Brahman and Maya

Swami Vivekananda · January 1, 1900

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SWAMI ADBHUTANANDA

THE TRUE BEING in man is ever free, ever pure, and remains ever untouched by good or evil. Good and evil have no absolute reality. They exist only so long as man identifies himself with the ego, the false self. When the ego is completely annihilated, man is freed from the false knowledge of duality or relativity of good and evil.

Good and evil exist only so long as man thinks himself to
be the doer of actions. If through the grace of the Infinite
Being he is freed from this consciousness of ego, then the
idea of good or bad no longer exists for him.

Merit and demerit are the effects of karma. Because of the
sense of attachment to the false ego, man is subject to this
law. As a man sows, so does he reap. The law of karma op-
erates within the realm of Maya. Man, identifying himself
with the ego, becomes bound by Maya.

In creation and destruction, in happiness and misery, in
success and failure, in every domain of duality is Maya's play.
Such is her nature, and man, because of ignorance, is caught in the play. But he who is freed from the bondage of Maya is guided by the Infinite Being, and in His guidance finds everlasting joy, everlasting peace, everlasting blessedness.
There no waves of duality can arise. There is only the one
Infinite Ocean of peace and joy.

Maya of itself has no independent existence. As Sri Rama-
krishna has said: "The wave is of the ocean, not the ocean
itself." Similarly Maya is of the Infinite Being, but is not the
Infinite Being Itself. Therefore, the bondage and control of
Maya cannot be said to be the same as the control and guidance of God. Yet true it is that the ultimate purpose of the play of Maya is to lead man Godward to the Infinite Reality. All will ultimately reach God.

Unattached and with perfect balance Maya plays her dual
role. On the one hand it is she who lulls man into forgetfulness of his true nature, and again it is she who awakens him to the consciousness of God. Within her domain are all the dual throng. And why? That man may overcome evil with good and finally transcend both. So we see that while Maya appears to bind, yet by this same bondage man is led toward freedom, albeit along a winding and tortuous pathway, for only after many births and much suffering does he finally recognize the inscrutable play of Maya and surrender himself to her liberating power.

One truth is certain. Whether he wills to find God in this
present life, or after many more lives of suffering and bond-
age, sooner or later man must seek to find God with wholehearted devotion. And as he seeks Him, he finds Him.

God is the Infinite Existence. In Him there is neither east
nor west, neither within nor without, neither above nor
below. He permeates all space, he is woven warp and woof
into all things. He is immanent, all-pervading unaffected
by forms or boundaries. He is all and He transcends all. Sri
Ramakrishna used to say: "Everything but the Truth of
Brahman has been defiled through the lips of man." No
words can express the glory of God. Sri Ramakrishna would
often wish to reveal the truth of Brahman to his disciples
but his lips were sealed as it were by the Divine Mother
Herself,

Brahman is Truth, and whosoever observes truthfulness
and wills to know Truth shall surely attain it. The power to
will is the greatest gift bestowed upon man, and nothing can
stand against one whose will is awakened. Will and impulse
or desire, however, must not be confused. Impulse or desire
is a degeneration of the will. What is it that man truly wills?
It is the attainment of Ananda, that everlasting peace, and
this is attained only by finding the Satchidanandar-the Infi-
nite Being, the Infinite Wisdom, and the Infinite Love.

The true purpose of human birth is to fulfill this one, this
only will, to realize God which is truly the motive power
behind all other desires. Unhappy is the man who forgets
this purpose, and loses himself in the meshes of petty desires and impulses. Desiring first one thing, then another and yet again something else is but impulse, and can be likened unto a man, who, desiring to sink a well, digs first in one place and then in another, never completing one well, and never reaching the water. Not by such impulses and desires can the thirst for God be quenched. Therefore, I say unto you, will to attain the Truth, the Kingdom of Self.

This Kingdom is never lost. It may lie hidden, covered
with dirt, but it is forever within. Brahman is ever pure, ever
free, self-luminous, and that Brahman is one's very Self. Just
as a gold vessel may be covered with dirt, yet lose nothing of its true nature, so the true Self lies hidden within, and remains forever unaffected by the dirt of ignorance covering it.

Man is ever conscious of the existence of this Self. Every
time he says "my body," "my mind," "my intelligence" etc.,
he unconsciously admits the existence of an "I," of a "Self."
Because of this ignorance which clouds man's true Self, he is
unable to manifest his real nature. Hence the necessity of
spiritual disciplines, and the firm will to unfold this latent
divinity.