Maya – In Gita Verse 16.21 There are three gates leading to this hell – lust, anger and greed. Every sane man should give these up, for they lead to the degradation of the soul.
When Krishna says giving up means transcend all three gates – lust, anger and greed. Never fight, never resist but become aware of yourself so you can transcend.
In my Bhagavad Gita Verse 15.18, blog I wrote – All dualities have to be dropped: the duality of mind and heart, the duality of matter and mind, the duality of thinking and emotion, the duality of the positive and the negative, the duality of male and female, yin and yang, the duality of day and night, summer and winter, life and death… all dualities.
All dualies are nothing but Dreams. Anger, lust and greed exists because we have lost the ability to doubt.
One of the most fundamental problems that has to be faced by everyone on the path to enlightenment is that when you become enlightened, all that you have passed through looks illusory. It is just as when you wake up in the morning, the whole night of dreams simply becomes unreal; you don’t even think about it. But while you are asleep, the dreams are very real.
In a very strange way, while you are awake you may doubt whether that which is surrounding you is real or not. At least, doubt is possible. Who knows? you may be seeing just a dream. But while you are dreaming even the doubt is not possible. You cannot doubt – “What I am seeing perhaps is not real.” The dream seems to be more deep-rooted in the mind than our so-called reality.
Reality at least allows doubt. The dream does not allow doubt. In fact, that is the only criterion to distinguish between them. If you can doubt, it means you are awake. If you cannot doubt, it means you are fast asleep. A very strange criterion, but that is the only criterion.
Because all the religions are against doubt, they have destroyed the most fundamental criterion available to man. All the religions of the world, without exception, insist on believing. And belief is the antidote to doubt.
One can condition oneself to such an extent that doubt does not arise, but then you have lost the only criterion you have for making the distinction between what is real and what is unreal. Dreams cannot be doubted – reality can be doubted.
The capacity to doubt is one of the greatest blessings to humanity. The religions have been enemies because they have been cutting the very roots of doubt, and there is a reason why they have been doing that: because they want people to believe in certain illusions that they have been preaching.
A man who believes that if he prays earnestly, sincerely … Then Krishna may visit him, or Jesus may appear before him. These are ways of creating dreams while you are awake, with your eyes open. But because you are awake, you can doubt. So first doubt has to be destroyed; otherwise Jesus may be standing before you and you may start doubting – who knows, perhaps it is just an illusion. What evidence have I got that it is not an illusion?
Let me tell you: If you can doubt, even the reality becomes illusory.
Why have people like Gautam Buddha been so insistent that the whole existence – except your witnessing self, except your awareness – is just ephemeral, made of the same stuff as dreams are made of? They are not saying that these trees are not there. They are not saying that these pillars are not there. Don’t misunderstand because of the word ‘illusion’.
In English you don’t have an exact translation of the word maya; in English, either something is real or it is illusory. Maya is just in between the two: It looks real, but it is not real. It appears real, but it is not real. In English there is no word which exactly translates maya. It has been translated as illusion, but illusion is not the right word. Illusion does not exist. Reality exists. Maya is just in between – it almost exists. As far as day-to-day activities are concerned, it can be taken as reality. Only in the ultimate sense, from the peak of your illumination, it becomes unreal, illusory.
Krishna says the whole search of truth is for that which remains always and always the same. It neither comes into existence nor does it go out of existence. And thousands of seekers have come to the same conclusion: that there is only one thing, only one thing in the whole existence that remains always the same, and that is your awareness.
Once you realize – Except awareness, everything is maya – you have transcended all the dualities. In that you have transcended three gates also anger, greed and lust.
Tags: Maya
