About five years ago--in May 2006, to be more precise--I got an email from a student who wrote: “Everything is Māyā.” Given below is an extract from my response to this student:
Oh no, everything is not māyā. Māyā is nothing although it may appear as everything. Māyā hides the reality. Māyā is like the movie that is projected on a screen. We get so caught up in the movie that we forget that the only unchanging reality is the screen. The scintillating dance of light and shade and color which takes up all our attention is only a projection. The real thing is the screen behind. If the screen were not there, the projection would not have been possible.
In the same way, if God were not present, māyā would not have had a place to stand on. Yet, māyā is only an appearance. The reality is God. It is like the rope that is mistaken for a snake. The rope is everything and is the reality. The snake is not real. It is only a projection.
The Divine Mother is everything. Mother is the only being that exists. All else is a projection.
Thoughts and insights that emerge from the discussions, study, reflection, and practice of Vedanta in the spiritual community of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society in Boston, USA, which is a branch of the Ramakrishna Order.
3 comments:
namaste swamiji,
Very interesting articles. In simple words you are clarifying very important doubts in my mind. Thanks a zillion.
Thanks & Regards,
Praveen
Dear Swamiji,
The metaphor for maya is very instructive. For most people, God in the world is indeed maya, hidden from them as they identify completely with the material world. When we say that maya is only an appearance, like the rope that is mistaken for a snake, there are problems if one takes the metaphor too far. It is appearance in the sense that its reality is not independent. But it is not just a dream or a projection. Designating it in these ways uses metaphors too. If the metaphors are taken as the whole truth, one may devalue the world so much that work becomes meaningless, individuals can become valueless, and so forth. I’m sure you see what I am worried about. Divine Mother is everything, and that divine omnipresence is a great mystery as well as a great reality.
May God bless you, Swamiji, in your very valuable teachings.
When you have time, could you explain why, in your talk on June 19 on five windows, you included God as Teacher in the first window, the Divine Sacrifice?
Many thanks,
Jerry.
Jerry, I did not have any specific reason in mind why God as Teacher was included in the first Window in the June 19 talk. It just happened that way. Such things happen instinctively and later, in some instances, we are able to discover a deeper meaning or connection. ST
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