Almost all of you have heard of the word Mâyâ. Generally it
is used, though incorrectly, to denote illusion, or delusion, or some such
thing. But the theory of Maya forms one of the pillars upon which the Vedanta
rests; it is, therefore, necessary that it should be properly understood. I ask
a little patience of you, for there is a great danger of its being
misunderstood. The oldest idea of Maya that we find in Vedic literature is the
sense of delusion; but then the real theory had not been reached. We find such
passages as, "Indra through his Maya assumed various forms." Here it
is true the word Maya means something like magic, and we find various other
passages, always taking the same meaning. The word Maya then dropped out of
sight altogether. But in the meantime the idea was developing. Later, the
question was raised: "Why can't we know this secret of the universe?"
And the answer given was very significant: "Because we talk in vain, and
because we are satisfied with the things of the senses, and because we are
running after desires; therefore, we, as it were, cover the Reality with a
mist." Here the word Maya is not used at all, but we get the idea that the
cause of our ignorance is a kind of mist that has come between us and the
Truth. Much later on, in one of the latest Upanishads, we find the word Maya
reappearing, but this time, a transformation has taken place in it, and a mass
of new meaning has attached itself to the word. Theories had been propounded
and repeated, others had been taken up, until at last the idea of Maya became
fixed. We read in the Shvetâshvatara Upanishad, "Know nature to be Maya
and the Ruler of this Maya is the Lord Himself." Coming to our
philosophers, we find that this word Maya has been manipulated in various fashions,
until we come to the great Shankarâchârya. The theory of Maya was manipulated a
little by the Buddhists too, but in the hands of the Buddhists it became very
much like what is called Idealism, and that is the meaning that is now
generally given to the word Maya. When the Hindu says the world is Maya, at
once people get the idea that the world is an illusion. This interpretation has
some basis, as coming through the Buddhistic philosophers, because there was
one section of philosophers who did not believe in the external world at all.
But the Maya of the Vedanta, in its last developed form, is neither Idealism
nor Realism, nor is it a theory. It is a simple statement of facts — what we
are and what we see around us.
As I have told you before, the minds of the people from whom
the Vedas came were intent upon following principles, discovering principles.
They had no time to work upon details or to wait for them; they wanted to go
deep into the heart of things. Something beyond was calling them, as it were,
and they could not wait. Scattered through the Upanishads, we find that the
details of subjects which we now call modern sciences are often very erroneous,
but, at the same time, their principles are correct. For instance, the idea of
ether, which is one of the latest theories of modern science, is to be found in
our ancient literature in forms much more developed than is the modern
scientific theory of ether today, but it was in principle. When they tried to
demonstrate the workings of that principle, they made many mistakes. The theory
of the all-pervading life principle, of which all life in this universe is but
a differing manifestation, was understood in Vedic times; it is found in the
Brâhmanas. There is a long hymn in the Samhitâs in praise of Prâna of which all
life is but a manifestation. By the by, it may interest some of you to know
that there are theories in the Vedic philosophy about the origin of life on
this earth very similar to those which have been advanced by some modern
European scientists. You, of course, all know that there is a theory that life
came from other planets. It is a settled doctrine with some Vedic philosophers
that life comes in this way from the moon.
Coming to the principles, we find these Vedic thinkers very
courageous and wonderfully bold in propounding large and generalised theories.
Their solution of the mystery of the universe, from the external world, was as
satisfactory as it could be. The detailed workings of modern science do not
bring the question one step nearer to solution, because the principles have
failed. If the theory of ether failed in ancient times to give a solution of
the mystery of the universe, working out the details of that ether theory would
not bring us much nearer to the truth. If the theory of all-pervading life
failed as a theory of this universe, it would not mean anything more if worked
out in detail, for the details do not change the principle of the universe.
What I mean is that in their inquiry into the principle, the Hindu thinkers
were as bold, and in some cases, much bolder than the moderns. They made some
of the grandest generalizations that have yet been reached, and some still
remain as theories, which modern science has yet to get even as theories. For
instance, they not only arrived at the ether theory, but went beyond and
classified mind also as a still more rarefied ether. Beyond that again, they
found a still more rarefied ether. Yet that was no solution, it did not solve
the problem. No amount of knowledge of the external world could solve the
problem. "But", says the scientist, "we are just beginning to
know a little: wait a few thousand years and we shall get the solution."
