What is maya?

 

There are 5 aspects to your self:

asti - is-ness

bhaati - knowledge or expression

preeti - love

nama - name

rupa - form

Matter has 2 aspects: name and form. Consciousness has 3 aspects: asti - it is, bhaati - it knows and expresses and preeti - it is loving. This is the secret of the whole universe. Maya - ignorance or delusion - is not being aware of the three aspects of consciousness and getting caught up in names and forms of matter.

Why are we imperfect? So that we can grow to perfection. Life is a movement from imperfection to perfection. A seed contains the tree but to become a tree it must cease being a seed. The seed is not a tree. A sapling is not a tree.

So in life you can either see imperfection at every step, or you can see movement from one perfection to another perfection. Wherever you put your attention, that will grow. If you put your attention on the lack of something, the lack will increase.

How can you always be happy? Forget about "always" - then you will be happy. In always wanting to be comfortable, you become lazy. In always wanting perfection, you become angry. In always wanting to be rich, you become greedy. Fear arises when we do not realise that only life is for always. This projection of the nature of Self - which is "always" - onto the temporal - which can never be "always" - is called maya. All ways do not lead you, only one way leads you. 

If you remove "always" from your dictionary, then everything is "all right". Drop "always" and all will be right - that is intelligence.

Divine love and infinity

 

When you love something, it becomes alive. With love, the whole creation becomes personal. For children, everything is personal. Children make each toy come alive. Even a tree has a face, even the sun laughs, and even a stone attracts reverence when it becomes personal. In love, you raise even objects to life. If you remove love, even people become objects. 

Violence is removing love. How could a person kill another? Only when they see them as an object, not as a person. People who see God as impersonal do not progress. The impersonal cannot attract your love or reverence. When we personalize something, we make it real. So then, what is reality? You are the reality. You are not the thoughts, you are not the emotions, nor the actions. You are not even a person. 

There are 3 kinds of love - the love that comes out of charm, the love that comes out of familiarity, and Divine love. The love that comes out of charm does not last long. Out of unfamiliarity you are attracted, then once you become familiar, you quickly lose attraction and boredom sets in, like most love marriages. This love may diminish and bring along with it fear, uncertainty, insecurity and sadness. The love that comes out of familiarity grows. You are more comfortable with an old friend who is a familiar person, rather than with a new person. But this love has no thrill, no enthusiasm, no fire in it. 

Divine love supersedes all other love. Divine love is ever new. The closer you come, the more charm and depth is there. Divine love has comfort, familiarity and enthusiasm. There is never boredom and it keeps you on your toes. Worldly love can be like an ocean, yet an ocean has a bottom. Divine love is like the sky, limitless, infinite. From the bottom of the ocean, soar into the vast sky.

Beyond an event is knowledge. Beyond an object is infinity. Beyond a person is love. Knowledge is beyond events. Every event colours your awareness in some way, pleasure, pain, joy, sorrow, anger, jealousy. Each event gives you a false notion of what reality is. Truth is beyond all the colours of particular events. Behind every object is infinity. Objects are limited and changing, yet they exist in infinite space that never changes. Reduce any object to atoms, you will find that within each atom is contained infinite space. Beyond all objects is infinity.

Beyond each person is love. A personality changes. A body, a mind, a complex of behaviours is always changing. Beyond each personality there is unchanging love, love is what you are. When you lose your self, you’ll find your self. The event behind the event is knowledge. The object behind the object is infinity. The person behind the person is love. Maya (delusion) is when you are stuck in events, personalities, or objects. Brahman, divine consciousness, is seeing beyond all these. See? Just a little shift.