Title Maya is not just illusion in perception – it is essentially illusion in conception

Thoughtful people know that our perceptions can illusion us. Such illusions are, say, mirages or the apparent bending of a stick kept partially in water. Warnings about perceptional illusions are embodied in well-known sayings such as, “All that glitters is not gold.” For protecting ourselves from such misperception, we need intelligence. But the intelligence to avoid misperceptions is not enough to see through the foundational illusion that binds us to material existence. This deep-rooted illusion, which is brought about by the illusory energy known as Maya, is not illusion in perception – it is illusion in conception. What is this misconception? The notion that things exist independent of Krishna, that they have their own attractiveness separate from him, and that they can in and of themselves provide us happiness. The Bhagavad-gita (10.41) states that all things owe their attractiveness to the all-attractiveness of Krishna. In fact, all things owe their very existence to him (10.39). Srimad-Bhagavatam underscores this understanding of Maya as illusion in conception. In its four verses celebrated as the Chatur-shloki-Bhagavatam (2.9.33-36), the second verse (2.9.34) declares that whatever is disconnected from Krishna and is still seen as meaningful is Maya. Echoing this understanding from the opposite perspective – the perspective of those free from illusion – the Gita (06.30) states that those who see everything in Krishna and Krishna in everything are never lost to him. As Maya is the misconception that makes us see things separate from their source, the best process for countering Maya is the process that focuses our consciousness on the source. That process is bhakti-yoga. Devotional practices infuse our consciousness with remembrance of Krishna, thereby enabling us to see everything in connection with him. When our foundational misconception is thus uprooted, we march straight and strong towards enlightenment and liberation.

n 

Krishna is the source, shelter and summit of everything

Some people think of God as a distant being with some remote-controlling mechanism for managing the world. In contrast, with such superficial notions, the Bhagavad-gita reveals that Krishna’s relationship with the world is much more intimate – he is the source, shelter and summit of everything. Source: The Gita (10.08) affirms that Krishna is the Absolute Truth, the cause of all causes, the beginningless beginning of everything. Shelter: We may wonder, “How is he the shelter now? Things look quite godless and unsheltered in the world.” That apparent shelterlessness results because some of us misuse our God-given free will, reject his shelter and create chaos by our self-centered actions. But even those who reject God are still under his jurisdiction through his illusory energy (07.14). This energy makes us dance like puppets, pursuing petty pleasures and getting frustrated by their elusiveness and temporariness. Through such repeated frustration in the school of hard knocks, we gradually learn to make better use of our free will. Just as wrongdoers in a reformatory are still in the state’s jurisdiction, so too are the godless under God’s shelter. Undoubtedly, this shelter is not pleasant. But that unpleasantness is because of our own imprudent choices. Nonetheless Krishna always shelters us more congenially by accompanying us as the Supersoul. He gives us intelligence to learn from both scripture and experience, thereby moving closer to his sublime shelter. Summit: The Gita (10.41) indicates that whatever attracts us, its attractiveness comes from a spark of Krishna’s all-attractiveness. We are usually attracted to the best things in any category – such things reflect Krishna’s glory most appealingly for us. When we thus understand Krishna as the source, shelter and summit of everything, we can increasingly realize and relish our intimate relationship with him.

Tolerance prevents the inner sine wave from triggering an outer sin wave

Our consciousness in our present conditioned stage keeps moving up and down, akin to a sine wave. An elevated consciousness in the mode of goodness corresponds with the sine wave’s crest, whereas a degraded consciousness in the mode of ignorance corresponds with its trough.

The Bhagavad-gita (14.10) delineates how the three modes battle within us to control our consciousness. When the lower modes dominate us, we feel impelled towards immoral actions. If we entertain those impulses, they grow formidable, even irresistible. Eventually, they sweep us into sin just as a powerful ocean wave sweeps away swimmers.

To prevent the inner sine wave from triggering an outer sin wave, we need the rampart of tolerance. The Gita (05.23) exhorts us to tolerate the urges of desire and anger, assuring that such tolerance will engender happiness.

To tolerate something means to endure its presence without succumbing to its influence. We can tolerate the urges for worldly pleasures more easily when we have access to higher pleasure. Bhakti-yoga offers the easiest access to the highest pleasure – the bliss of immortal love for the all-attractive Supreme, Krishna. Unfortunately, our conditionings can distract us from Krishna, thereby cutting our access to devotional happiness. Still, if we cultivate the habit of disciplined bhakti practice, we get from within the intelligence to remember that worldly pleasures are fleeting, whereas spiritual joys are lasting, in fact everlasting. By such intelligence, we can persevere till the trough of the inner sine wave passes, and the appearance of its crest makes accessing higher joys easier.