"No," says the Vedantist, for he has proved beyond all doubt that the
mind is limited, that it cannot go beyond certain limits — beyond time, space,
and causation. As no man can jump out of his own self, so no man can go beyond
the limits that have been put upon him by the laws of time and space. Every
attempt to solve the laws of causation, time, and space would be futile,
because the very attempt would have to be made by taking for granted the
existence of these three. What does the statement of the existence of the world
mean, then? "This world has no existence." What is meant by that? It
means that it has no absolute existence. It exists only in relation to my mind,
to your mind, and to the mind of everyone else. We see this world with the five
senses but if we had another sense, we would see in it something more. If we
had yet another sense, it would appear as something still different. It has,
therefore, no real existence; it has no unchangeable, immovable, infinite
existence. Nor can it be called non-existence, seeing that it exists, and we
slave to work in and through it. It is a mixture of existence and non-existence.
Coming from abstractions to the common, everyday details of
our lives, we find that our whole life is a contradiction, a mixture of
existence and non-existence. There is this contradiction in knowledge. It seems
that man can know everything, if he only wants to know; but before he has gone
a few steps, he finds an adamantine wall which he cannot pass. All his work is
in a circle, and he cannot go beyond that circle. The problems which are
nearest and dearest to him are impelling him on and calling, day and night, for
a solution, but he cannot solve them, because he cannot go beyond his
intellect. And yet that desire is implanted strongly in him. Still we know that
the only good is to be obtained by controlling and checking it. With every
breath, every impulse of our heart asks us to be selfish. At the same time,
there is some power beyond us which says that it is unselfishness alone which
is good. Every child is a born optimist; he dreams golden dreams. In youth he
becomes still more optimistic. It is hard for a young man to believe that there
is such a thing as death, such a thing as defeat or degradation. Old age comes,
and life is a mass of ruins. Dreams have vanished into the air, and the man
becomes a pessimist. Thus we go from one extreme to another, buffeted by
nature, without knowing where we are going. It reminds me of a celebrated song
in the Lalita Vistara, the biography of Buddha. Buddha was born, says the book,
as the saviour of mankind, but he forgot himself in the luxuries of his palace.
Some angels came and sang a song to rouse him. And the burden of the whole song
is that we are floating down the river of life which is continually changing
with no stop and no rest. So are our lives, going on and on without knowing any
rest. What are we to do? The man who has enough to eat and drink is an
optimist, and he avoids all mention of misery, for it frightens him. Tell not
to him of the sorrows and the sufferings of the world; go to him and tell that
it is all good. "Yes, I am safe," says he. "Look at me! I have a
nice house to live in. I do not fear cold and hunger; therefore do not bring
these horrible pictures before me." But, on the other hand, there are
others dying of cold and hunger. If you go and teach them that it is all good,
they will not hear you. How can they wish others to be happy when they are
miserable? Thus we are oscillating between optimism and pessimism.
Then, there is the tremendous fact of death. The whole world
is going towards death; everything dies. All our progress, our vanities, our
reforms, our luxuries, our wealth, our knowledge, have that one end — death.
That is all that is certain. Cities come and go, empires rise and fall, planets
break into pieces and crumble into dust, to be blown about by the atmospheres
of other planets. Thus it has been going on from time without beginning. Death
is the end of everything. Death is the end of life, of beauty, of wealth, of
power, of virtue too. Saints die and sinners die, kings die and beggars die.
They are all going to death, and yet this tremendous clinging on to life
exists. Somehow, we do not know why, we cling to life; we cannot give it up.
And this is Maya.
The mother is nursing a child with great care; all her soul,
her life, is in that child. The child grows, becomes a man, and perchance
becomes a blackguard and a brute, kicks her and beats her every day; 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, that it is
something which has got hold of her nerves, which she cannot shake off; however
she may try, she cannot shake off the bondage she is in. And this is Maya.
We are all after the Golden Fleece. Every one of us thinks
that this will be his. Every reasonable man sees that his chance is, perhaps,
one in twenty millions, yet everyone struggles for it. And this is Maya.
Death is stalking day and night over this earth of ours, but
at the same time we think we shall live eternally. A question was once asked of
King Yudhishthira, "What is the most wonderful thing on this earth?"
