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What is Maya, Jeev And Bhagawan?
There are 3 fundamental principles that govern creation. Other than these 3 principles there is no fourth dimension. These three dimensions are Bhagawan (भगवान), Maya (माया) and Jeev (जीव). Bhagawan is the God Principle, the Controller principle, which is at the root of creation.
Unless there is a Creator, who is beyond space and time, the Truth principle, there is no other scope of life. The Truth principle and God are one and the same thing. The second is that which is opposed to Truth but who emerges out of God, Truth.
That principle is Maya or “that which is not”. This is the Principle of Illusion, the illusion of the lifeless and what generally is known as matter. Matter emerges from God principle. Matter also stands for something that is not real, that which only appears.
It is not a ‘fact’ but yet it is temporary, transient, even false. The third and the most important principle is Jeev or the individual soul principle which constitutes the multitudinous living entities on earth and probably that exist even in unknown locales of the universe.
This principle is intermediary to Bhagawan and Maya. It is also called the Tatastha Shakti (तटस्थ शक्ति) or the marginal principle. This principle is the one that is stuck between the diametrically opposite principles of Maya and Bhagawan. The living entities are hence governed by the two principles of Bhagawan and Maya. We shall deal with each principle separately.
(1) Bhagawan or God
This is the base and root of all principles. It is the principle a.k.a the parent principle and that which is the wielder of the other two principles. The two principles of Jeev and Maya are subservient to the Bhagawan principle.
The Bhagawan Principle governs the other two. However all the three principles are infinite in their quality and co-exist from beginningless time. Only with the command of Bhagawan does Maya and Jeev become capable of functioning.
With the command of Bhagawan, Maya affects the Jeev and even controls the Jeev. Without the command of Bhagawan no life is possible. The world coming into being and entering dissolution, is purely at the behest of Bhagawan. Only Bhagawan is the super-intelligent principle that presides over the working of Jeev and Maya. Hence, Bhagawan is the Supreme and unchallenged principle.
(2) Maya or the Principle of Illusion
This principle wholly depends on the directions of Bhagawan. Just as a Robot is lifeless but operates intelligently because of electricity and a programmable chip that takes instructions, similarly Maya is completely incapable of working on Her own and depends on the instructions of Bhagawan.
With the order of Bhagawan, Maya creates a veil around the living entity and keeps it bound to matter. Maya becomes the controlling principle that is the greatest impediment that blocks a living entity in its journey towards Bhagawan. Unless the living entity applies the truth-principles as enunciated in Vedic Scriptures, removal of Maya is impossible.
(3) Jeev or Living entity
Maya, the illusory potency that traps a jeeva in Samsara The principle that “experiences” life is Jeev. The Jeev, unlike Maya, is the living principle in line with Bhagawan.
Maya on the other-hand is a “lifeless” principle. In that sense the Jeev is a superior principle as compared to Maya. However, in the normal circumstances Maya controls the Jeev and deludes him, by the Will of Bhagawan.
Spirituality is the process by which Jeev is able to understand his position and summons the Bhagawan principle to topple Maya and ascend to his rightful position as the rightful heir to the Lord. Thus, before enlightenment, the Jeev is under the clutches of Maya but post-enlightenment Maya becomes subservient to the Jeev. This is because, the Lord establishes Himself in the heart of the Jeev and the Jeev realizes Bhagawan.
The fundamentals of these three principles is that each principle has the other two principles miscible in them. It is inside Bhagawan that both Maya and Jeev operate. Even the Jeev has a body, composed of Maya and inside the heart of the Jeev, Bhagawan exists in the form of Paramatma, the Universal soul. It is a Vedic Truth that Bhagawan exists within Jeeva and Maya, Maya exists within Jeevas and Bhagawan and the Jeevas exists within Maya and Bhagawan.
All these three aspects of existence homogeneously co-exist within each other. Yet there is inter-interdependence of Jeev and Maya and both have their total dependence on Bhagawan. This is the final conclusion of our Sanatana Dharma Scriptures. However the controller of Jeev and Maya is only Bhagawan and nothing happens without His ultimate sanction. Thus the goal of the Jeev is to surrender to Bhagawan. The duty of the Jeev is to accept his subservience to Bhagawan and pray for the removal of Maya.
7/8 Questions from Sanatana Dharma
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The Jeev, Maya Bhagawan Takeaway
Under ordinary conditions the Jeev is bound by Maya and Maya keeps the Jeev away from Bhagawan. This state exists from the beginning of time. However if one surrenders to an enlightened being and takes the help of Vedic scriptures, the means to get Maya out of the way becomes evident.
It is for the living entities, Jeevas, to understand that other than Bhagawan everything else is Maya. No Jeev has any direct relation with other Jeevas or even Maya. His infinite relationship is only with Bhagawan alone and hence his ultimate goal is to attain Him, removing the effects of Maya from his life.
