death, and yet this tremendous

clinging on to life exists. Somehow, we do not know why, we cling to

life; we cannot give it up. And this is Maya.

 

The mother is nursing a child with great care; all her soul, her

life, is in that child. The child grows, becomes a man, and

perchance becomes a blackguard and a brute, kicks her and beats her

every day; and yet the mother clings to the child; and when her

reason awakes, she covers it up with the idea of love. She little

thinks that it is not love, that it is something which has got hold

of her nerves, which she cannot shake off; however she may try, she

cannot shake off the bondage she is in. And this is Maya.

 

We are all after the Golden Fleece. Every one of us thinks that this

will be his. Every reasonable man sees that his chance is, perhaps,

one in twenty millions, yet everyone struggles for it. And this is

Maya.

 

Death is stalking day and night over this earth of ours, but at the

same time we think we shall live eternally. A question was once

asked of King Yudhisthira, " What is the most wonderful thing on this

earth? " And the king replied, " Every day people are dying around us,

and yet men think they will never die. " And this is Maya.

 

to be continued...

 

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Volume 2 [ Page : 92 ]

(Lecture Delivered in London)

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

The less the thought of the body, the better it is for us. For it is

the body that drags us down. It is attachment, identification, which

makes us miserable.

- Swami Vivekananda