And the king replied, "Every day people are dying around us, and yet men
think they will never die." And this is Maya.
These tremendous contradictions in our intellect, in our
knowledge, yea, in all the facts of our life face us on all sides. A reformer
arises and wants to remedy the evils that are existing in a certain nation; and
before they have been remedied, a thousand other evils arise in another place.
It is like an old house that is falling; you patch it up in one place and the
ruin extends to another. In India, our reformers cry and preach against the
evils of enforced widowhood. In the West, non-marriage is the great evil. Help
the unmarried on one side; they are suffering. Help the widows on the other;
they are suffering. It is like chronic rheumatism: you drive from the head, and
it goes to the body; you drive it from there, and it goes to the feet.
Reformers arise and preach that learning, wealth, and culture should not be in
the hands of a select few; and they do their best to make them accessible to
all. These may bring more happiness to some, but, perhaps, as culture comes,
physical happiness lessens. The knowledge of happiness brings the knowledge of
unhappiness. Which way then shall we go? The least amount of material
prosperity that we enjoy is causing the same amount of misery elsewhere. This
is the law. The young, perhaps, do not see it clearly, but those who have lived
long enough and those who have struggled enough will understand it. And this is
Maya. These things are going on, day and night, and to find a solution of this
problem is impossible. Why should it be so? It is impossible to answer this,
because the question cannot be logically formulated. There is neither how nor
why in fact; we only know that it is and that we cannot help it. Even to grasp
it, to draw an exact image of it in our own mind, is beyond our power. How can
we solve it then?
Maya is a statement of the fact of this universe, of how it
is going on. People generally get frightened when these things are told to
them. But bold we must be. Hiding facts is not the way to find a remedy. As you
all know, a hare hunted by dogs puts its head down and thinks itself safe; so,
when we run into optimism; we do just like the hare, but that is no remedy.
There are objections against this, but you may remark that they are generally
from people who possess many of the good things of life. In this country
(England) it is very difficult to become a pessimist. Everyone tells me how
wonderfully the world is going on, how progressive; but what he himself is, is
his own world. Old questions arise: Christianity must be the only true religion
of the world because Christian nations are prosperous! But that assertion
contradicts itself, because the prosperity of the Christian nation depends on
the misfortune of non-Christian nations. There must be some to prey on. Suppose
the whole world were to become Christian, then the Christian nations would
become poor, because there would be no non-Christian nations for them to prey
upon. Thus the argument kills itself. Animals are living upon plants, men upon
animals and, worst of all, upon one another, the strong upon the weak. This is
going on everywhere. And this is Maya. What solution do you find for this? We
hear every day many explanations, and are told that in the long run all will be
good. Taking it for granted that this is possible, why should there be this diabolical
way of doing good? Why cannot good be done through good, instead of through
these diabolical methods? The descendants of the human beings of today will be
happy; but why must there be all this suffering now? There is no solution. This
is Maya.
Again, we often hear that it is one of the features of
evolution that it eliminates evil, and this evil being continually eliminated
from the world, at last only good will remain. That is very nice to hear, and
it panders to the vanity of those who have enough of this world's goods, who
have not a hard struggle to face every clay and are not being crushed under the
wheel of this so-called evolution. It is very good and comforting indeed to
such fortunate ones. The common herd may surfer, but they do not care; let them
die, they are of no consequence. Very good, yet this argument is fallacious
from beginning to end. It takes for granted, in the first place, that
manifested good and evil in this world are two absolute realities. In the
second place, it make, at still worse assumption that the amount of good is an
increasing quantity and the amount of evil is a decreasing quantity. So, if
evil is being eliminated in this way by what they call evolution, there will
come a time when all this evil will be eliminated and what remains will be all
good. Very easy to say, but can it be proved that evil is a lessening quantity?
