MAYA
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2020 11:52
There’s no one definition of Maya. Ask a Gyani, he will give you an endless list of references from Gurbani and dodgy sakhis (made-up stories). Ask a pandit he will speak of the mythical Maya and the three deities who oversee creation (Brahma), sustenance (Vishnu) and destruction (Shiva) … see Japji Pauri 30.
We often speak of Moh-Maya da jaal, the trap or web woven by Maya to keep us in the loop of duality, that is, wandering between Truth (path to Liberation) & falsehood (attachment to worldly pleasures). The Creation that we see is transitory, that is, It expands and contracts as per Lord’s Will. So what we see is not the Reality. The illusory Maya, as we call it, stands between the mortal and the Reality (Truth).
In simple terms, as per my humble understanding, Maya is is the razzmatazz of worldly pleasures and its ramifications, experienced in the grip of the five negative traits, kaam, krodh, lobh, moh & hunkaar, the last giving birth to the preceding four…. rein in egotism, the others, too, would fall in line.
Maya is, also, akin to a swamp. We wander in life aimlessly. There is a danger that sooner or later, we will walk into this bog of maya. Just as a jeev (human or animal) is swallowed up by the swamp, a human being without the armour of God’s Name, will die spiritually; only the awakened (spiritually aware) will re-emerge from the swamp, as does the lotus.
Stand firm in the swamp of maya like the lotus, unsoiled, unaffected by the mire and filth surrounding it.
Age old belief (saying):
Maya tere teen naam, Parsu Parsa Parasram
As the worldly status of poor Parsu, over time, elevated from an errand boy to a rich entrepreneur, his name, too, changed as above.
Such are the colours of Maya.