Freedom from Cosmic Illusion

This post is also available in: Hindi

To attain freedom from anything, we will have to first understand what it exactly is. So let us first understand Maya––the cosmic illusion––before we consider being free from it. The popular concept of Maya brings forth pictures of materialism involving the acquisition and preservation of material pleasures and conveniences like comforts, luxuries, money, swanky cars, the latest gadgets and other so-called ‘materialistic’ things. Though this does provide an obvious idea about Maya, it is indeed a very superficial interpretation. Intellectually, it means the entire visible world of names and forms. At an even deeper level, Maya (in Hindi) can be taken as ‘Mein aaya’, which points at the origin of the false ‘I’ –– the false identity that we assume for ourselves.

The real ‘I’––who we truly are––doesn’t need any support or validity for its existence, for it is existence itself! It does not need desires or beliefs to define itself. It does not need thoughts for its existence, as it is the changeless consciousness in which thoughts arise. On the other hand, the false ‘I’––the personality that we assume for ourselves and hold onto––is an illusion that cannot stand without the support of a self-image made of beliefs and thought patterns.

Let us understand the nature of this cosmic illusion with an analogy. Consider a huge snake that is clutching a live frog in its mouth. You might think, “Poor frog…the snake will swallow it in a matter of moments.”However, the frog is oblivious of the danger that is slowly devouring it. It is utterly unaware that it is in the fatal grip of the snake as it is busy throwing its sticky tongue out to prey upon flies. When the snake lifts its head, the frog also moves up in its grip. Nevertheless, the frog never once doubts that it may be in the lethal clutches of the snake. Contrary to this, it feels that it is rising higher, as it is lifted up by the snake and sees more flies in its radar. The frog will never believe even if it were warned that it is in the fiery grip of the snake and that it will be swallowed soon.

In the above analogy, the frog represents the false assumed ‘I’ and what does the serpent stand for? Is it the material world? No! The real serpent resides within us. It is the inner world of beliefs and tendencies that the real ‘I’ is consumed in. It may likewise be addressed as the voice in the head or the constant churning of thoughts that perpetuates this serpent of desires and ignorance. This voice in the head is the continuous flow of unnecessary thoughts that are perpetually judging the present moment. These thoughts cause a push and pull towards topics that repel or attract the mind.

Pull thoughts are of desires to bring some pleasurable or favorable situations in your life, e.g. “I want to play video games”, “I want to listen to good music”, “I want them to respect and praise me.” These thoughts find solace in instant gratification. The recent proliferation of online ordering and home-delivery services that are available at our fingertips is only intensifying these Pull thoughts. This need for gratification is insatiable.

Push thoughts are those which project situations that you don’t want in life. They are things, people or situations that you despise, such as “I don’t want to fail”, “I don’t want my near ones to go away from me”, “I don’t want to experience emotional discomfort”, “I don’t want to be criticized or insulted.”It could also be something as simple as, “I dislike the heat… it’s sweltering, sweating and sticky”, “I hate this person… He doesn’t value me.”

This flux of attachment and aversion, of pull and push, are the clutches of the serpent of Maya that consumes human life. If the frog were to take a ‘selfie’ (a picture of oneself in the camera), it will discover that it is entrapped in the jaws of snake. Over the years of conditioning, we tend to be entrapped in a false sense of self. We try to safeguard our self-image, which is made of a set of beliefs, tendencies and core thoughts that govern our values and choices. If we relax into the present moment and observe deeper within ourselves, it will become clear that we are not this voice in the head, that we are not these tendencies or the desires that consume us. For the first time we will be able to recognize that we have a choice to let go of these unwanted thoughts that constitute this false sense of self. We need to take our own ‘selfie’, meaning, we need to introspect deeply to see through the workings of our mind.

When a rope appears to be a snake in the darkness of the night, we search for a stick to hit the illusory snake. Instead, we should seeka torch that will throw light on the reality of the rope. Similarly, in the darkness of ignorance, we unconsciously believe ourselves to be the body and mind and thus we take the voice in the head very seriously. We feel compelled to follow the desires and flow by the tendencies that define and feed our self-image. Asa result, we continue to be entrapped in the dualities of pleasure–pain, insult–praise, jealousy–empathy, past–future, success–failure, do’s–don’ts, me–others. Our decisions are driven by the compulsion to either push some uncomfortable experiences out of our lives or pull pleasurable experiences into our lives. The entire lifetime can be spent in this effort of push–pull without ever realizing that we are perpetually in the jaws of Maya. This is essentially what the real Maya is. This illusion resides within us as hidden tendencies that drive our daily lives and deludes us into making choices mechanically based on likes and dislikes programmed into our minds.

Situations occurring in life are neutral. However, the mind projects it as negative or positive, and consequently we choose to react from aversion or indulgence. We are in reality not running away from the situation, but trying to escape our own feelings about it. When we feel boredom, fear, anxiety, anger or tension, we try to avoid facing these feelings by indulging in activities like watching TV, playing games, chatting on the phone, gossiping, overeating,
shopping, going for trips, imagining the future, or lingering in the past. Indulging in these activities is atemporary strategy of the mind to avoid uncomfortable feelings. But these feelings do not pass away, they remain bottled up and suppressed within us, only to re-surface later.

If we keep treading the path of indulgence, we will find that the quantum of pleasurable experiences needed to satisfy our mind keeps increasing e.g. even after a long day trip, we switch on the TV as soon as we are home. This is because our ability to face the void or emptiness devoid of excitement keeps reducing. This is the play of cosmic illusion. To be able to clearly recognize the play of Maya, we need to introspect the inner workings of our mind honestly––what addictions are we cultivating to avoid uncomfortable feelings.

Initially encountering our hidden habits and idiosyncrasies might seem difficult, as we have defined ourselves in terms of these all these years. However, slowly as we practice detached witnessing of how the mind is playing out its habits and tendencies, we begin to observe an automatic detachment from our thoughts. Facing the thoughts that arise within and feeling the emotions fully will gradually become effortless. We will be able to clearly see that the thoughts, which were fabricating a very intense reality, are only illusory formations, like clouds that come and go in the immaculate sky of our conscious presence. This presence begins to awaken and assert itself, bringing peace, love and joy.

Benefits like increase in patience, freedom from the bondage of addictions and the ability to choose new options to respond to situations will unfold as a byproduct of this awakening. Above all, we will begin to revel in the bliss of true freedom.