Pertinently, the Gita (14.26) concludes its chapter on the modes by recommending that we transcend them by practicing uninterrupted bhakti-yoga. Over time, bhakti purifies us, situating us steadily in transcendence. Then the sinusoidal motions of our consciousness stop, and we become perennially joyful.

Satisfying our longing for the infinite with finite pleasures ends in addiction

We all long for pleasure. And the world promises us pleasure through its myriad material objects. But materialist propaganda downplays the fact that even the best of such objects can offer at best finite pleasures. And materialism doesn’t even address the reality that our longing for pleasure comes from our spiritual core, which needs perennial satisfaction. When our search for pleasure is thus misdirected towards the finite, we find ourselves dissatisfied even after succeeding in the search, just as finding a drop of water in a desert leaves our thirst unquenched. But materialism allures us into seeking another object and another and yet another. Enticed, we indulge more frequently, more intensely and, often, more perversely. Over time, we end up addicted – usually without even realizing it till it is too late. Nowadays, advertisements use the formidable reach and influence of technology to glamorize worldly objects incessantly. Consequently, we are witness to the historically unprecedented specter of millions upon millions of people being haunted by addictions. Their addictions may range from the mild such as to food or video games to the lethal such as to gambling or drugs. The Bhagavad-gita (03.39) warns that desire directed towards matter is insatiable, burning within us like fire. Tragically, we are misled into believing that this fire can be doused by adding the very fuel of indulgence that inflamed it in the first place. Addiction may require immediate, practical measures to be checked. But to be cured, the underlying misdirection needs to be rectified. Bhakti-yoga is the most accessible way to such redirection. It connects our consciousness with the infinite – the all-attractive, all-loving supreme person, Krishna. By steady bhakti practice, we find increasing fulfillment in him. Thereby, our craving to seek pleasure self-destructively in finite things is gradually reduced and ultimately removed.

Bhakti is the treatment that transforms into a treat

When we are sick, we accept the prescribed treatment as an austerity necessary for our recovery. And we often dream about the various treats we can have after we recover. Thus, we usually see the treatment and the treat as two different things. But bhakti-yoga integrates both within a smooth progression. Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.1.4) refers to the process of hearing about Krishna, which is foundational to bhakti-yoga, as bhava-aushadhac chrotra-mano-‘bhiramat. Hearing Krishna’s glories, and in general remembering him, is the treatment (aushada) for those trapped in miserable material existence (bhava). And as we become purified, that same remembrance becomes a source of delight (mano-abhiramat). The Bhagavad-gita (18.37) echoes this progression when it states that elevated joys seem initially like poison and eventually like nectar. Why might bhakti seem like poison initially? Because our heart is presently captivated by worldly things. So, redirecting it from those things to Krishna can seem difficult, akin to poison. Of course, even in these initial stages, we can relish Krishna’s sweetness whenever we are able to focus on him. But because our worldly attachments tend to distract us, we can’t access that sweetness consistently. So, it’s best to practice bhakti with the discipline and determination with which we would take a treatment. This means that we strive to remember him even when we don’t feel like doing so. By thus fixing our consciousness on Krishna, we increasingly realize his sweetness. Over time, the contrast of that divine sweetness with the staleness of mundane pleasures sinks into our heart. We stop craving for worldly objects and start longing for him – for opportunities to remember, serve and love him. When our desires become thus purified, bhakti transforms into a treat because it provides us ample avenues for fulfilling our cherished longing: to love Krishna and rejoice therein. 

When you shake an apple tree, don’t be blind to the falling of mangoes

Suppose a hungry child goes to an orchard and starts shaking an apple tree. When nothing happens, they pray to God for help and shake the tree again. They are so caught in looking at the apple tree that they don’t notice mangoes falling from a nearby tree. Like them, we too frequently let our expectations become a restriction on our vision. When we tackle a problem through endeavor and prayer, we often expect a particular answer and close ourselves to other possibilities. But God is not limited by our expectations – he can solve our problems in other, often better, ways. To cultivate openness to possibilities, we need to protect our thoughts from being locked in our work and its result. The Bhagavad-gita (18.58) assures us that if we become conscious of Krishna, he by his inconceivable grace will help us pass over whatever obstacles come our way. Becoming conscious of Krishna doesn’t mean becoming inattentive towards our work or apathetic towards its results. It means becoming aware that our work doesn’t act in isolation as the sole producer of a linearly-determined result. Our work is just one part of a cosmic chain of causes and effects. Indeed, we ourselves are parts of something much bigger; we are parts of the Supreme Being, Krishna. And he can work for us in ways that may not be immediately connected with our work. His ways produce the results we need, but in a way we hadn’t expected. The child was provided food, just not from the tree they were looking at. By practicing bhakti-yoga, we can expand our consciousness, thereby increasing its openness to Krishna’s infinite possibilities. Amidst problems, if we persevere faithfully without being disheartened by seeming non-responses from Krishna, we will soon witness his magical benevolence. 

