WHAT IS MAYA ?

[OmSaiRamNowOn]

Jai Sai Ram.  Our eternal loving relationship with Bhagwan is the non Maya - real - rest everything is Maya- dream- material world. So lets chant and serve HIM and get out of clutches of Maya.
Actually lets talk a little bit abt why Bhagwaan created this Maya ?

[sureshsarat]

Om Sri Sainathaya Namaha
Om Sri Sainathaya Namaha
Om Sri Sainathaya Namaha

Dear all Sairam
This topic "What is Maya is quite tricky". Two things have inspired the following answer.
1. Yesterday driving down, I was listening to FM Radio (radio city). the topic was how do sensitive people handle emotional challenges. An aged gentleman replied that "After all these years, looking back it is silly that one reacts to these challenges"

2. Elsewhere discussing the Nectar of SSC, I said sorrow and happiness is just a state of mind.

Now going further, I feel that THIS IS THE MAYA. The state of mind. How can an act have to different results in the mind. When I am slapping an opponent, I feel satisfied and happy, whereas my opponent feels shocked,sad and hurt. So the act is reality and the emotions are the MAYA. All the things like humans, animals, nature (water, hill etc) are god's creations. They are as real as god itself.  But god did not create our actions. He gave us the intelligence such that we act on our own. And the emotional feeling derived by our actions are the maya.
Therefore our Lord Sai said "Leave the ownership of any act unto Me. Any good you do and any sin you commit, leave it to me. The you will be freed". How true, as we stop taking ownership of the acts and their results, we shall start acting righteous. We shall not feel "joy" or "sorrow". And we come out of the clutches of Maya.
Suresh

[Ramesh Ramnani]

जय सांई राम।।।

सबको नाच नचाता फिर भी नज़र नही जो आता ऐसी दुनिया को बनाने वाला कौन है?  सांई राम है। मैरा श्याम है, घनश्याम है।

अन्जू बहुत अच्छा सवाल है तुम्हारा माया के संबन्ध में। अगर बहुत ही आसान जवाब तो।  जैसे पुरूष को गृहस्थी चलाने के लिये एक स्त्री की जरूरत होती है वैसे ही 'उसको'  उसकी स्त्री 'माया' की जरूरत होती है। बाबा का संसार कैसे चलेगा अगर माया नही होगी।  सृष्टिकर्ता को सृष्टि चलाने के लिये कोई माध्यम तो चाहिये। 
 
अपना सांई प्यारा सांई सबसे न्यारा अपना सांई

ॐ सांई राम।।।

[tana]

जय सांई राम।।।

सबको नाच नचाता फिर भी नज़र नही जो आता ऐसी दुनिया को बनाने वाला कौन है?  सांई राम है। मैरा श्याम है, घनश्याम है।

अन्जू बहुत अच्छा सवाल है तुम्हारा माया के संबन्ध में। अगर बहुत ही आसान जवाब तो।  जैसे पुरूष को गृहस्थी चलाने के लिये एक स्त्री की जरूरत होती है वैसे ही 'उसको'  उसकी स्त्री 'माया' की जरूरत होती है। बाबा का संसार कैसे चलेगा अगर माया नही होगी।  सृष्टिकर्ता को सृष्टि चलाने के लिये कोई माध्यम तो चाहिये। 
 
अपना सांई प्यारा सांई सबसे न्यारा अपना सांई

ॐ सांई राम।।।

ॐ सांई राम !~!

रमेश भाई...सांई राम

आज ही सांई सच्चरित्र में माया के  बारे मे पड़ा...


माया से मुक्त होने का एकमात्र सहज उपाय अनन्य भाव से केवल श्री सांईबाबा की शरण जाना ही है। वेद  - वेदान्त भी मायारुपी सागर से पार नहीं उतार सकते ।यह कार्य तो केवल सत्गुरु द्वारा ही संभव है |

जय सांई राम !~!

[OmSaiRamNowOn]

Jai Sai Ram. Ramesh Bhai ji, Tanaji,  what you said/quoted makes perfect sense. Some additional thoughts from internet  - Why did Krishna create this universe, Maya, material existance?
Consider - "Why is the cloud here?” Because there is need for vegetation, there is need of rain. Because there is need of rain, there is cloud. Same way, because there is need for creation of material existence, it is there. In due course of time, vegetation dries up, rains disappears and the clouds disperse. Only the sky remains. Similarly, this world is an opportunity for the living beings to realize their relationship with the Lord, and eventually go back to Godhead. When material hankerings disappear, suffering is gone and only Krishna remains.

As to why we forgot Krishna, He gave us free will or desire. The moment we desired to enjoy separate from Him, He arranged that by sending us here in material world. Even in this world, the more a person wants to forget Him, the better arrangements Krishna will make to enable it.

He states in BhagavadGita, Ch 15, verse 15

sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto
mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca

I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness.

And, the more we try to remember Him, the more He arranges for appropriate association,. be it through a Sadguru SAI BABA's merciful association or others who r on same path.

[Kavitaparna]

OM SRI SAI RAM

"Be wherever you like, do whatever you choose, remember this well that all what you do is known to Me.

I am the Inner Ruler of all and seated in their hearts. I envelope all the creatures, the movable and immovable world.

I am the Controller - the wire-puller of the show of this Universe.

I am the mother - origin of all beings - the Harmony of three Gunas, the propeller of all senses, the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer.

Nothing will harm him, who turns his attention towards Me, but Maya will lash or whip him who forgets Me.

