Maya - Illusion

Lesson 5 MAYA (illusion)

What is maya? Who can cross it? Ya= which, ma = not there. That which is not there is maya or illusion. ‘ya na vidyate vastutassa maya’ Sarvasaropanishat-17 that which is not really there is maya. Ignorance, ‘tamas’, darkness are also called maya. Matter ‘prakruti’ is also called maya. We also hear about ‘yogamaya’ and ‘vishnumaya’. These are all there, a normal individual cannot comprehend all this. Suddha maya and malina maya: ‘mayantu prakrutim vidyanmayinantu maheshwaram’ Swetashvataropanishat 4-10

Maya and matter ’prakruti’ are the same. The one with maya is Maheshwara. Maya is of two types, shuddha maya- pure maya, malina maya-impure maya. Para prakruti, Apara prakruti: Aparaprakruti is earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, ego. These 8 together are aparaprakruti or impure maya. Para prakruti is pure maya. B.G. 7-5 says this world is impure maya, but it arouse out of pure suddha maya. ‘maya matra midam dwaitam adwaitam paramartha;’ Goudapada karika-17 Paraprakruti is light, that is Adi parashakti.

On the other hand, aparaprakruti is the cause of dwaita or duality. It is the matter consisting of the five elements. Light or energy is transformed into matter. This is happening inside and outside. To under
stand how it is outside we need know what is happening inside. ‘yad jnatwa na punarmoham evam yanyasi pandava, ena bhutanyasheshena drakshya swatmanyathomayi. B.G. 4-35 Oh Arjuna! See the entire creation inside you, than see it in me says Sri Krisha paramatma.

Whatever is happening inside is reflected outside. For example whatever is in the atom or paramanu is in the brahmanda or universe. What is happening inside our body? We see respiratory movements, blood circulation and other life activities. We think they are happening naturally and do not figure out the root cause, so we are unable to know the truth of internal and external activities.

Our blood circulation depends upon our respirations. If there is hindrance in respiration blood circulation slows down causing indigestion. For example people who suffer from asthma will experience indigestion. So, movements of prana vayu or respirations are the base of all activities inside our body. What is happening in respirations? If we have respirations we say we or other animals are alive.

We all know our expirations is stronger than our inspiration. It is easier to let the air out than to breath in. From our head a divine energy flows downward in expiration. As it is downward flowing we loose divine energy, divine knowledge, divine light and divine bliss. The same respiration is trying to back, but it is unable to go back to the head where it started. The reason being when it comes downward it looses some energy, due the loss of energy it is unable to go all the way upward. For ex: if a ball is bounced from the first floor to the ground, it tries to go upward but will not go back to the first floor. In the same way we are loosing divine energy in every respiration, 15times a minute, 900 times an hour, 21,600 times per day. Normally an average healthy individual expiration is 12 inches, inspiration is 8 inches.

The loosing of 4 inches not only physical energy it is also divine energy. To fulfill that loss we eat physical food. Just with food we cannot regain lost energy. That is why we see changes in our bodies as we age. These expirations get longer and longer and finally there will be no inspiration. That is called last breath or expired.

People think it is natural everyone that is born dies and live life in despair. But yogis, seekers, avatars do not get despair, they learn the pranayama that increases inspiration thereby conquering maya.

The purpose of human life is to learn yogam from a brahmanishtha guru and practice, finally reach ultimate Ishwara tatwa, not just live and die experiencing the physical worldly things like light bugs falling into the fire and dyeing.

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