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How is it that all living beings in the material world are bewildered by the powerful illusion that the body is the self? The Vedas explain that there is a pervasive and powerful, yet invisible, illusory energy named Māyā. This is a bit esoteric for many people but it is a very important subject.
We mention an ancient story of a warrior prince who was questioned by a mystical being and one of the questions put to his was; What is the most wonderful thing?
With folded palms Yudhiṣṭhira replied, “The most wonderful thing is that although every day innumerable creatures go to the abode of death, still a man thinks he is immortal.“
The verses I have quoted in this talk are as follows:
Ignorance consists of considering that which is temporary as eternal, the impure as pure, misery as happiness and the non-self (the body or mind) as the real self. Yoga Sūtra 2.5
My dear Uddhava, the material universe that you perceive through your mind, speech, eyes, ears and other senses is an illusory creation that one imagines to be real due to the influence of māyā. In fact, you should know that all of the objects of the material senses are temporary. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.7.7
Just as a dream is merely a creation of one’s intelligence but has no actual substance, similarly, material lamentation, illusion, happiness, distress and the acceptance of the material body under the influence of māyā are all creations of My illusory energy. In other words, material existence has no essential reality. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.11.2
One should see that the material world is a distinct illusion appearing in the mind, because material objects have an extremely flickering existence and are here today and gone tomorrow. They can be compared to the streaking red line created by whirling a fiery stick. The spirit soul by nature exists in the single state of pure consciousness. However, in this world he appears in many different forms and stages of existence. The modes of nature divide the soul’s consciousness into normal wakefulness, dreaming and dreamless sleep. All such varieties of perception, however, are actually māyā and exist only like a dream. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.13.34
Due to my feeling of false ego, I have been engaged by Your māyā and have identified myself with the body and consequent bodily relations. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 3.25.10
O Lord, the people of this world, both men and women, are bewildered by Your illusory energy. Unaware of their real benefit, they do not worship You but instead seek happiness by entangling themselves in family affairs, which are actually sources of misery. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.51.45
No one can overcome the Supreme Person’s illusory energy [māyā], which is so strong that it bewilders everyone, making one lose the sense to understand the aim of life. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 8.5.30
The Supreme Lord’s Māyā makes men forget their real selves, and thus, taking the body for the self, they consider others to be friends, enemies or neutral parties. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.54.43
The original nature of every living entity is to consider himself the eternal servant of the Lord. But under the influence of māyā he thinks himself to be the body, and thus his original consciousness is covered. CC Madhya 24.201
Thus the yogī can be in the self-realized position after conquering the insurmountable spell of māyā, who presents herself as both the cause and effect of this material manifestation and is therefore very difficult to understand. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 3.28.44
If the illusory energy subsides and the living entity becomes fully enriched with knowledge by the grace of the Lord, then he becomes at once enlightened with self-realization and thus becomes situated in his own glory. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 1.3.34
Aum Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Haribol
So tonight we’re probably going to go out on a little bit of a limb and deal with a topic, or subject, that we don’t really often talk about very much at all, but it is actually of great importance. The title of this talk is The Great Illusion – Maya.
The subject may be, for some people, a little bit esoteric maybe. And some people when hearing about it, particularly for the first time, might find it a bit overwhelming, in the sense it’s like, “Oh my God, I had no idea!” But please don’t be intimidated or overwhelmed. There’s also no real need to overly focus on what it is that we’re going to be talking about, but it is good for one who is on the path of self and God realization to at least just be aware of this situation. And I think if people listen carefully and actually get it, what it is that we’re talking about, it can actually arouse in a person a feeling of quite deep or deeper humility, because we become increasingly aware of our smallness in the big picture and the need for grace, for divine or spiritual grace.
So this talk also will make some reference to the two previous talks that we did the last couple of weeks: the one on the false ego and then last week on self-esteem. This will sort of like add greater context or more texture to those two talks, and I think it will give people a deeper sort of appreciation of those topics as well.
Maya or illusion—firstly there’s a need to recognize that it’s a really powerful and all-pervasive energy. All living beings, conditioned living beings, are covered and constantly influenced by this very great illusion, or illusory energy, which has a profound influence on our life, on our concepts of who we are, our purpose, the world around us, everything, relationships, are deeply influenced by this powerful energy. So, some of the way of which these different ideas are influenced by maya, or this illusion: this constant misconception that we live in, that the body and the mind is the self.
