MAYA AND ILLUSION

[Guest guest]

Posted by: " Bhakta Dhruva " bhakta_dhruva

 

MAYA AND ILLUSION

 

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 ring 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

generalizations 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

scientist, " 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 slave to work in and through it. It is a mixture

of existence and non-existence.

-Swami Vivekananda (Complete Works Of Swami Vivekananda Vol.2)