44. 83. Illusion! Illusion! Every thing is illusion! (Maya)

• Illusion (Maya) is only that amusing aspect which gives aplenty a desire to possess things and also the required energy and it is similar to keeping the butter in the hand and go on searching everywhere else for ghee.
• Before one gets enlightenment, there is no big difference between the sixty years of life the man lives and six hours of dreaming. There is however a difference in the measure of time. That is all.

A dream - Six hours!

A life - Sixty years!

• After the dream comes to an end, the dream world will disappear. When the ego comes to an end, the normal world will disappear. It is only when the 'Atman' soul awakens the 'real and true world itself' will be visible to the eye! For a man who is asleep - dream is an illusion. For a man who is awake - the present world is an illusion. For an awakened man - All are illusion

• Illusion is that one which, unless driven out, it won't go away by itself.

• Do you wish to live your life? Do you wish to enjoy and experience the real world? Do you wish to see God in people?

There is no other go at all. The curtain of illusion must be torn off. That too can be done by you only...

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Two friends, who were waiting for the route 12-B bus, were at the peak of their drunken state. As they did not know that the time was 2 in the night, they discussed between themselves, 'Why 12-B bus has not yet come?' and then they directly went to the bus depot itself.

They were telling, 'We ourselves will take the 12-B bus from the depot and drive to our house.' And they searched for 12-B bus.

There were more than 100 buses standing in the depot. While staggering due to the drunken state, they searched for 12-B bus, every time getting into each bus and getting down saying that this is not 12-B bus.

After two hours of searching, they said, 'We are disappointed. There is not even a single 12-B bus here.' Feeling this way they went home walking quite dejected.

• Because of their inebriated condition, it did not strike them that they can drive away any of the buses. They searched for 12-B bus only. Illusion is also similar to this only. It will catch hold of any one particular aspect of life and make man be caught. Result – After having finished living, every man feels disappointed.

Aha! This is a mirage!

Lo! It appears for our eyes that there is a beautiful grove there; no, it is not at all a grove. It is also a part of the desert only.

One, who knows very clearly that there is certainly nothing there that will quench his thirst, will never go up to the mirage and get disappointed.

Infatuation, speed, fame, money - For a person running after these, if he comes to know that whatever is going to satisfy his infatuation is not present there, he will not run. If suddenly, all come to know of this truth the very movement of society will come to a stand-still.

The power or energy of illusion is such that, even if a person accidentally reads that what he searches for is not at the place of his search, it will see to it that he will not be allowed to understand it.

Once a devotee asked Ramana Maharishi (an enlightened Master from South India), 'Swami, What is Maya? How to come out of the delusion of maya?'

Ramana said, 'If you engage yourself in the spiritual meditation called, 'self enquiry', you can come out easily. The delusion of Maya is similar to the saying, 'If you find the stone, there is no dog; if you find the dog, there is no stone.'

The devotee could not understand what Ramana said.

Laughingly Ramana asked, 'Don't you understand...? As long as YOU, the ego is present there, all will appear as greenery at a distance. This only is Maya.

If you say, after finding the stone, there is no dog, does it mean, because you have found the stone, the dog has run away?'

To explain this, there is a nice story.

It seems a person went to see the palace. After going there, he was shocked. There were two big dogs at the entrance to the palace. Exquisitely sculpted, those statues appeared as real dogs from a distance.

As he was already afraid of dogs, saying, 'Two big dogs?' he started to run away nervously.

Having recognized from a distance itself that man's trembling body, facial perplexity, the ascetic took that man along with him and said, 'Don't be afraid. Come with me.'

His fear got cleared after he went closer and saw. He sighed and said, 'Oh, my God! Are they mere stones?' Then he saw the dog first, there was no stone. Now, when he saw the stones, there was no dog.

This is what is meant when we say, 'After seeing the dog, there is no stone; after seeing the stone, there is no dog.' When Ramana finished saying this speedily, having understood the explanation, the devotee also laughed heartily.

Until that ascetic came there, and took him closer to the statue of the dog, that man would not have known that the image of a dog is nothing but stones laid down in the shape of a dog.

This man fearing the stone as a dog, and other man thinking that he can be happy if he touches the peak of infatuation, fame and money – both are in the same boat.

That man believing the stone as a dog is illusion (Maya).

Right from lust up to God, the human mind thinks about some thing and believes it to be true and goes after it – this is maya. What happens at that moment is delusion due to maya.

Only an enlightened Master who has won over himself can get rid of the delusion of a man who has not understood rightly about lust or God, and who suffers and struggles due to this illusion.

One small story.

One disciple asked a Zen Master, 'If every thing is Maya, illusion... is searching for infatuation, position, fame and money like searching for what is impossible in reality?

The Master said, 'Yes, what is the doubt in this?'

'If that is so, what man thinks and wants to achieve through those things are about things which are not there?' the disciple asked.

The Master answered, 'Yes.'

'How is it that man runs so enthusiastically searching for it when it is not there?'

'It is like this.... A village boy got into a steam engine drawn train for the first time, that too in the last carriage, where the signalman was there.

Having got inside, as the boy playfully leaned on the steel bars of the carriage and pushed it, the same instant the train also started.

The boy thought that the train has started only because he had pushed the steel bars. As he pushed again faster, the speed of the train also increased.

The boy's joy knew no bounds – as to how superbly he is pushing the train!

Did not the boy, who could not understand the truth, drive the train?' laughed the Master, winking at his disciple.

The disciple said, 'That is all right. But can't man be made to understand that he is only searching for comfort and joy, where it is not available?'

The Master explained, 'Two things need to happen. First, that boy should be told that the train is running by itself. Second, that boy should be mature enough and have the eagerness to understand the truth.'

Understand one truth.

The society in which you live, the happenings around you, the individual lives of the relations….. Why? Even your body functions are not done by you. All are happening beyond your limits.