And even when you’re beginning your spiritual journey, and you’re cultivating some understanding, and you actually become aware of this, the fact that we can’t maintain that constant awareness, but within seconds or minutes of going, “Yes, I understand that,” immediately, almost, slip back in to the consciousness or the idea that I am the body, and being overwhelmed by the false ego and false concepts. And then again you hear something, or you engage in some meditation, and it’s like suddenly you become more aware of your spiritual existence. Then as soon as you stop that, or even in the middle of doing it, suddenly you can be just swept away into this false conception, this false idea of the body as being the self. This is all due to the influence of this powerful illusory energy.
The idea that we can find permanent happiness in this world, and our searching for it through—that I can find happiness and actual fulfillment in material experiences, in stimulating the senses and having pleasurable sensory experiences—we’re just constantly caught up with this idea that I can find happiness, permanent perpetual happiness in this world. I often mention how it was common previously for people to end stories, particularly to children, “and they lived happily ever after.” The reason that concept is around is because it is part of our psyche. It’s part of what we desire and innately seek, and the idea that we can find it within the material realm is an illusion, but it’s compelling, and it really drives us.
The idea that I can make a home in this world: I refer to the house that I live in as my home, and all it takes is a natural disaster, a massive flood, an earthquake, a volcanic eruption, a great hurricane and we—everything is rendered to just a pile of rubbish, and suddenly we’re feeling devastated. You see people on television being interviewed, and they’re just so devastated. It’s like their whole world has been turned upside down and shaken. It’s because—it’s not just the inconvenience, it was this idea that I had that this was my home, and it offered a safe and permanent place, where there was real safety and security, and now that’s been ripped away from me, and I’m devastated and overwhelmed. But even when a person goes through that, it doesn’t take very long before they get back into once again trying to find a permanent home in this world.
Then you’ve got the idea of material relationships being permanent and eternal. And the reality is–and I’m sorry—they are not. When we understand the principle of reincarnation or transmigration of the soul, prior to this life we had parents, we had a partner in life, a husband or a wife, we had children, we had relatives, we had friends; and the event known as death permanently altered that, and we have completely forgotten about all of them. And here we are again completely caught up in the idea of these current relationships as been permanent and eternal.
Then we’ve got the great quest for love. We have this burning desire, this very deep-seated desire to both love and to be loved. And that is because it is part of the nature of the soul itself. It emanates from our spiritual being. But when we’re caught up in this illusion that the body is the self, then we seek to fulfill that, what is actually a spiritual need, by material means, by material relationships; and of course, we never find the actual perfect love that we seek or desire. And even when we get heartbroken, the person that we’re in some sort of loving relationship with abandons us, or hurts us, or betrays us and leaves, or we leave because it’s becoming too painful, as soon as I get past that a little bit, then immediately I’m looking for someone else to fill that gap and become the great love of my life. The reality is it is only the Supreme Soul who can fill that great need that we have.
Then I’ll just mention something. It was like, there’s a great story in the Mahabharata, the great spiritual epic of five princely brothers, who had been—they had gone through so much, I mean, so much difficulty, and they were sent off into exile and living in the forest. And this strange situation came about, where four of the brothers had attempted to collect water from this lake and had disappeared. And finally–they’d gone looking for each other, one after the other–and finally the eldest brother, Yudhisthira, who was a great saintly personality (he was a great warrior but also a very saintly person), and he went to the water source looking for his brothers, and encountered this rather strange mystical creature, a bird that spoke with him, and said that his brothers had been taken to the netherworlds. But he gave him the opportunity to have them returned by being able to answer a series of questions. And this thing was just like so amazing, the questions that were asked, and Yudhishthira’s response, that were so profound.
So, one of the questions that was asked him was, “What is the most wonderful thing?” So, if I ask you to consider that, how would you respond as to what is the most wonderful thing? You’re just going to have an infinite number of answers, and probably none of them will be the answer that Yudhishthira gave. And he answered:
“With folded palms Yudhisthira replied, ‘The most wonderful thing is that although every day innumerable creatures go to the abode of death, still a person thinks that he is immortal.’”
That’s kind of like–and you think about it, it’s astonishing. When people are coming out of the church after a funeral ceremony, and you have people carrying the coffin, and people walking behind, and almost none of them are thinking, “I’m next. It will be my body in the coffin.” Everybody’s grieving over the loss of someone. They’re thinking how sad it is, and how wonderful that person was, and whatever. They have all these different thoughts. And in spite of knowing that all those who came before me have died, I am not willing to really embrace this as a serious reality, because if I did that would change my life. I mean my purpose for existence, the way I deal with others would be all radically altered if I accepted that.