Our lack of confidence doesn’t choke us as much as our overconfidence in our hypercritical mind

When we get an opportunity to do something challenging – something that can help develop our God-given talents – we often shrink back in apprehension. Something within us says, “If you try this, you will only make a fool out of yourself.” Believing that voice, we don’t try at all. Or if we try, we try only diffidently and end up doing poorly. Then, that voice jeers, “See, I had warned you. Remember: you will never amount to much.” That disheartening voice comes from our mind. The Bhagavad-gita (06.06) explains that the mind often acts as our enemy. Its inimicality sometimes manifests through its minimizing monologues. By demoralizing whispers and deriding shouts, it chokes us. We start believing that we lack the ability, and especially the confidence, to do anything worthwhile. However, what cripples us is not diffidence but overconfidence – overconfidence in our mind’s hypercriticality. After all, is the mind a prophet to know for sure that we will never amount to much? It isn’t; it’s simply bluffing to keep us unresistingly in its clutches. Gita wisdom explains that we all are precious parts of Krishna. He loves us and has given us various abilities that he wants us to develop. By using those abilities in a mood of service to him, we all can make constructive contributions. Suppose someone mocked us on our face, saying that we were good-for-nothing and would always remain good-for-nothing. We would feel affronted and driven to do our best to prove them wrong. To counter our inner mocker, we need a similar fighting spirit. We can determinedly neglect the mind and courageously put our confidence in Krishna. When we practice bhakti-yoga diligently, we become divinely empowered, break the mind’s chokehold, and take small but strong steps towards actualizing our potentials. .

Our entanglement is caused not by our attachment, but by our detachment

As spiritual beginners, we may think that our attachments cause our entanglement. Such thinking doesn’t probe deep enough – it fails to ask: Why are we attached? What inner needs are our attachments filling or promising to fill? Frequently, our attachments promise relief, security, comfort, joy – promises that they fulfill at best only temporarily and partially. We are eternal souls, parts of Krishna – he alone can satisfy our needs perfectly and perennially. But unfortunately, we are detached from Krishna. That is, we are emotionally uninvolved with him. So, we seek our emotional needs in mundane objects, becoming attached to them. To counter such attachments, we need to cultivate our attachment to Krishna. Otherwise, even if we become detached by raw willpower, the resulting emotional barrenness will cause our relapse to worldly attachments, sooner or later. To prevent relapses, we need to become attached to Krishna. The Bhagavad-gita’s flow from chapter six to seven reflects this progression from detachment-centeredness to attachment-centeredness. After outlining the detachment-centered path of yoga in its sixth chapter, the Gita (06.47) declares that this path culminates in attachment to Krishna (06.47). And in its next chapter (07.01), it outlines an alternative path to that same summit: bhakti-yoga, which focuses not on detachment but on attachment to Krishna. Because Krishna is the source and shelter of everything, attachment to him requires not the rejection of all other attachments, but the rejection of only our anti-spiritual attachments –our other attachments can be incorporated within the inclusive scope of bhakti-yoga. At our seeker stage, attachment to Krishna manifests authentically not in imagination, but in dedication – not in imagining intimate emotions for Krishna, but in dedicating ourselves to his service. By such steady dedication, our emotions will get increasingly purified and engaged in him, thereby fostering liberating attachment to him.

If we don’t make time for time-saving activities, we stay hard-pressed for time

We frequently feel pressured because we have too many things to do and too little time to do them in. And our devotional engagements may seem like a further demand on our time, thereby aggravating the pressure. However, such negative perception overlooks the reality that time is consumed by not just activities but also thoughts. For example, students may be attending a class, but if their thoughts are caught in dreams of parties and crushes, they will get little from the class. Before their exams, they will have to spend time figuring out things they could have understood in the class. A hard look at our life will show that we often spend a lot of time redoing the things we did improperly the first time round because our thoughts were going here, there and everywhere. If we could manage our thoughts better, we could save all that time. The Bhagavad-gita (14.12) indicates that the mode of passion, which is a prominent mode in today’s materialistic culture, triggers insatiable cravings, which drive our thoughts wild. In contrast, the mode of goodness promotes illumination within and without (14.11), thereby fostering purposeful thoughts and productive actions. Bhakti-yoga offers the easiest way to raise our consciousness from passion to goodness. By thus helping us clarify and focus our thoughts, devotional activities contribute to our life positively as time-savers, not negatively as time-consumers. To give a contemporary example, the time spent in cultivating devotion is like the time spent in learning a time-saving device – it’s an investment, not an expenditure. Of course, devotion is not just a time-saving device – it’s a soul-saving grace. But when the pressure of the immediate blocks our appreciation of that ultimate benefit, we can meditate on devotion’s time-saving potency, thus inspiring ourselves to practice bhakti-yoga diligently. – 