Take, for instance, the man who lives in a forest, who does not know how to
cultivate the mind, cannot read a book, has not heard of such a thing as
writing. If he is severely wounded, he is soon all right again; while we die if
we get a scratch. Machines are making things cheap, making for progress and
evolution, but millions are crushed, that one may become rich; while one
becomes rich, thousands at the same time become poorer and poorer, and whole
masses of human beings are made slaves. That way it is going on. The animal man
lives in the senses. If he does not get enough to eat, he is miserable; or if
something happens to his body, he is miserable. In the senses both his misery
and his happiness begin and end. As soon as this man progresses, as soon as his
horizon of happiness increases, his horizon of unhappiness increases
proportionately. The man in the forest does not know what it is to be jealous,
to be in the law courts, to pay taxes, to be blamed by society, to be ruled
over day and night by the most tremendous tyranny that human diabolism ever
invented, which pries into the secrets of every human heart. He does not know
how man becomes a thousand times more diabolical than any other animal, with
all his vain knowledge and with all his pride. Thus it is that, as we emerge
out of the senses, we develop higher powers of enjoyment, and at the same time
we have to develop higher powers of suffering too. The nerves become finer and
capable off more suffering. In every society, we often find that the ignorant,
common man, when abused, does not feel much, but he feels a good thrashing. But
the gentleman cannot bear a single word of abuse; he has become so finely
nerved. Misery has increased with his susceptibility to happiness. This does
not go much to prove the evolutionist's case. As we increase our power to be
happy, we also increase our power to suffer, and sometimes I am inclined to
think that if we increase our power to become happy in arithmetical
progression, we shall increase, on the other hand, our power to become
miserable in geometrical progression. We who are progressing know that the more
we progress, the more avenues are opened to pain as well as to pleasure. And
this is Maya.
Thus we find that Maya is not a theory for the explanation
of the world; it is simply a statement of facts as they exist, that the very
basis of our being is contradiction, that everywhere we have to move through this
tremendous contradiction, that wherever there is good, there must also be evil,
and wherever there is evil, there must be some good, wherever there is life,
death must follow as its shadow, and everyone 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; for the conditions will remain the same. Wherever there is the power of
producing a smile in us, there lurks the power of producing tears. Wherever
there is the power of producing happiness, there lurks somewhere the power of
making us miserable.
Thus the Vedanta philosophy is neither optimistic nor
pessimistic. It voices both these views and takes things as they are. It admits
that this world is a mixture of good and evil, happiness and misery, and that
to increase the one, one must of necessity increase the other. There will never
be a perfectly good or bad world, because the very idea is a contradiction in
terms. The great secret revealed by this analysis is that good and bad are not
two cut-and-dried, separate existences. There is not one thing in this world of
ours which you can label as good and good alone, and there is not one thing in
the universe which you can label as bad and bad alone. The very same phenomenon
which is appearing to be good now, may appear to be bad tomorrow. The same
thing which is producing misery in one, may produce happiness in another. The
fire that burns the child, may cook a good meal for a starving man. The same
nerves that carry the sensations of misery carry also the sensations of
happiness. The only way to stop evil, therefore, is to stop good also; there is
no other way. To stop death, we shall have to stop life also. Life without
death and happiness without misery are contradictions, and neither can be found
alone, because each of them is but a different manifestation of the same thing.
What I thought to be good yesterday, I do not think to be good now. When I look
back upon my life and see what were my ideals at different times, I final this
to be so. At one time my ideal was to drive a strong pair of horses; at another
time I thought, if I could make a certain kind of sweetmeat, I should be
perfectly happy; later I imagined that I should be entirely satisfied if I had
a wife and children and plenty of money. Today I laugh at all these ideals as
mere childish nonsense.
The Vedanta says, there must come a time when we shall look
back and laugh at the ideals which make us afraid of giving up our
individuality. Each one of us wants to keep this body for an indefinite time,
thinking we shall be very happy, but there will come a time when we shall laugh
at this idea. Now, if such be the truth, we are in a state of hopeless
contradiction — neither existence nor non-existence, neither misery nor
happiness, but a mixture of them. What, then, is the use of Vedanta and all
other philosophies and religions? And, above all, what is the use of doing good
work? This is a question that comes to the mind. If it is true that you cannot
do good without doing evil, and whenever you try to create happiness there will
always be misery, people will ask you, "What is the use of doing
good?" The answer is in the first place, that we must work for lessening
misery, for that is the only way to make ourselves happy. Every one of us finds
it out sooner or later in our lives. The bright ones find it out a little
earlier, and the dull ones a little later. The dull ones pay very dearly for
the discovery and the bright ones less dearly. In the second place, we must do
our part, because that is the only way of getting out of this life of
contradiction. Both the forces of good and evil will keep the universe alive
for us, until we awake from our dreams and give up this building of mud pies.
