MAYA AND ILLUSION

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Posted by: " Bhakta Dhruva " bhakta_dhruva

 

MAYA AND ILLUSION

 

Coming from abstractions to the common, everyday details of our lives, we find

that our whole life is a contradiction, a mixture of existence and

non-existence. There is this contradiction in knowledge. It seems that man can

know everything, if he only wants to know; but before he has gone a few steps,

he finds an adamantine wail which he cannot pass. All his work is in a circle,

and he cannot go beyond that circle. The problems which are nearest and dearest

to him are impelling him on and calling, day and night, for a solution, but he

cannot solve them, because he cannot go beyond his intellect. And yet that

desire is implanted strongly in him. Still we know that the only good is to be

obtained by controlling and checking it. With every breath, every impulse of our

heart asks us to be selfish. At the same time, there is some power beyond us

which says that it is unselfishness alone which is good. Every child is a born

optimist; he dreams golden dreams. In youth he becomes still more optimistic. It

is hard for a young man to believe that there is such a thing as death, such a

thing as defeat or degradation. Old age comes, and life is a mass of ruins.

Dreams have vanished into the air, and the man becomes a pessimist. Thus we go

from one extreme to another, buffeted by nature, without knowing where we are

going. It reminds me of a celebrated song in the Lalita Vistara, the biography

of Buddha. Buddha was born, says the book, as the saviour of mankind, but he

forgot himself in the luxuries of his palace. Some angels came and sang a song

to rouse him. And the burden of the whole song is that we are floating down the

river of life which is continually changing with no stop and no rest. So are our

lives, going on and on without knowing any rest. What are we to do? The man who

has enough to eat and drink is an optimist, and he avoids all mention of misery,

for it frightens him. Tell not to him of the sorrows and the sufferings of the

world; go to him and tell that it is all good. " Yes, I am safe, " says he. " Look

at me! I have a nice house to live in. I do not fear cold and hunger; therefore

do not bring these horrible pictures before me. " But, on the other hand, there

are others dying of cold and

hunger. If you go and teach them that it is all good, they will not hear you.

How can they wish others to be happy when they are miserable? Thus we are

oscillating between optimism and pessimism.

 

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