MAYA AND ILLUSION

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Posted by: " Uttishthata " uttishthata

Wed Nov 21, 2007 6:32 pm (PST)

 

MAYA AND ILLUSION - Swam Vivekananda

 

This is true of all sense-enjoyments, of all intellectual

enjoyments, and of all the enjoyments of which the human mind is

capable. They are nothing, they are within Maya, within this network

beyond which we cannot go. We may run therein through infinite time

and find no end, and whenever we struggle to get a little enjoyment,

a mass of misery falls upon us. How awful is this! And when I think

of it, I cannot but consider that this theory of Maya, this

statement that it is all Maya, is the best and only explanation.

What an amount of misery there is in this world; and if you travel

among various nations you will find that one nation attempts to cure

its evils by one means, and another by another. The very same evil

has been taken up by various races, and attempts have been made in

various ways to check it, yet no nation has succeeded. If it has

been minimised at one point, a mass of evil has been crowded at

another point. Thus it goes. The Hindus, to keep up a high standard

of chastity in the race, have sanctioned child-marriage, which in

the long run has degraded the race. At the same time, I cannot deny

that this child-marriage makes the race more chaste. What would you

have? If you want the nation to be more chaste, you weaken men and

women physically by child-marriage. On the other hand, are you in

England any better off? No, because chastity is the life of a

nation. Do you not find in history that the first death-sign of a

nation has been unchastity? When that has entered, the end of the

race is in sight. Where shall we get a solution of these miseries

then? If parents select husbands and wives for their children, then

this evil is minimised. The daughters of India are more practical

than sentimental. But very little of poetry remains in their lives.

Again, if people select their own husbands and wives, that does not

seem to bring much happiness. The Indian woman is generally very

happy; there are not many cases of quarrelling between husband and

wife. On the other hand in the United States, where the greatest

liberty obtains, the number of unhappy homes and marriages is large.

Unhappiness is here, there, and everywhere. What does it show? That,

after all, not much happiness has been gained by all these ideals.

We all struggle for happiness and as soon as we get a little

happiness on one side, on the other side there comes unhappiness.

 

to be continued...

 

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Volume 2 [ Page :100 ]

(Lecture Delivered in London)

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

The weak have no place here, in this life or any other life.

Weakness leads to slavery. Weakness leads to all kinds of misery,

physical and mental. Weakness is death.

- Swami Vivekananda