How powerful is Maya? How much free will do we really have?
Peace!
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How powerful is Maya? How much free will do we really have?
Peace!
नमस्ते,
Maya is powerful. How much it has a hold over you depends on where you are on your spiritual path. For people completely engrossed in the world, it is pretty difficult to choose against it, so their free will in that regard would be quite limited. However, there is always free will, as this is the only way we climb upwards. Even just the refusal to give into a desire can give a person that little push upward.
However, for someone already seeking for enlightenment/mokṣa/God in general, much of that illusion has already been seen through, albeit not completely. Such a person is able to resist the world more, since they must already do so in order to follow a real spiritual path or live a spiritual life. So, the free will of such a person is considerable in this regard. Such people know they are dreaming, but are just trying to turn away from the dream toward waking reality.
ॐ नमः शिवाय
Maya is ignorance, we all can try and remove ignorance by Dramashiksha and reading of scripturesQuote:
Originally Posted by AstralProjectee
Namaste AP,
Your Freewill is Unlimited if you are able to transcend MAyA. However, till you able to achieve that, MAyA is very very powerful. Its power can be gauged by the fact that great saints like NArAda, VishvAmitra etc. fell into its trap.Quote:
Originally Posted by AstralProjectee
MAyA can be overcome by VairAgya (non-attachment to sensual pleasures and any worldly thing), practice and grace of Guru/God. MAyA is illusory power of the Self/Brahman. To fully overcome MAyA one has to Realise Self.
Lord Krishna says :
IndriYas (sense organs) are powerful than other body organs. The Mind is more powerful than the IndriyAs. The Intellect is more powerful than the Mind. The Self is more powerful than the Intellect. So, know the Self to kill your worst enemy, the KAmA i.e. the desires, which is the destroyer of one's power of discrimination.
MAyA works through affecting our intellect, mind and the Sense organs.
OM
hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~
namasté
Someone, please point to māyā and say 'there it is' .
praṇām
Quote:
hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~
namasté
Someone, please point to māyā and say 'there it is' .
praṇām
Namaste Yajvan,
Is this even possible? Perhaps it would be easier to point to the effects Maya has on a person engrossed in the sensory phenomena of this world believing it to be all that is.
Maya certainly seems to be an extremely powerful force in our physical world. If it were not so, how clearly and easily many would see through the veil and see the Self that binds everything. But even for the very spiritually aware, Maya can be a hard thing to shake off. This "I am the body" concept seems to be built into the survival instinct of every living being on the planet. Only through spiritual practices and meditation does one come to realise there is much more to the self than "I am me".
Om namah Shivaya
hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~
namasté
Let me ask you this... if it is a powerful force then where does it go once one becomes the jīvanmukti. If I say wind (vāyu) is a powerful force, I can measure it before and after one resides as the jīvanmukti; yet this is not so with māyā. What may we be missing? Are we framing this māyā correctly ?Quote:
Originally Posted by sunyata07
praṇām
A simple example :
A nursery class child is taught mathematics or the digits through some animals, baloons, food items, etc.
For them they hardly understand the meaning of mathematics or digits. For then those animals, food or play items are the world.
The same for a class 10 child is mathematics or digits. he can see through those food items, animals and the play items.
Similarly at higher level. The not wise people get bogged down and mired by the everchanging shapes, sizes, quality and quantities of the matter. They are not able to see or realise the brahman in it.
The wise people see these as brahman and use them accordingly while being detached.
Maya is a result of the senses and the body (ahamkara) and is a product of mind. This mind - as it gets educated clears up the misconceptions slowly and moves ahead in the spiritual path.
Maya - it is only an illusion because of our limited senses and limited knowledge.
Thanks Kallol Ji.Quote:
Originally Posted by kallol
Can we say that Maya is the principle that limits our senses and limits our knowledge? Without it , our senses and knowledge reach a realm without limits?
Maya is the notion that a sand castle is a castle (a permanent one) and not sand. It is the pictures and not the numbers in nursery mathematics. Now is the castle real ?Quote:
Originally Posted by Seeker
Maya is a limitation of the mind to see beyond the ever changing shapes, colurs and sizes.
It is not there in ulmate sense but arises out of body, mind and senses.
If we get attached (not so wise people) to these - it limits us in knowledge and understanding.
If we are knowledgeable we use these for our growth in spiritual path as tools i.e. change the status of our mind from tamasic to rajasic to satvik.