That lesson we shall have to learn, and it will take a long, long time to learn
it.
Attempts have been made in Germany to build a system of
philosophy on the basis that the Infinite has become the finite. Such attempts
are also made in England. And the analysis of the position of these
philosophers is this, that the Infinite is trying to express itself in this
universe, and that there will come a time when the Infinite will succeed in
doing so. It is all very well, and we have used the words Infinite and
manifestation and expression, and so on, but philosophers naturally ask for a
logical fundamental basis for the statement that the finite can fully express
the Infinite. The Absolute and the Infinite can become this universe only by
limitation. Everything must be limited that comes through the senses, or
through the mind, or through the intellect; and for the limited to be the
unlimited is simply absurd and can never be. The Vedanta, on the other hand,
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. Nowadays it is very
hard even to talk of renunciation. It was said of me in America that I was a
man who came out of a land that had been dead and buried for five thousand
years, and talked of renunciation. So says, perhaps, the English philosopher.
Yet it is true that that is the only path to religion. Renounce and give up.
What did Christ say? "He that loseth his life for my sake shall find
it." Again and again did he preach renunciation as the only way to
perfection. There comes a time when the mind awakes from this long and dreary
dream — the child gives up its play and wants to go back to its mother. It
finds the truth of the statement, "Desire is never satisfied by the
enjoyment of desires, it only increases the more, as fire, when butter is
poured upon it."
This is true of all sense-enjoyments, of all intellectual
enjoyments, and of all the enjoyments of which the human mind is capable. They
are nothing, they are within Maya, within this network beyond which we cannot
go. We may run therein through infinite time and find no end, and whenever we
struggle to get a little enjoyment, a mass of misery falls upon us. How awful
is this! And when I think of it, I cannot but consider that this theory of
Maya, this statement that it is all Maya, is the best and only explanation.
What an amount of misery there is in this world; and if you travel among
various nations you will find that one nation attempts to cure its evils by one
means, and another by another. The very same evil has been taken up by various
races, and attempts have been made in various ways to check it, yet no nation
has succeeded. If it has been minimised at one point, a mass of evil has been
crowded at another point. Thus it goes. The Hindus, to keep up a high standard
of chastity in the race, have sanctioned child-marriage, which in the long run
has degraded the race. At the same time, I cannot deny that this child-marriage
makes the race more chaste. What would you have? If you want the nation to be
more chaste, you weaken men and women physically by child-marriage. On the
other hand, are you in England any better off? No, because chastity is the life
of a nation. Do you not find in history that the first death-sign of a nation
has been unchastity? When that has entered, the end of the race is in sight.
Where shall we get a solution of these miseries then? If parents select
husbands and wives for their children, then this evil is minimised. The
daughters of India are more practical than sentimental. But very little of
poetry remains in their lives. Again, if people select their own husbands and
wives, that does not seem to bring much happiness. The Indian woman is
generally very happy; there are not many cases of quarrelling between husband
and wife. On the other hand in the United States, where the greatest liberty
obtains, the number of unhappy homes and marriages is large. Unhappiness is
here, there, and everywhere. What does it show? That, after all, not much happiness
has been gained by all these ideals. We all struggle for happiness and as soon
as we get a little happiness on one side, on the other side there comes
unhappiness.
Shall we not work to do good then? Yes, with more zest than
ever, but what this knowledge will do for us is to break down our fanaticism.
The Englishman will no more be a fanatic and curse the Hindu. He will learn to
respect the customs of different nations. There will be less of fanaticism and
more of real work. Fanatics cannot work, they waste three-fourths of their
energy. It is the level-headed, calm, practical man who works. So, the power to
work will increase from this idea. Knowing that this is the state of things,
there will be more patience. The sight of misery or of evil will not be able to
throw us off our balance and make us run after shadows. Therefore, patience
will come to us, knowing that the world will have to go on in its own way. If,
for instance, all men have become good, the animals will have in the meantime
evolved into men, and will have to pass through the same state, and so with the
plants. But only one thing is certain; 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 this life, with all its miseries and sorrows, its
joys and smiles and tears, one thing 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 particles of life that exists must reach the
Infinite Ocean of Perfection, must attain to Freedom, to God.
