Unveiling Maya
Unveiling Maya
Mohanji explains the illusion of impermanence which can be overcome by being rooted in the truth—the unchangeable.
Young Smita asked Atmananda Chaitanya (a wandering avadhoota who walked the blessed soil of Bharat about 300 years ago), “Swami, what is the cause of human greed?”
Atmananda replied, “Identifications, my child.”
“What causes identifications?”
“Ignorance caused by Maya.”
“What is ignorance?”
“Various layers of it, my child. The ignorance that we (as individual incarnations) will always be here on earth (illusion of permanence), that we will always be healthy, that all that we consider as ours will remain with us (material possessions), so on and so forth.”
“But isn’t all these our reality?”
“Relative reality, my child. In fact, our body, mind, intellect, ego, and all aspects of human existence change, evolve, and dissolve each moment. There is nothing permanent in our life except the one (energy) who (that) enlivens us and helps us experience this drama called life.”
“So, all that we experience is a waste of time?”
“Not at all. Everything is important. Life happens each moment. When we knit together various temporary states, we finally arrive at the permanent state.”
“So, what is the problem?”
“No problem at all. Our wrong understanding and identification causes pain. We cannot own anything, not even this life. No state stays forever. When we are occupied with relative truth, that itself is the primary ignorance factor.”
“Then what is truth?”
“Whatever that is unchangeable is truth. Only the pure energy is truth.”
“That means the cause of all the agonies of this world is our ignorance?”
“Indeed. We feel that we own our life, but when we realise that we cannot control any aspect of it, we face disappointment. We fail to accept the very truth—the impermanence of life. This resistance causes all the pain.”
“People work hard to earn a living and own a lot of things, even for the sake of their children. So, is this all a wasted exercise?”
“Not at all. They are all aspects of existence. Working and earning wealth, etc., are all natural and part of the human experience. The only problem is the ownership. If we realise that all that we seemingly own is not usable by us, it has no value in our life. Imagine a rich man has much land in his name. Yet, he can only sleep in one bed, in one room; the rest of his possessions has no real value except in the eyes of the world of ego and ownership. In real terms, all that you use and experience is your only reality. If we understand, appreciate, and perform that, life will be totally complete and meaningful each moment. Everything on earth belongs to the earth, including this body that we took to experience various things on earth. Apart from that, nothing has any value.”
(Atmananda Chaitanya is a fictional character created by Mohanji to convey various facts of life in the question-answer format.)