Maya of Life and Death

Most of us have heard of the word Maya though few among us can honestly claim to understand it. Generally it is used, though incorrectly, to denote illusion, or delusion.

The world, as is inevitable in nature, is going towards death; everything dies. All our progress, our vanities, our reforms, our luxuries, our wealth, our knowledge -- all have that one end -- death. That is all that is certain. Cities come and go, empire rise and fall; planets break into pieces and crumble to dust -- a ceaseless cycle of life and death from time without beginning.

Death is the end of everything. Death is the end of beauty, of wealth, power, virtue and life itself. Saints die and sinners die, kings die and beggars die. They are all going to death, and yet a tremendous clinging on to life exists. We do not know why, but we cling to life; we cannot give it up. And this is Maya.

The mother nurses a child with great care; her heart and soul is in the child. The child grows up, becomes a man, and perchance becomes a blackguard and a brute; and yet the mother clings to the child; and when her reason awakes, she covers it up with the idea of love. She little thinks that it is not love; however she may try, she cannot shake off the bondage she is in. And this is Maya.

Maya is not a theory of explanation of the world: it is simply a statement of facts as they exist, that the very basis of our being is contradiction, that wherever there is good, there must also be evil, there must be some good, wherever there is evil, there must be some good, wherever there is life, death must follow as its shadow, and every one who smiles will have to weep, and vice versa. Nor 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.

Wherever there is a power that produces a smile in us, there lurks the power that produces tears. Wherever there is the power of producing happiness, there lurks somewhere the power of making us miserable.

Vedanta says that it is true that the Absolute or the Infinite is trying to express itself in the finite, but there will come a time when it will find that it is impossible, and it will then have to beat a retreat, and this beating a retreat means renunciation which is the real beginning of religion. Renounce and give up. What did Christ say? "He that lose th this life for my sake shall find it." Again and again he preached renunciation as the only way to perfection.

The mighty river is rushing towards the ocean, and all the drops that constitute the stream will in time be drawn into that boundless ocean. So in life, with all its miseries and sorrows, its joys and smiles and tears, one this is certain, that all things are rushing towards their goal and it is only a question of time when you and I, and plants, and animals, and every particle of life that exists must reach the Infinite Ocean of Perfection, must attain Freedom, and ultimately, God.

Bullet :: "Death is the end of everything, yet we cling to life. And this is Maya".

Note:: Take all this contents from ranng magazine, while author take all this contents from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.