So all of these things, and of course, limitless other things, some that we’ll raise as we go on, are due to the effect of this illusory energy, or maya. I’ll just make the point that this illusory energy is way more than just these things I spoke about. The illusory energy as it is described in great detail in the Vedas actually permeates every atom. It permeates the entire material creation. It is a cause of the material creation. It is considered both the material cause and the efficient cause of the material creation. Of course, there’s a lot of other things involved. This is not all that there is.
So if we accept this idea, just relating to those examples that I gave, and we contemplate on that in our life it’s kind of like, well, what purpose is it actually serving? Why the need for the living beings to exist in a state of illusion about their entire world, their entire life, about everything? What purpose is there for this illusory energy?
To answer that we have to just recall a couple of things which we’ve talked about a few times in the past. When it comes to what I describe as the material condition, the idea of being absorbed in bodily identification, and my place in the world, my place in relationships–The material condition is synonymous with being self-centred. I see the entire world, everything, all people, everything. I see it in relation to me. I think about it in terms of the effect that has on my mind, and whether I like or don’t like things. I lay claim to everybody, my parents, my partner or husband, my wife, my children, my friends. I lay claim to everything, and I see myself as central, the central enjoying agent. It’s all about, “How do I become happy? How do I experience fulfillment? How do I achieve all of these things?”
This is considered, or understood, to be the opposite to actual self-realization. In this condition I am seeing myself as being all important. This idea takes a while to actually really begin to understand and appreciate. This condition of wanting to be the central enjoying agent, to see everything in relation to me, is categorized in the Vedas actually as a condition of envy of the Supreme Soul. That’s a bit of a startling idea. I mean that took—when I first heard that idea it blew my mind, and I could not accept it. I could not believe that was true. “No, I—I’ve got a friendly attitude towards God. I’m very open to that, and I think He’s probably okay and cool and everything, and loving and kind. I’m not possibly—I couldn’t possibly be envious of Him.” But that envy is manifest in myself seeing myself as the centre of everything. And that is an unnatural position for the atma. The atma, the individual soul, the self, is not the central enjoying agent.
We are one amongst a limitless ocean of living beings. But amongst all these living beings, “nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam” there is one being who is chief, there is one being who is supreme. There is one conscious being upon whom all other beings are dependent. That is the Vedic statement. And that of course, is the position of the Supreme Soul. It is the Supreme Soul who is rightly addressed as Lord. The individual soul—the term often used is purusa, which literally means like a person—so the living beings are purusa and the Supreme Being is called the Parampurusa, the Supreme Purusa. And so, when in my life I’m living out this idea that I am central, everything is about me, everything is in relation to me, then I am attempting to usurp a position that is somebody else’s. So that’s a rather a deep idea.
Because the living being manifests this enviousness of God and desiring to be the central enjoying agent—it is not my deepest spiritual nature, but if I am to try and live out that desire, the need for this illusory energy becomes obvious. It is through the agency of this illusory energy that I can be absorbed in that illusion, and I can live that way. I can live that life of trying to be the centre of everything, the central enjoying agent. So it is maya that, or illusion, that facilitates the false concept of who I am (and that’s referring back to the first talk a couple of weeks ago about the false ego.) When I have that false conception of self and I want to live as the central enjoying agent, it is maya that makes that possible for the living beings to do it.
And some people may say, “Well that’s cruel, because now I’m in this illusion, so I will keep going.” No, it’s the other way around. As long as I am holding on to that false concept of self, as long as I am holding on to the desire to be the central enjoying agent, then maya facilitates that so it can happen.
So, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago with the false ego talk, this false ego is the seed, the seed of the problem. It is the first step. This false concept of myself as being central, as being all important, and wanting to be the supreme enjoyer of things, that central enjoying agent, so maya facilitates that for the living beings.
The subject of maya is almost never talked about in yoga circles. It’s like people are unaware. I mean if I was aware that I am deeply influenced by this illusion, I am in deep illusion, that would be rather humbling. It’s pretty hard to be on a tall perch and thinking I’ve got it together, if I’m actually aware of the reality of the situation.
In the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali he does not refer to maya and discuss maya, but what he does discuss is the effect that maya has upon the soul. And so this is normally how it’s dealt with in the world of the mystical yoga process, or astanga yoga. It is the effect. So there is a verse in the Yoga Sutra in the 2nd pada or chapter, the 5th sloka. It goes,
“anityasuci-duhkhanatmasu nitya-suci-sukhatma-khyatir-avidya”
And it translates as,
“Ignorance consists of considering that which is temporary as eternal…”
So before we go any further, I’ll just make the point that he is now talking about the effects of maya; and the principle way these effects are grouped together is under the heading of ignorance. In Sanskrit the word vidya means knowledge, actual knowledge, and avidya is the opposite of knowledge, which is ignorance. So,
“Ignorance consists of considering that which is temporary as eternal…”
So I mean, that refers to relationships, the thing I call home, the concepts I have of who I am, the body as being me, my desires, all of these things, I hold them to be the only truth. “That’s it. This is the whole picture.” But actually those things are temporary. So,
“Ignorance consists of considering that which is temporary is eternal, the impure as being pure, misery as happiness and the non-self (meaning the body or mind) as the real self.”
