I've been reading "the Vedanta philosophy by Swami Vivekananda". A student asks "Why does Maya or Ignorance exist?" This is the same question I asked
@Sakal Gharelu Ustad. "Then why create the world?". Swami says "Why cannot be asked beyond the limit of causation." I do not understand this. My thirst for knowing has increased again.
If you guys can, please explain.
nice questions and nice replies am seeing here!
i will also add something FWIW when am back from wherever i am.
ample good explanations have been provided. I will try keeping it concise.
Maya, can also be seen like this - the word Maya has Maa at its root, and this Maya ('illusion') has that Motherly aspect, which provides you with what you desire, either immediately, or after due time, or in another life (causation). however, if we see through a simple example of a child in a crib, crying and bawling --> the Mother gives it various toys to quieten him, the baby still cries; then she gives it something to grab its attention, no, not doing; then may be milk, no, still not satisfied....ultimately she takes hold of the child and gets it snugly into her bosom, and the child feels totally at ease. this is more-or-less the same thing with Maya. till the time one is happy or/and wanting, the illusion keeps catering to his whims & fancies till he's not ultimately tired (this point comes in everybody's lives over a spread of them) and would have absolutely no more of the illusory things to keep him temporarily engaged! at that point, he may've to undergo some tests of spirit put forth by nature for him to check his fortitude. if he passes, he's then ready to go back into the lap of whatever intelligence is working from behind the 'veil' (I repeatedly keep using this term for a good reason). then he's no more bound by the limitations of nature (albeit still to an extent by causation).
as to the 'why', I might say it could still be asked, but to the 'self'. howmuchever the 'modern' man may dislike it, but logic & reasoning alone ultimately have their limitations (a body and brain made & fostered by surroundings subject to the law of causation & the principle of limitation cannot work any different). its not for nothing that its repeatedly emphasised in teachings that the highest form of knowledge is 'intuition'.
Tulsaninda stutirmouni satusto yena kenachita
aniketah sthirmatirbhaktimaan me priya narah (Gita 12 ch. 19)
he for whom praise and criticism is the same (equal), is contended, has no house of his own to live in (lack of material desires), has a stable mind, such a devotee is dear to Me.
it is a rare state of development. either one reaches it through
intelligent self-contemplation (not using mental gymnastics alone, but combining it with looking internally/meditation), or through the company of the spiritually wise/evolved, but mainly through spiritual practices.
Sri Ramana Maharshi had one very simple prescription for whoever came to him seeking knowledge. he used to tell to keep continuously contemplating on the thought 'WHO AM I?', such that you know no hunger, thirst, pain, discomfort, nothing, with such vigour. he himself was the product of this method applied by him in his younger years, and hence the simple suggestion. this is what I meant. the 'why' that transgresses the limit of causation is better probed to oneself introvertedly rather than pose to others extrovertedly, which would then reduce to just philosophising but not direct experience.
P.S. - imagine a pond of fishes. one day you decide to do casual angling, you catch one of them, but soon return it to its home-pond. meanwhile this fish had ample time to look at 'your' world. it goes back to its society where its well-wishers were very worried about him as to where/how did he vanish into 'thin water'. he now tells the others about his 'other-worldly' experience, and is immediately met with laughs & scoffs by his friends, family, scientist-&-rationalist fishes. no amount of their local logic & reasoning ('local' to the pond-world & its denizens' brains) could accommodate for them such a profoundly bizarre & 'unacceptable' experience/tale such as the one recounted by the poor fish, now left in sorts of a dire predicament.
from this allegory alone one could go forth to understand/carry forth his thought-process to quite a few things and many unanswered doubts & queries (perennially) plaguing the human-mind. I would now refrain from writing anymore. hope this was somewhat of whatever use.