New book release: Belong – Gita daily series book 3

Belong addresses our heart’s longing to belong to something bigger than ourselves – a longing that is nourished and fulfilled by the Bhagavad-gita’s transformational message of spiritual love. While presenting that message in accessible 300-word nuggets, Belong shines the light of the Gita on many themes important for our inner growth: Optimism: Our willingness is more important than our willpower Resentment: Possibilities expand when we begin from where we are instead of where we should be Happiness: Temporary relief from self-inflicted torture is not pleasure Association: Our desires are not just linear, but also triangular Temptation: We don’t have to defeat our lower desires – we can just let them lose Discipline: Rules free you to be you Devotion: Krishna is the master before whom we stand truly erect These 121 reflections prompt the head and the heart to move closer towards belonging to the one in whom our potentials attain the fullest development and we find the deepest fulfillment. The book is available on kindle here: Belong It can be ordered in hard copy by emailing voicebooks@voicepune.com The earlier two books in the series are “The Gita for Daily Enrichment” and “The Eye to See the I.”

Work – don’t carry workload

When we see our work as workload, we feel burdened. We can’t avoid working, but we can avoid seeing work as a workload. How can we avoid seeing it thus? By changing our attitude towards the work. We sometimes become resentful about, say, the kind or the quantity of the work we have to do. Such resentment saps our mental energy, making the work seem bigger than what it actually is. The Bhagavad-gita (13.23) states that Krishna is the supreme overseer and permitter. This implies that he has allowed this work-situation to come into our life for some reason meant ultimately for our growth. Such devotional redirection of our thoughts becomes a channel for freeing our mental energy that is being choked by resentment. Frequently, when we get over the resentment and get down to work, we find that it is not as unmanageable or intolerable as our mind had depicted. The preceding analysis certainly doesn’t mean that all work-related problems are just matters of attitude. Sometimes, the work may be utterly incompatible with our nature. Or an unfairly large amount of work may be allotted to us. These situations call for practical remedial actions. But understanding whether the problem is mental or actual, analyzing what remedy is workable, and deciding how to best deal with the immediate situation – all these require inner clarity and agility. But that is impeded, if not made impossible, when resentment catches our thoughts in a stranglehold. To break free from such thought-patterns, we need the spiritual strength necessary for directing our thoughts towards Krishna. We can gain spiritual strength through a regular regimen of yogic practices such as mantra meditation and scriptural study. The Bhagavad-gita (18.58) assures that when we become conscious of Krishna, he enables us to cross over all obstacles – including the obstacle of perceiving work as workload.

In the mystery that is spirituality, the investigator is the investigated

Suppose an investigator is asked to solve the mystery of the missing heir of a dynasty – and after due investigation, he discovers that he himself is the missing heir! Spirituality is a mystery in that the spiritual realm is incomprehensible to most people. Many people are mystified by the notion of an invisible something that is the source of life. Others are mystified about how something non-material can interact with a material body. The Bhagavad-gita (02.29) indicates that various people for varying reasons find the concept of the soul astonishing. Just as an investigator might have a trail for locating the missing person, we have the trail offered by scripture for detecting the elusive source of consciousness. Initially, this retracing is intellectual as we introspect about what exactly is the essential me. When we practice yogic disciplines for guiding and sharpening our introspection, our investigation gradually rises from the intellectual level to the experiential level. And as we close in on our essential identity, we understand ourselves to be a spark of spirit, imperishable and indestructible. We realize that what we see with becomes what we see – the investigator turns out to be the investigated. While some spiritualists consider this epiphany the end of the spiritual search, Gita wisdom reveals it to be a false end, or at least an incomplete end. The purpose of the investigation is not just to discover the heir but to also help him gain his rightful position as the heir. Similarly, the purpose of our spiritual investigation is not just to realize our spiritual identity, but also to situate ourselves in our eternal relationship with the all-attractive supreme, Krishna. When the soul is thus realized in its eternal glory as a beloved part of the supremely opulent Lord, the spiritual mystery is solved. 