Let me repeat, once more, that the Vedantic position is
neither pessimism nor optimism. It does not say that this world is all evil or
all good. It says that our evil is of no less value than our good, and our good
of no more value than our evil. They are bound together. This is the world, and
knowing this, you work with patience. What for? Why should we work? If this is
the state of things, what shall we do? Why not become agnostics? The modern
agnostics also know there is no solution of this problem, no getting out of
this evil of Maya, as we say in our language; therefore they tell us to be
satisfied and enjoy life. Here, again, is a mistake, a tremendous mistake, a most
illogical mistake. And it is this. What do you mean by life? Do you mean only
the life of the senses? In this, every one of us differs only slightly from the
brutes. I am sure that no one is present here whose life is only in the senses.
Then, this present life means something more than that. Our feelings, thoughts,
and aspirations are all part and parcel of our life; and is not the struggle
towards the area, ideal, towards perfection, one of the most important
components of what we call life? According to the agnostics, we must enjoy life
as it is. But this life means, above all, this search after the ideal; the
essence of life is going towards perfection. We must have that, and, therefore,
we cannot be agnostics or take the world as it appears. The agnostic position
takes this life, minus the ideal component, to be all that exists. And this,
the agnostic claims, cannot be reached, therefore he must give up the search.
This is what is called Maya — this nature, this universe.
All religions are more or less attempts to get beyond nature
— the crudest or the most developed, expressed through mythology or symbology,
stories of gods, angels or demons, or through stories of saints or seers, great
men or prophets, or through the abstractions of philosophy — all have that one
object, all are trying to get beyond these limitations. In one word, they are
all struggling towards freedom. Man feels, consciously or unconsciously, that
he is bound; he is not what he wants to be. It was taught to him at the very
moment he began to look around. That very instant he learnt that he was bound,
and be also found that there was something in him which wanted to fly beyond,
where the body could not follow, but which was as yet chained down by this
limitation. Even in the lowest of religious ideas, where departed ancestors and
other spirits — mostly violent and cruel, lurking about the houses of their
friends, fond of bloodshed and strong drink — are worshipped, even there we
find that one common factor, that of freedom. The man who wants to worship the
gods sees in them, above all things, greater freedom than in himself. If a door
is closed, he thinks the gods can get through it, and that walls have no
limitations for them. This idea of freedom increases until it comes to the ideal
of a Personal God, of which the central concept is that He is a Being beyond
the limitation of nature, of Maya. I see before me, as it were, that in some of
those forest retreats this question is being, discussed by those ancient sages
of India; and in one of them, where even the oldest and the holiest fail to
reach the solutions a young man stands up in the midst of them, and declares,
"Hear, ye children of immortality, hear, who live in the highest places, I
have found the way. By knowing Him who is beyond darkness we can go beyond
death."
This Maya is everywhere. It is terrible. Yet we have to work
through it. The man who says that he will work when the world has become all
good and then he will enjoy bliss is as likely to succeed as the man who sits
beside the Ganga and says, "I will ford the river when all the water has
run into the ocean." The way is not with Maya, but against it. This is
another fact to learn. We are not born as helpers of nature, but competitors
with nature. We are its bond-masters, but we bind ourselves down. Why is this
house here? Nature did not build it. Nature says, go and live in the forest.
Man says, I will build a house and fight with nature, and he does so. The whole
history of humanity is a continuous fight against the so-called laws of nature,
and man gains in the end. Coming to the internal world, there too the same
fight is going on, this fight between the animal man and the spiritual man,
between light and darkness; and here too man becomes victorious. He, as it
were, cuts his way out of nature to freedom.
We see, then, that beyond this Maya the Vedantic
philosophers find something which is not bound by Maya; and if we can get
there, we shall not be bound by Maya. This idea is in some form or other the
common property of all religions. But, with the Vedanta, it is only the
beginning of religion and not the end. The idea of a Personal God, the Ruler
and Creator of this universe, as He has been styled, the Ruler of Maya, or
nature, is not the end of these Vedantic ideas; it is only the beginning. The
idea grows and grows until the Vedantist finds that He who, he thought, was
standing outside, is he himself and is in reality within. He is the one who is
free, but who through limitation thought he was bound.
~ The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume
2/Jnana-Yoga/Maya and Illusion ~
