MAYA AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPTION OF GOD

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MAYA AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPTION OF GOD-4

 

Posted by: " Uttishthata " uttishthata

Fri Jan 4, 2008 1:49 am (PST)

(Delivered in London, 20th October 1896)

 

Now, it is a statement of fact that this world is a Tantalus's hell,

that we do not know anything about this universe, yet at the same

time we cannot say that we do not know. I cannot say that this chain

exists, when I think that I do not know it. It may be an entire

delusion of my brain. I may be dreaming all the time. I am dreaming

that I am talking to you, and that you are listening to me. No one

can prove that it is not a dream. My brain itself may be a dream, and

as to that no one has ever seen his own brain. We all take it for

granted. So it is with everything. My own body I take for granted. At

the same time I cannot say, I do not know. This standing between

knowledge and ignorance, this mystic twilight, the mingling of truth

and falsehood - and where they meet - no one knows. We are walking in

the midst of a dream, half sleeping, half waking, passing all our

lives in a haze; this is the fate of everyone of us. This is the fate

of all sense-knowledge. This is the fate of all philosophy, of all

boasted science, of all boasted human knowledge. This is the

universe.

 

What you call matter, or spirit, or mind, or anything else you may

like to call them, the fact remains the same: we cannot say that they

are, we cannot say that they are not. We cannot say they are one, we

cannot say they are many. This eternal play of light and darkness -

indiscriminate, indistinguishable, inseparable - is always there. A

fact, yet at the same time not a fact; awake and at the same time

asleep. This is a statement of facts, and this is what is called

Maya. We are born in this Maya, we live in it, we think in it, we

dream in it. 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. It cannot be otherwise, and the whole of human

knowledge is a generalization of this Maya trying to know it as it

appears to be. This is the work of Nâma-Rupa - name and form.

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.

 

Let us go back a little to those early ideas of God and see what

became of them. We perceive at once that the idea of some Being who

is eternally loving us - eternally unselfish and almighty, ruling

this universe - could not satisfy. " Where is the just, merciful God? "

asked the philosopher. Does He not see millions and millions of His

children perish, in the form of men and animals; for who can live one

moment here without killing others? Can you draw a breath without

destroying thousands of lives? You live, because, millions die. Every

moment of your life, every breath that you breathe, is death to

thousands; every movement that you make is death to millions. Every

morsel that you eat is death to millions. Why should they die? There

is an old sophism that they are very low existences. Supposing they

are - which is questionable, for who knows whether the ant is greater

than the man, or the man than the ant - who can prove one way or the

other? Apart from that question, even taking it for granted that

these are very low beings, still why should they die? If they are

low, they have more reason to live. Why not? Because they live more

in the senses, they feel pleasure and pain a thousandfold more than

you or I can do. Which of us eats a dinner with the same gusto as a

dog or wolf? None, because our energies are not in the senses; they

are in the intellect, in the spirit. But in animals, their whole soul

is in the senses, and they become mad and enjoy things which we human

beings never dream of, and the pain is commensurate with the

pleasure. Pleasure and pain are meted out in equal measure. If the

pleasure felt by animals is so much keener than that felt by man, it

follows that the animals' sense of pain is as keen, if not keener

than man's. So the fact is, the pain and misery men feel in dying is

intensified a thousandfold in animals, and yet we kill them without

troubling ourselves about their misery. This is Maya. And if we

suppose there is a Personal God like a human being, who made

everything, these so-called explanations and theories which try to

prove that out of evil comes good are not sufficient. Let twenty

thousand good things come, but why should they come from evil? On

that principle, I might cut the throats of others because I want the

full pleasure of my five senses. That is no reason. Why should good

come through evil? The question remains to be answered, and it cannot

be answered. The philosophy of India was compelled to admit this.

 

To be continued...

 

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Volume 2

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Strength is life, weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life

eternal, immortal. Weakness is constant strain and misery; weakness

is death.

- Swami Vivekananda