So this is, in summary, the effects that are produced by maya. And so a big part of the process of self-realization was seeking to overcome this ignorance, to live in a state of actual knowing, of knowledge, of awareness.
The Vedas deal much more intimately and in a much more detailed way about this illusory energy, its nature, the effects that it has, and how it is to be overcome. And I’ve actually got a lot of verses here which I was going to read to you, and hopefully we’ve got it together and put the slides up, so you can read along, and contemplate on this great illusion, this powerful illusory energy called maya.
So, in this first verse that we’ll read from the Bhagavat Purana from the 11th canto, Lord Krishna is speaking to Uddhava:
“My dear Uddhava, the material universe that you perceive through your mind, speech, eyes, ears and other senses is an illusory creation that one imagines to be real due to the influence of maya. In fact, you should know that all of the objects of the material senses are temporary.”
So I just wanted to make the point here, there is a concept in the Advaita Vedanta school that the material energy is false; it is unreal in all respects; and that what we experience is completely just an illusion. The actual Vedas teach that while material creation is real, it is a temporary and fleeting reality, and on that basis it is considered illusory, it is considered false.
So what we just read really ties into what’s going on, for some time now, in the world of quantum physics. In the world of quantum physics they actually examine the nature of perception, and whether things are real or not real. And they raise these things that you hear, if a tree fell in the forest and no one heard or saw it, did it actually happen? Don’t worry I’m not proposing that we’re going to discuss that or try and figure that one out. But what they do point out is that all sensory activity, like seeing—and this we’ve discussed before—when you actually see, your eye is not seeing anything,. Your eye is just a gelatinous blob that allows, through a lens, light to enter, and that light hits photosensitive cells on the back, creates electrical impulses which are transmitted through the optic nerve to the brain, which then set off electrical impulses in the brain. And none of that explains perception, who is seeing, and how are they seeing, through that physical process.
So not only that, all sensory activity and everything that you’re observing is actually—you’re observing it within the mind. And then so these quantum physicists ask this question, “Well, is there any external reality to this whatsoever? And is that—if there is something corresponding [to] it, is it the way that we’re experiencing it within our mind?” I mean most of us don’t even think about this. We just go on about our life looking at things, talking to people, touching things, tasting stuff, speaking, hearing, doing all of these things in this world, which the heavy thinkers, the quantum physicists are going like, “Oh my God, where is this actually going on? Where is this actually happening?” And if you think about that it’s kind of like, it’s really trippy, and it’s really amazing.
So, speaking to that point, Lord Krishna states to Uddhava,
“My dear Uddhava, the material universe that you perceive through your mind, speech, eyes, ears and other senses is an illusory creation that one imagines to be real due to the influence of maya. In fact, you should know that all of the objects of the material senses are temporary.”
So I mean if you actually contemplate on that, that’s kind of like shocking. It’s a massive revelation. And once again, I’m just going to remind you that while we’ll read some of these verses, and they are significant, and they are, I mean, weighty, don’t lose the plot. Don’t become overwhelmed. Just listen and try to understand, and don’t be overly fixated on just this topic.
So in the next verse I’ve got:
“Just as a dream is merely a creation of one’s intelligence but has no actual substance, similarly, material lamentation, illusion, happiness, distress and the acceptance of the material body under the influence of maya are all creations of My illusory energy. In other words material existence has no essential reality.”
Very extraordinarily powerful ideas, that are—it’s food for thought, for really deep contemplation.
So explaining this whole idea even further, yet another sloka:
“One should see that the material world is a distinct illusion appearing in the mind, because material objects have an extremely flickering existence and are here today and gone tomorrow. They can be compared to this streaking red line created by whirling a fiery stick…”
So like you’ve seen some times when in the Pacific Islands, Hawaii they do these dances, and they use either pois that are on fire or fire sticks, and they’re whirling them around, and it creates the illusion of just a like a ring of fire in the air, but actually there is no such ring that is actually there.
“…They can be compared to the streaking red line created by whirling a fiery stick. The spirit soul by nature exists in the single state of pure consciousness. However. in this world he appears in many different forms and stages of existence….”
So these forms are the different varieties of material bodies; and the stages of existence are from birth, and then growth and development, reaching maturity, potentially producing offspring, then withering, the body withering, and finally dying.
