MAYA AND ILLUSION

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Posted by: " Bhakta Dhruva " bhakta_dhruva

 

These tremendous contradictions in our intellect, in our knowledge, yea, in all

the facts of our life face us on all sides. A reformer arises and wants to

remedy the evils that are existing in a certain nation; and before they have

been remedied, a thousand other evils arise in another place. It is like an old

house that is falling; you patch it up in one place and the ruin extends to

another. In India, our reformers cry and preach against the evils of enforced

widowhood. In the West, non-marriage is the great evil. Help the unmarried on

one side; they are suffering. Help the widows on the other; they are suffering.

It is like chronic rheumatism: you drive from the head, and it goes to the body;

you drive it from there, and it goes to the feet. Reformers arise and preach

that learning, wealth, and culture should not be in the hands of a select few;

and they do their best to make them accessible to all. These may bring more

happiness to some, but, perhaps, as culture comes, physical happiness lessens.

The knowledge of happiness brings the knowledge of unhappiness. Which way then

shall we go? The least amount of material prosperity that we enjoy is causing

the same amount of misery elsewhere. This is the law. The young, perhaps, do not

see it clearly, but those who have lived long enough and those who have

struggled enough will understand it. And this is Maya. These things are going

on, day and night, and to find a solution of this problem is impossible. Why

should it be so? It is impossible to answer this, because the question cannot be

logically formulated. There is neither how nor why in fact; we only know that

it is and that we cannot help it. Even to grasp it, to draw an exact image of it

in our own mind, is beyond our power. How can we solve it then?

 

Maya is a statement of the fact of this universe, of how it is going on. People

generally get frightened when these things are told to them. But bold we must

be. Hiding facts is not the way to find a remedy. As you all know, a hare hunted

by dogs puts its head down and thinks itself safe; so, when we run into

optimism; we do just like the hare, but that is no remedy. There are objections

against this, but you may remark that they are generally from people who possess

many of the good things of life. In this country (England) it is very difficult

to become a pessimist. Everyone tells me how wonderfully the world is going on,

how progressive; but what he himself is, is his own world. Old questions arise:

Christianity must be the only true religion of the world because Christian

nations are prosperous! But that assertion contradicts itself, because the

prosperity of the Christian nation depends on the misfortune of non-Christian

nations. There must be some to prey on. Suppose the whole world were to become

Christian, then the Christian nations would become poor, because there would be

no non-Christian nations for them to prey upon. Thus the argument kills itself.

Animals are living upon plants, men upon animals and, worst of all, upon one

another, the strong upon the weak. This is going on everywhere. And this is

Maya. What solution do you find for this? We hear every day many explanations,

and are told that in the long run all will be good. Taking it for granted that

this is possible, why should there be this diabolical way of doing good? Why

cannot good be done through good, instead of through these diabolical methods?

The descendants of the human beings of today will be happy; but why must there

be all this suffering now? There is no solution. This is Maya.

 

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