Our spirituality is bigger than our humanity

We humans have something special that other species don’t have – something that has enabled us to do distinctive things such as compose literature, develop science and explore metaphysics. The world’s great religious traditions acknowledge that this special something comprises our spiritual essence. But what exactly is that spiritual essence? Some traditions equate our spirituality with our humanity – they hold that we humans alone have souls. This notion makes all subhuman existence devoid of any intrinsic value; subhuman beings exist only to serve as a setting for the cosmos’ central drama of human redemption. This is anthropocentrism encroaching into spirituality. Such a utilitarian view of nonhuman life can easily degenerate into an exploitative view akin to today’s materialistic worldview that has wrought ecological havoc on our planet. Gita wisdom explains that those who equate their spirituality with their humanity confuse a difference in degree with a difference in nature. A fundamental characteristic of all life, human and subhuman, is consciousness. And consciousness being non-material comes from a spiritual source, the soul. As all living beings are conscious, they all have souls. More precisely, they are souls. The Bhagavad-gita (13.31) urges us to see beneath the diversity of life-forms, a similarity of spiritual essence. Ignorance covers the spiritual awareness of all living beings, but that covering is thicker in subhuman species than in humans. As our souls are less covered, we have a nascent spiritual capacity. This capacity drives us to enquire into the nature and purpose of our existence, thereby developing various distinctively human branches of knowledge. Thus, we humans are special not because we alone have souls, but because we alone can realize the soul. By understanding that our spirituality is bigger than our humanity, we can better value our subhuman brethren and better appreciate how the universe’s ultimate purpose includes them too.

Unconsciousness is a state of consciousness – not an absence of consciousness

People who undergo near-death experiences (NDEs) sometimes report that they perceived from an out-of-body perspective things that happened while they were medically unconscious. Occasionally they even give astonishingly precise information such as the conversations among the surgical staff – information they couldn’t have known by normal means. Such veridical reports beg the question: how were these people conscious when they were unconscious? Gita wisdom explains that unconsciousness is a state of consciousness. The Bhagavad-gita (02.17) indicates that consciousness is the energy of our spiritual essence – the soul. This energy radiates through the body, enabling us to be aware of our surroundings and of ourselves. Our consciousness goes through four states depending on how far it extends outwards from the soul. When consciousness extends through the subtle body to the gross body, that state is our standard wakeful state, known as jagruti. When consciousness extends only till the subtle body, that state, called svapna, is the state of normal sleep. When consciousness doesn’t extend even up to the subtle body, that state is called sushupti, deep dreamless sleep. When consciousness gets redirected to the spiritual level, that state is called samadhi, spiritual trance. NDEs occur at the svapna level of consciousness. The trauma of NDEs causes the soul along with the subtle body to temporarily separate from the gross body. Because the consciousness of near-death experiencers no longer extends to their physical body, they report their own surgery from an onlooker’s perspective, not the operated’s perspective – they see themselves being cut, yet don’t feel pain. Veridical NDEs comprise persuasive scientific evidence for the Gita teaching that our consciousness comes from a non-physical source. What some near-death experiencers perceive briefly – that we are more than our bodies – we all can realize clearly by raising our consciousness according to the Gita’s yoga teachings

Maya is not just illusion – it is also the agency that brings about illusion

The word “Maya” is often translated as illusion. While correct, this translation is not complete because Maya is much more than illusion – it is also the agency that brings about illusion. The Bhagavad-gita (07.14) refers to Maya as agency when declaring it to be Krishna’s energy. It is energy for it does the will of the supreme energetic person. Its purpose is not to keep us in illusion, but to teach the futility of the illusion of living separate from Krishna. Once this futility sinks in, we re-position ourselves as his loving servants, for that is our constitutional position as his eternal parts. The illusions that confront us during our life-journey are thus meant for a positive educational purpose. They are like the wrong options in a multiple-choice test. The presence of such options impels students to internalize their lessons, thereby choosing the right option. As long as we think of Maya as just illusion, we tend to underestimate the power of those illusions and overestimate the power of our intelligence to see through them. But human intelligence pitted against the divine illusory energy is eminently a battle of unequals – we will sooner or later end up deluded. The verse conveys this mismatch by deeming Maya formidable, even insurmountable. When we see Maya as Krishna’s illusory energy, we realize the necessity, indeed the indispensability, of internalizing the lesson that we become safe only when we are absorbed in Krishna’s loving service. Of course, we can and should use our intelligence for understanding this lesson. But the lesson is essentially a matter of the heart, not the head. Only when we redirect our heart’s love from the world towards Krishna by voluntary surrender to him, as the verse recommends, can we go beyond the illusory energy’s illusions.