All the insects, ants, the visible, movable and immovable world, is My Body or Form".


JAI SRI SAI RAM

[Kavitaparna]

OM SRI SAI RAM

Maya, the major culprit of all the problems.

It puts all under its influence , covers up and releases him/her only after ensuring that the play is totally over.

Sufferer  is the one whoever is under its clutches.

Weeps whosoever succumbs to its lure with irreversible losses.

Wonders as to how foolish he/she behaved in a given circumstance that had made him/ her dig their own grave.

Had I applied my mind for a split second, I would have avoided this calamity and it is not such a big thing that it was out of my control -  weeps one to his own heart.

But, why such things happen when we are capable of preventing and avoiding calamities / problems ?

It is said that if a man / woman is delayed even by a second from commiting suicide, they would repent for having entertained such a thought at 'that' moment.

What is the importance of 'that' moment ?

It is that 'it' is so influenced by Maya that the individuals lose their sense...even common sense and thus Maya makes us invite our problems by our own selves.

Baba! Please save us from this Maya which is teasing us always.

JAI SRI SAI RAM

[SS91]

What you call matter, or spirit, or mind, or anything else you may like to call them,

the fact remains the same: we cannot say that they are, we cannot say that they are not.

We cannot say they are one, we cannot say they are many.

This eternal play of light and darkness--indiscriminate, indistinguishable, inseparable--is always there.

 A fact, yet at the same time not a fact; awake and at the same time asleep.

 This is a statement of facts, and this is what is called Maya.

We are born in this Maya, we live in it, we think in it, we dream in it.

We are philosophers in it, we are spiritual men in it, nay, we are devils in this Maya,

and we are gods in this Maya.

Stretch your ideas as far as you can, make them higher and higher,

call them infinite or by any other name you please, even these ideas are within this Maya.

It cannot be otherwise, and the whole of human knowledge is a generalisation of this Maya

trying to know it as it appears to be.

This is the work of Nama-Rupa--name and form. Everything that has form,

everything that calls up an idea in your mind, is within Maya;

for everything that is bound by the laws of time, space and causation is within Maya.
JaiSaiSaiRam!!!!!

[tana]

Om Sai Ram~~~

Maya~~~

1. What is Maya? What actions are Maya? Maya is where one is bound to Pain and Pleasure, and one acts in Ego. (Sri Rag M. 3)

2. Maya and attachment are also God's Creation; He Himself deludes us (through them) The Egocentric does (pious) acts, but knows not the Lord and wastes His life away.
(Sri Rag M. 3)

3. Nanak: They, who Dwelt on the Lord's Name, are eternally in communion with the Lord.
(Maya is in the service of the Master and she serves too the Servants of the Lord. (Var of Sri Rag M. 4, Shlokas)

4. One's mind wanders, lured by Maya, and yet it clings to it; He, whom Thou Savest, O Lord, from seeking Maya, alone is imbued with the Love of Thy Name. (Shloka of Gauri Bavan Akhri M. 5)

5. Maya is like a mirage, the mind's delusion, the deer's craze, the (passing) shade of a tree.
She is mercurial of mind, and in the end, goes not along with us. (Bilawal M. 5)

6. I tried to grasp (Maya) with care, but she eluded my grasp: Howsoever I loved her, she kept not my company for long. Says Nanak, "When I abandoned and discarded her with contempt, Then she paid obeisance to me and fell at my feet." (Ramkali M. 5)

7. This Maya makes us forake the Lord: and love for the Other wells up in the mind. Says Nanak: "They, who are Attuned to the Lord, by the Guru's Grace, Attain to the Lord in the midst of Maya." (Ramkali M. 3, Anand)

8. (Maya), the woman, gives birth to (the mind), her husband, and this son (of the mind) overwhelms even his father, (the Soul), And makes her suck the milk (of Desire) shorn of the breasts (of Bliss). See Ye, O men, such are the ways of the Kali-age, That the Son marries his own Mother. Lo, without feet, this mind jumps, And it laughs without a mouth. Though in essence ever Awake, it Sleeps, And without a jar, it churns the curds. The mind is a cow without the teats: It journeys out and afar, though the Distance (between it and God) is so short. It finds not the Path without the True Guru; This is the Essence of all Wisdom that Kabir proclaims. (Rag Basant: The Word of Bhakta Kabirji)

9. O Fly, O Maya, O thou creation of God ! Thou sittest only on Dirt and lickest the 'sweet' Poison of Illusion. Thou stayest nowhere: this is thy state I've seen with my Eyes; Save for the Saint, thou hast affected everyone, for the Saints keep ever on the side of God. All creatures are bewitched by thee, but save for the Saints no one has known thy bare reality. Nanak, the Lord's Servant, is Attuned to the Lord's Praise, and sees the Lord's Presence, Enshrining the (Guru's) Word in his Consciousness. (Sarang M. 5)

10. Lo, Maya dances its devil-dance and yokes everyone to Vice; she entices away even the sun and the moon: And when tinkle her ankle-bells, Evil rankles with us; its myriad gestures bewitch and beguile any one but God. (Pause)

She has affected the three Worlds, and outer discipline erases not its effect; and men, involved in Strife, are intoxicated with its wind and are tossed about as on the high seas. Only the Lord's Saints are Saved, and are Delivered they of the Yama's Noose; So Contemplate thou Him alone, whose Name Santifies even the Sinners.
(Sarang M. 5)

Jai Sai Ram~~~