MAYA AND ILLUSION

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Posted by: " Bhakta Dhruva " bhakta_dhruva

 

MAYA AND ILLUSION

 

Then, there is the tremendous fact of death. The whole world is going

towards death; everything dies. All our progress, our vanities, our reforms, our

luxuries, our wealth, our knowledge, have that one end — death. That is all that

is certain. Cities come and go, empires rise and fall, planets break into pieces

and crumble into dust, to be blown about by the atmospheres of other planets.

Thus it has been going on from time without beginning.

 

Death is the end of everything. Death is the end of life, of beauty, of wealth,

of power, of virtue too. Saints die and sinners die, kings die and beggars die.

They are all going to death, and yet this tremendous clinging on to life exists.

Somehow, we do not know why, we cling to life; we cannot give it up. And this is

Maya.

 

The mother is nursing a child with great care; all her soul, her life, is in

that child. The child grows, becomes a man, and perchance becomes a blackguard

and a brute, kicks her and beats her every day; and yet the mother clings to the

child; and when her reason awakes, she covers it up with the idea of love. She

little thinks that it is not love, that it is something which has got hold of

her nerves, which she cannot shake off; however she may try, she cannot shake

off the bondage she is in. And this is Maya.

 

We are all after the Golden Fleece. Every one of us thinks that this will be

his. Every reasonable man sees that his chance is, perhaps, one in twenty

millions, yet everyone struggles for it. And this is Maya.

 

Death is stalking day and night over this earth of ours, but at the same time we

think we shall live eternally. A question was once asked of King Yudhishthira,

" What is the most wonderful thing on this earth? " And the king replied, " Every

day people are dying around us, and yet men think they will never die. " And this

is Maya.

 

-Swami Vivekananda

(Complete Works Of Swami Vivekananda Vol.2)