Maya and the tree

Maya is a complicated concept.

But there is a graphic and direct analogy from the Indian oral tradition that drives home the concept practically.

First, a lovely story. [1]

>>

One day I said to my master,

"Sir, I have been taught that 

avidya [ignorance] and 

maya [illusion] 

are one and the same. 

But I do not 

really understand 

what maya is."

He often taught

by demonstration, 

so he said, 

"Tomorrow morning 

I will show you 

what maya is."

I could not sleep that night.

I thought, 

"Tomorrow morning 

I am going to meet maya."

The next day we went 

for our morning ablutions as usual. 

Then we met again afterwards. 

We bathed in the Ganges.

Afterwards I did not feel like 

I could sit for meditation 

because I was so excited 

by the prospect of 

the mystery of maya 

being unveiled.

On our way back to the cave 

we came upon 

a tree with a big, dry trunk.

My master rushed up 

to the tree and 

wrapped himself around it.

I had never seen him 

run so fast before.

He called out, 

"Are you my disciple? 

Then help me!"

I said, 

"Huh? You have helped 

so many people, and 

today you need my help? 

What has happened to you?"

I was afraid of that tree.

I wouldn’t go near it 

because I feared 

it would trap me 

as well.

I thought, 

"If the tree traps me also, 

then who will help us both?"

He cried, 

"Help me! 

Take hold of my foot and 

try your best to pull me away."

I tried with all my might, but 

I could not separate him 

from the tree.

Then he said, 

"My body has been caught 

by this tree trunk."

I exhausted myself 

trying to pull him 

from the tree.

Finally I stopped to think and 

I said to him, 

"How is this possible?

The tree trunk 

has no power

to hold you. 

What are you doing?"

He laughed and said, 

"This is maya."

<<

Next, more pithily, from one of Babuji's letters: [2]

>>

We are not in a prison cell.

Instead, 

the human state 

is such that 

people themselves 

are holding onto 

a tree and 

shouting that 

the tree 

is not letting go 

of them!

<<

Maya is not outside us and attacking us like a malevolent yakshi. 

 

It is inherent to us, to our nature as hu-mans who do mananam, who think, conjecture, and imagine. 

 

The human brain can be fooled by, still consider as real, optical illusions even after it understands them as such. 

 

The world is uncertain and incompletely understood. Many, perhaps most, decisions are made without a full understanding or appreciation of the situation. When filling in the gaps becomes incoherent and inconsistent with objective reality, 

Maya becomes ineffective and wrong.

Maya is simply the human tendency 

to hold onto things mentally 

while thinking that those things themselves 

are holding onto him. 

A little Sufi story expresses this precisely:

 

A rabbit escapes into her burrow from a fox. 

A safe distance inside, she turns around and asks, 

"Why do you constantly chase me?"

Replied the fox,

"Why are you so appetizing?"

 

Of course, hunger is more basic than obsessive liking and 

the fox may well starve if he doesn't catch the rabbit. 

 

For human beings, though, being "yet but slaves of wishes" [3] over and above meeting their basic needs make them go obsessively after the objects of their wishes or desires.

 

NOTES

 

[1]  Swami Rama. 1978.  Living with the Himalayan Masters, pp. 61-62. Ch: Maya the Cosmic Veil.

[2]  Ram Chandra (Babuji). 2025. Complete Works of Ram Chandra (Babuji) Vol. 7, p.91, Ch: Practical Wisdom.

[3] The Sahaj Marg prayer:  "... we are yet but slaves of wishes ..."