Maya
Maya
A few extracts from the writings of Swami Nikhilananda
Why does the non-dual soul appear in a manifold form? What is the
cause of this multiplicity in the universe? How does the One become the
many, and the Absolute become the relative? In answer, Vedanta says that
this is due to the identification of the soul, or the Absolute, with material
upaadhis, or limiting adjuncts. What is the cause of this identification?
Vedanta explains this as MAYA or ignorance.
The finite human mind cannot comprehend the exact relationship between
the One and the many, Reality and appearance, the Absolute and the relative.
From the standpoint of the relative, there is no Absolute. The Absolute is a mystical experience characterised by the absence of duality.
That is why Vedanta
calls this apparent identification of the Absolute with the relative by
the name of MAYA. It is an inscrutable power that inheres in Brahman,
or the Godhead. Under the influence of this cosmic ignorance, the all
pervading, eternal, and infinite spirit forgets its real nature. It is
something like a man going to sleep, which first makes him oblivious of
himself and then creates the fantastic dream world. It is also a well
known fact that on account of ignorance one sees water in the desert,
as in the case of a mirage. As long as the sleep and the illusion last,
the experience of the dream and the mirage appear to be real. On account
of maya, the infinite soul, or the Godhead, identifies itself with the
finite, material forms and becomes individualised.
Furthermore, it superimposes upon itself the attributes of the material
form with which it is identified. Thus the birthless, deathless, immortal
soul, which is of the nature of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, appears
to be finite, phenomenal being subject to hunger and thirst,pain and pleasure,
birth and death, good and evil, and the other pairs of opposites.
As long as ignorance lasts, these relative characteristics appear to pertain
to the soul and to be real. All the individualised, finite beings one
sees in the universe are manifestations of the non-dual soul through maya;
but as maya has no absolute reality, the individual soul created by it
not, ultimately speaking, real. As, in spite of the perception of the
illusory mirage, the real nature of the desert is not affected, so, in
spite of the perception of illusory birth and death, the soul is always
of the nature of light, infinity,bliss, and immortality.
Maya
and Illusion
By Swami Vivekananda
The foremost disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa
Excerpts
Almost all
of you have heard of the Maya. Generally it is used, though incorrectly,
to denote illusion, or delusion, or some such thing. But the theory of
Maya forms one of the pillars upon which the Vedanta rests; it is therefore,
necessary that it should be properly understood.
We read in the Svetasvatara Upanisad, "Know nature to be Maya and the Ruler of this Maya is the Lord Himself."
When
the Hindu says the world is Maya, at once people get the idea
that the world is an illusion. This interpretation has some basis, as
coming through the Buddhistic philosophers, because there was one section
of philosophers who did not believe in the external world at all. But
the Maya of the Vedanta, in its last developed form, is neither idealism
nor Realism, nor is it a theory. It is a simple statement of facts- what
we are and what we see around us.
The
minds of the people from whom the Vedas came were intent upon following
principles. They had no time to work upon details or to wait for them;
they wanted to go deep into the heart of things. Something beyond was
calling them, as it were, and they could not wait.
The Vedantist 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 (following) 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, 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 have to work in and through
it. It is a mixture of existence and non-existence.
We find that Maya is not a theory for the explanation of the world; it
is simply a statement of facts as they exist, that the very basis of of
our being is contradiction, that everywhere we have to move through this
tremendous contradiction, that wherever there is good, there must also
be evil, and wherever there is evil, there must be some good, wherever
there is life, death must follow as its shadow, and everyone who smiles
will have to weep, and vice versa.
Now can this state of things be remedied. We may verily imagine that there
will be a place where there will be only good and no evil, where we shall
only smile and never weep. This is impossible in the very nature of things;
for the conditions will remain the same. Wherever there is the power of
producing a smile in us, there lurks the power of producing tears. Wherever
there is the power of producing happpiness, there lurks somewhere the
power of making us miserable.