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by Jayaram V
In the great epic Mahabharata, when Duryodhana enters the hall of illusion
(maya
sabha), he loses his way, becomes confused and envious. Seeing his predicament when
Draupadi, laughs at him, he becomes terribly angry, feeling insulted, and vows to take revenge. It is in the hall of illusions that the seeds of the great Mahabharata war were actually sown which germinated and ultimately consumed the whole Kuru family bringing them untold misery and great destruction.
The world in which we live is also not very different from the hall of illusions we read about in the Mahabharata. We also live here enveloped by illusion, where we fail to discriminate between truth and false hood, become confused, engage ourselves in egoistic struggles and lose our connection with God.
Maya or illusion is a very potent instrument of the Divine Prakriti, the Primal Nature. Through the force of illusion, It holds the beings under its sway. This objective is accomplished through the interplay of the triple gunas, the sattva, rajas and the tamas. Under their influence, the indwelling Purusha becomes attached to the outside world and thereby suffers from delusion and loss of buddhi or discrimination.
The Gita teaches us how to deliver ourselves from this delusion of mind and thereby from the bondage to mortal life and all the pairs of opposites such as pain and pleasure. The true meaning of the word "moksha" is not salvation but destruction of moha or delusion that precedes salvation. To achieve this a correct understanding of the mechanism of maya is essential, which is described in brief in the following lines.
1. The Senses
The sense which are ten in number are the main instruments of Maya through which it deludes the beings by developing in them the desire for sense objects. Out of desire comes attachment and out of attachment a man becomes deluded.
2. Loss of buddhi (discrimination)
Senses are imperfect instrument of truth. They cannot go beyond the sense objects. Therefore they actually breed ignorance. Beings who depend upon the senses cannot go beyond the visible and perceptible world. This results in ignorance and the loss of wisdom to know the reality from unreality, to discern correctly truth from untruth, good from bad, divine from demonic, right action from wrong action and so on. Out of the ignorance thus born, he indulges in wrong actions, beliefs, thoughts, false knowledge, ignorant masters, egocentric view of life and incorrect worship of God. He thus becomes bound to the material the mortal existence.
3. Desires and attachment
The person under the influence of Maya is always attached to the world
outside him. Not only to the world, but very much to his own egoistic identity of himself, his possessions and his relations. Memories pursue him, time haunts him and thoughts possess him. By becoming attached to the world, conditioned by memory and accumulated knowledge, he develops envy and selfishness and also many such negative qualities as pride, fear, greed, anger, malice, caprice, cruelty, callousness, lust and intense desire for success and personal advancement. Life becomes a battle field in which he alone has to win. There is no place for failure and weakness. Attracted to pleasures, averse to pain, fearful of loss and hopeful of gain, unable to go beyond the
lurs and temptations of the world, though aware that all is vain in the end, he plods on, striving and struggling, as if death would never touch him
4. Sense of duality and multiplicity
The man of delusion cannot see the One hidden in all. He sees only the diversity and the multiplicity of the life and the world around him. Feeling lonely and isolated, unable to trust others and the world he lives in, as if the world is an enemy determined to subdue him and destroy him, he suffers from intense fear and insecurity. Because of the sense of duality he loses his unified vision and sees the world in terms of pairs, divisions, groups , categories, numbers and opposites, in short, in terms of relative and subjective reality.
5. Transience, Instability and Destructibility
One of the characteristic features of illusory existence is that it is finite, unstable, impermanent and ever changing. When the being becomes attached to this ever changing unstable world, he automatically suffers from the conflicting emotions associated with the experience of pairs of opposites such as pain and pleasure, gain and loss etc. He suffers from insecurity and fear of death which drive him to become more selfish and possessive. Men of demonic nature use death and destruction as means for establishing their cruel control and supremacy over others.
6. Ego and False identification
Under the influence of illusion, the being develops ego sense, the sense of separateness, pride in his personal worth and achievements. The ego is also responsible for the sense of ownership and doership, identification of the individual with his body and mind, and failure to know his true nature. He also thinks and act selfishly and egoistically as if he is different from the others and thereby engage in acts of competition and conflict, cooperation and friendship and such other acts of self preservation. Thus the ego ultimately lands all the beings in suffering, delusion and bondage to earthly life.
7. Incorrect Relationship with God
The beings under illusion cannot see the Invisible God and so they cannot correctly comprehend Him. They cannot see Him in all and all in Him. They cannot go beyond the senses and the gunas and experience the soul. Because of egoism they do not acknowledge Him and do not surrender themselves to Him. Due to their inherent imperfections and negative qualities, they cannot experience true devotion to God and thereby fail to realize Him.
8. Mortality and the Cycle of birth and death
Under the influence of illusion, indulging in egoistic actions, accepting the sense of doership, with a desire to enjoy the fruit of actions, the being becomes subject to the laws of karma and dharma and returns again and again to the world of mortality. Depending upon his previous actions, he takes birth in different circumstances and families and suffers from the consequences of his previous actions. This process goes on repeatedly till he realizes his folly and engages himself in correct actions as prescribed in the Gita and moves towards the Divine and self-realization.
9. Deliverance from Maya
It is possible to overcome the influence maya by following the teachings of Lord Krishna taught to Arjuna in the middle of the battle field. By following the Gita, one can develop stability of the mind, through the control of the senses and desires; become a humble devotee of God, by concentrating his mind fully on Him, surrendering to Him unconditionally and absorbed in him through single minded devotion; perform desireless actions knowing that only the senses, the organs of the body and the gunas are acting, offering the fruit of actions to God; and thus attain the Supreme Self.
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