“The modes of nature divide the soul’s consciousness into normal wakefulness, dreaming and dreamless sleep. All such varieties of perception, however, are actually maya and exist only like in a dream.”
So just to give you something to reflect on, just like the reference I gave to your previous body, your previous life that you had, the relationships that you had, the connections and how real that was; and yet at the moment of death it is rendered, not even to a distant thought, but it is eliminated. And yet we considered it all so permanent and so real. And it is due to the influence of maya that this dream-like existences that we go through seem so real and permanent.
Another verse:
“Due to my feeling of false ego, I have been engaged by Your maya and have identified myself with the body and consequent bodily relations.”
Another verse:
“Oh Lord, the people of this world, both men and women, are bewildered by Your illusory energy. Unaware of their real benefit, they do not worship you but instead seek happiness by entangling themselves and family affairs, which are actually sources of misery.”
So I’m not going to go on with that one too much, but it’s a pretty different perspective than what most of us have.
Speaking to the power of this illusory energy another verse states,
“No one can overcome the Supreme Person’s illusory energy (or maya), which is so strong that it bewilders everyone, making one lose the sense to understand the aim of life.”
That’s kind of like quite frightening. It’s described this illusory energy is so strong that it bewilders everyone. We think we have purpose and direction in material life, and we’re so focused and driven and everything. We don’t see that that is an actual state of bewilderment. When we consider that I am actually an eternal spiritual being, I have a spiritual home, my purpose should be to regain my original lost consciousness, my original lost spiritual connection with the Supreme Soul, to again become lost in an ocean of spiritual love. That’s what my purpose should be, but that’s not even a consideration for us in ordinary life, because we are bewildered by this energy, and it makes one lose the sense to understand the aim of life.
Another verse:
“The Supreme Lord’s Maya makes men forget their real selves, and thus, taking the body for the self,, they consider others to be friends, enemies or neutral parties.”
…utterly oblivious to the spiritual identity of the living being within those bodies.
So I’ve got three more verses to read. It’s like coming out the other end of the illusion of maya. These verses that I’ve read, if they were really contemplated on and considered in relation to our actual life, I mean it’s shocking. It’s quite even frightening for some people. But just because we are unaware, and now becoming a little thoughtful about this, it shouldn’t overwhelm us. We should feel gratitude and thankfulness to be allowed to hear these things and to consider these realities. If you are sitting there watching this talk and reflecting on these things, you should understand that is happening by divine grace. It is a special blessing to be able to be brought to this position of thinking in a different way to what is described as utter bewilderment of material existence.
So this is from the Caitanya Caritamrita. It says,
“The original nature of every living being is to consider himself the eternal servant of the Lord. But under the influence of maya he thinks himself to be the body, and thus his original consciousness is covered.”
Then from the Bhagavata Purana:
“Thus the yogi can be in the self-realized position after conquering the insurmountable spell of maya, who presents herself as both the cause and effect of this material manifestation and is therefore very difficult to understand.”
So the need to have this veil, this more than a veil, I mean it’s just like it’s utter dense fog, to have it lifted, to have it evaporated, so I can begin to see with more clarity, is of utmost importance.
And then this final verse that I was going to read,
“If the illusory energy subsides and the living entity becomes fully enriched with knowledge by the grace of the Lord, then he becomes at once enlightened with self-realization and thus becomes situated in his own glory.”
“He becomes situated in his own glory.” This is the—these previous two talks about the false ego and the role it plays in covering the transcendental living being, and then in that covered state one struggles with these concepts, like what we talked about last week, false—or self-esteem, with all the focus being placed on trying to find glory in that which is temporary, that temporary material covering. It’s just like, No that’s not where you find— in this verse that we just read–that one discovers this, becomes situated in their actual glory, through this process of self and God realization.
And of course, the most efficient means for dispelling this fog, the most efficient means for shining light into this darkness known as material existence, the most efficient means for lifting this veil of illusion is through this process of chanting these transcendental sounds. It’s not just a feel-good exercise, although it feels good. It’s not just about calming your mind and finding a little bit of stability and peacefulness. It’s way more than that. It’s about rediscovering your glorious spiritual position and existence and identity. And this process is so powerful that, as we’ve read before in a verse; it dissolves this subtle covering of the soul in the same way that food, when put into the stomach, becomes digested, this covering of the soul becomes gradually dissolved, and your actual spiritual identity is once again revealed. The illusion is overcome.
So I invite you to join me in chanting. We’ll chant the Haribol Nitai Gaur mantra, and maybe the Mahamantra. Thank you very, very much.