MAYA AND FREEDOM

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Posted by: " Bhakta Dhruva " bhakta_dhruva

 

On the one side, therefore, is the bold assertion that this is all nonsense,

that this is Maya, but along with it there is the most hopeful assertion that

beyond Maya, there is a way out. On the other hand, practical men tell us,

" Don't bother your heads about such nonsense as religion and metaphysics. Live

here; this is a very bad world indeed, but make the best of it. " Which put in

plain language means, live a hypocritical, lying life, a life of continuous

fraud, covering all sores in the best way you can. Go on putting patch after

patch, until everything is lost, and you are a mass of patchwork. This is what

is called practical life. Those that are satisfied with this patchwork will

never come to religion. Religion begins with a tremendous dissatisfaction with

the present state of things, with our lives, and a hatred, an intense hatred,

for this patching up of life, an unbounded disgust for fraud and lies. He alone

can be religious who dares say, as the mighty Buddha once said under the

Bo-tree, when this idea of practicality appeared before him and he saw that it

was nonsense, and yet could not find a way out. When the temptation came to him

to give up his search after truth, to go back to the world and live the old life

of fraud, calling things by wrong names, telling lies to oneself and to

everybody, he, the giant, conquered it and said, " Death is better than a

vegetating ignorant life; it is better to die on the battle-field than to live a

life of defeat. " This is the basis of religion. When a man takes this stand, he

is on the way to find the truth, he is on the way to God. That determination

must be the first impulse towards becoming religious. I will hew out a way for

myself. I will know the truth or give up my life in the attempt. For on this

side it is nothing, it is gone, it is vanishing every day. The beautiful,

hopeful, young person of today is the veteran of tomorrow. Hopes and joys and

pleasures will die like blossoms with tomorrow's frost. That is one side; on the

other, there are the great charms of conquest, victories over all the ills of

life, victory over life itself, the conquest of the universe. On that side men

can stand. Those who dare, therefore, to struggle for victory, for truth, for

religion, are in the right way; and that is what the Vedas preach: Be not in

despair, the way is very difficult, like walking on the edge of a razor; yet

despair not, arise, awake, and find the ideal, the goal.

 

-Swami Vivekananda

(From Jnana-Yoga Complete Works Vol.2)