VII: 15

[Krishna Jaya]

Chapter 7, Verse 15

 

“Others are deluded by my power.

They have no devotion for me.

Their vision is veiled

By the cloud of appearance

And they follow the ways of demons.”

 

Father Bede Griffiths:

 

In almost every tradition there are cosmic powers of good and evil.  In Hinduism, the Devas and Devis are the gods and goddesses, spirits of light, and the Rakshasas and Asuras are the demons, spirits of darkness.  Gods and demons represent the subtle or psychic forces in the universe.  If we ignore the presence of God, we become subject to the demonic powers.  This is what has become prevalent in the world today.  Science, for the most part, examines the material aspect of reality, and we mistake this world for the only reality that there is.  In so doing, without realizing it, we become subject to demonic forces which are present in matter, in Nature, and in the unconscious.  Science and technology, which are neutral in themselves, become the means for creating nuclear weapons which are capable of destroying humanity and devastating the whole Earth, the result of being under the delusion of Maya, of matter, and being driven by forces of the unconscious.  Science, thus, becomes demonic, because it has not been flooded with spirit.

 

Paramahansa Yogananda:

 

Krishna is saying to Arjuna in so many words: “Those who willingly cultivate negative qualities are manifesting the nature of demons.  They are not the least bit interested in positive qualities and hence do not tune into the divine bliss trickling down from my spirit into their souls.”

 

Though cosmic delusion has the strongest influence on these people, even they can escape it by cultivating discernment which can happen through meditation.

 

Sri Aurobindo:

 

Sin is the working of the lower nature for the crude satisfaction of its own ignorant, dull [Tamasic] or violent [Rajasic] propensities in revolt against Spirit. In order to dissolve this crude compulsion of the being by the lower Prakriti in its inferior modes, we must have recourse to the highest mode of that Prakriti, the Sattwic, which always seeks for a harmonious light of knowledge and for a right rule of action. The Sattwic will is the law of Nature in us striving to evolve from her unskillful and disorderly to her skillful and orderly action with the result of inner happiness, poise, and peace.

 

Sri Eknath Easwaran:

 

Years ago I spent a week as a guest in a hospitable retreat near San Diego, where I had a magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean.  I took long walks on the beach next to the surf, which made me think of the restless sea of the mind.  The surfers fascinated me.  One day I was surprised to see among them a deeply tanned girl with Indian features.  Sure enough, she had a good Sanskrit name, Maya, and when she found out I was from India, she invited me to her home for dinner with her parents.  After dinner, she asked me if I could tell her the meaning of her name.  I told her that if I could sufficiently explain this word Maya, she would know the secret of life.

 

Maya cannot be adequately explained, because it permeates everything, conditioning all our thinking and perceiving.  Maya is the hypnotic spell of separateness that is the source of all our confusion, a kind of hypnotic trance, or a vivid but frustrating dream in which everything appears to be just the opposite of what it is.  We think that pleasure, power, and material possessions will make us happy, that it is absurd to say, ‘it is in giving that we receive.’  Yet the more we pursue sense pleasures, the less they seem to satisfy.  The more we seek for excitement, the more everything in life seems stale. 

 

It is this bewildering razzle-dazzle of what we desire for ourselves that keeps us from seeing life whole.  As long as we go after happiness just for us, as long as we see everything in terms of what we want for ourselves only, there will always be this wall of separateness between ourselves and others.  One of Maya’s cruelest tricks is that as we begin to get more frustrated, more lonely, and more alienated behind our wall, we try to grab more fiercely at what we want and end up building the wall even higher.  When the veil of Maya is rent asunder by regular Sadhana, though you find yourself back in the world of diversity, you will never forget that the bewildering array of differences is just window dressing.  Beneath all of it there is no one but the Lord.

 

It is not our eyes with which we see.  It is our mind.  The mind only operates in a world of differences.  It separates people and things to like and dislike.  Otherwise, there isn’t any mind.  Where there is no anger, no fear, no greed, and no separateness, the mind just goes to sleep.  It cannot operate at all.  There is nothing to get excited about, nothing to take notice of; there is only pure joy, beyond the mind.  The Buddhists call it the state of no-mind.  Herein lies a clue for going beyond Maya.  The more you can still the mind, which is the purpose of meditation, the more you will be able to penetrate the surface level of life and remember its unity.  Everything that quiets the mind weakens the spell of Maya, just as everything that agitates the mind strengthens the spell.  Give yourself freely, be patient always, slow down, and don’t dwell on your problems or resentments, because these are the things that inflame unskillful desire and fan the fires of separateness.  The agitation of the mind is Maya.  Remember that you are seeing people and things through the medium of the mind and you will be motivated to keep it clear and calm at all times.