A Deeper Understanding of Maya
How is Maya a Barrier towards Moksham? We should try to understand this concept a bit. What goes up, comes down. This is also how the elevator, commonly known as the lift, works. But what belongs to the up, when realized, goes up and stays there. This is the process of Uplift.
What is within the reach of Maya goes up, comes down and keeps going that way, forever without rest. What is realized to be the domain of the divine simply elevates and reaches its zenith and then stays there forever. It does not budge from its eternal position ever again. These are the two domains that are presented to us in earthly life too.
Although these two options are fully available to all, about 99% of the world population only consider the option given to them by Maya, where goals and results related to the world keep oscillating eternally like a see-saw with no balancing point.
New Game Old Rules
Once stuck in this see-saw, people do not consider better alternatives and finally perish on that very see-saw, to find themselves seated permanently on the same see-saw, but now with a new physical body with the old game continuing unabatedly, with no respite.
People get frustrated but do not consider getting off the see-saw for once. When we take birth, in a family we are born with certain surroundings. Even if there is an unfortunate child from a worldly point of view, which might have been abandoned by its mother, somewhere under a tree,a certain surrounding of growth and elevation is still completely available.
The surroundings have their effect on us. Our parents, our neighbors, our friends, our education system, the media, books of interest and so on, all of these shape our likes, dislikes, preferences and inclinations. About 99% of the people are thus under the influence of what we call worldly.
Anything worldly belongs to this world and cannot be carried with us beyond this material platform, which we perceive through the gross senses like speech, sight, hearing, smell and touch. The material attributes pertaining to the gross senses include name, fame, family, education, position, praise, wealth and bodily beauty.
All that we set as our goals are dependent on so many changing parameters like current situation, our background, our availability, investment of effort, our inner discipline and a host of unknown and unseen parameters.
Hence, although we may make a hundred choices and take up a few goals to pursue, most often we shall drift from our goals and we do not even realize that over the years our goals have shifted posts. We have been oscillating up and down on the see-saw of life. To add to this we lie to ourselves that we have “achieved perfect goals”.
Over and above we have attained a thick “I”, the hard-shelled material Ego that feels that it has attained certain things and goes gaga about itself, spreading gas balloons about its empty glory. Little does the Ego know that the pin of death is going to get to it some day and it has to begin its empty materialistic journey from a perfect zero standpoint in a new lifetime which is going to be wasted once again.
The Great Endless Ego Ride
The Ego does not get the point and foolishly pursues its empty goals only to ceaselessly go round and round endlessly over unending lifetimes. This indeed is the work of Maya that inflates and deflates the Ego with every new cycle of birth. This takes us to the land of hypocrisy. The fluctuations and the highs and lows of life belong to the world of Maya (cosmic delusion, that which is “not”).
It is Maya alone who takes one to the heights of success and at the next moment dashes the same individual to the ground, dumping him into rags, into the fields of anonymity. This is the see-saw of Maya that goes up and comes down eternally with no end. Unless one has developed a certain distaste for worldly activities or is disillusioned by the fickle nature of worldly events, the shadow of real awakening cannot be approached.
Go To The Guru To End Ego
Awakening begins at a point when there is an opening created within ourselves about the uselessness of life, the waste of life that is apparently happening in its most natural way. Unless there is a gap created between the person and his world of sense-object experiences, it can be safely concluded that the opening for awakening, as yet, has not happened, perhaps it never will, until one surrenders to a genuine Guru, realizing the uselessness of materialistic living.
Unless man begins to contemplate about his life and is able to observe the sequence of events and things through which he has traveled, as well as being able to see the see-saw on which he is seated, one can safely conclude that insight has yet not clearly developed. Now when such contemplation shall begin, again depends on several unknown factors, which have their origins in previous lifetimes, as a result of the accumulation of pious or meritorious deeds that man would have aggregated in past life times.
Getting Interested In Contemplation
In the current lifetime, this contemplation may have a very indicative prelude. If man is getting associated with spiritual teachers or teachings; if he is getting attracted to spiritual works or specific yoga that hint towards enlightenment, then he should consider himself fortunate. This, however, shall not indicate a beginning to one’s spiritual life, but can be a powerful indicator prelude towards one’s inner journey.
However, on continuous associations with spiritual content or entities, it is very much possible that contemplation of a newer kind may begin, which shall propel, with every passing day. In this too, in the initial phases, man may keep losing and gaining spiritual interests.
Nevertheless in the case of being interested in spirituality, one shall slowly but surely keep progressing and the oscillations towards losing interests gets arrested over longer periods; a time shall come when spirituality shall draw the individual completely towards itself.
Once seated on the rocket of spirituality, man starts conquering the various unknown realms of ignorance and continues to uplift himself to newer heights into the spiritual dimension, as if conquering new regions of space. This is spiritual upliftment which keeps growing without descent, following a certain stage of initial spiritual progress.
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