A story to illustrate Maya

[Guest guest]

>From the web. My thanks to the unknown author .

 

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What is Maya? This the question put by the wandering sage Narada to

Vishnu.

 

Narada, the itinerant divine sage and inveterate experimenter, roams

the three worlds, sowing seeds of discord. He goes up to Vishnu and

demands that Maya be explained to him. Vishnu is silent. Narada is

not one to be denied. He insists so persistently that the god has to

answer him. "Maya cannot be explained, it has to be experienced," he

says. "If you can't explain what you create, then I won't believe in

you," retorts the never-say-die sage. Quickly deserting his serpent

couch--for the fate of gods in whom humans do not believe is

shrouded in uncertainty--Vishnu beckons him to follow.

 

Walking together, they reach a desert where Vishnu sits down under a

tree and exclaims, "I am so tired, Narada! Take this cup and get me

some water from that oasis. When you return I will explain Maya to

you." Eager to plumb the mystery, Narada speeds off to the oasis and

finds a well there beside a hut. He calls out, and a lovely girl

opens the door. Looking into her eyes Narada is reminded of the

compelling eyes of Vishnu. She invites him in and disappears

indoors. Her parents come out and greet the guest, requesting him to

rest and eat after his journey through the burning sands before he

returns with the cup of water. Thinking of the lovely girl, Narada

agrees.

 

Night falls, and they urge him to leave in the cool morning.

Awakening in the morning, Narada looks out and sees the girl bathing

beside the well. He forgets about the cup of water. He stays on. The

parents offer him their daughter's hand in marriage. Narada accepts,

and settles down here. Children arrive; the parents-in-law die;

Narada inherits the property. Twelve years go by. Suddenly the

floods arrive--floods in the desert!--and his house is washed away.

Carrying his children on his shoulders, Narada wades through the

raging waters with his wife. Suddenly, she is swept away. Reaching

out to clutch her, he loses hold of his children who disappear in

the waters. Narada is submerged in the floods and loses

consciousness. He awakens to find head pillowed in someone's lap.

Opening his eyes he gazes into the eyes of Vishnu, seated at the

desert's edge under that same tree, those eyes that remind him of

his wife's. "Narada," asks Vishnu, "where is the cup of water?"

Narada asked, "You mean, all that happened to me did not happen to

me?" Vishnu smiled his enigmatic smile.