What is Maya – are women Maya?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
the question was what is maya some people say that some people say women is maya, so what exactly is maya see maya the word literally means maya that which is not so maya means illusion in that sense the bhagavatam more precisely defines maya as the bhagavatam defines maya as … … … it says that when something appears to be meaningful … that which appears meaningful … but one does not see any connection of that thing with Krishna then … that is maya so maya essentially means to see a thing as attractive as meaningful as capable of giving pleasure and do not see the thing’s connection with Krishna so that is maya that which is not that does not mean that something doesn’t exist so for example this wall exists I can’t say this wall is maya if I hit my head against the wall the pain will not be maya the pain will be real so we do experience a real pleasure and real pain in this world the illusion is that the pleasure as well as the pain especially the pleasure because that is what allures us that is very very little as compared to the reality so maya essentially means to see anything as separate from Krishna that is maya the maya of course is also an energy it is a maya shakti illusory energy she is interestingly Bhagavatam calls her maya is Vaishnavi Janmohini Bhagavatam says maya is also Vaishnavi she is a devotee but what is her service Janmohini her service is to delude people last year I was in Melbourne so one person asked a question if God wants us to do the right thing why is he given so many wrong options in the world the wrong things are so many and the right things are so few actually so why does God give us so many wrong options so I answered actually that is how always it is in any multiple choice exam the wrong options are more the right option is only one the wrong options are usually four now if the passing of the exam was simply a matter of probability then we could say that the examiner is unfair chance of passing would be only 20% as per probability but if the examiner has taught us or the teacher has taught us and then we are given the exam then it is not a matter of probability it is a matter of how much we have assimilated so same way this world essentially because we have many materialistic desires so there are many ways in which there are opportunities to enjoy but then Krishna has given Guru Sahasrara Shastra Krishna is present as the Paramatma, the Chaitanya Guru in our heart and through it all he guides us about making the right choices so the wrong choices themselves are not Maya our getting attracted to the wrong choices they are Maya, that is Maya because the wrong options in a answer paper, multiple choice answer paper they are also a part of the system isn’t it? they are also a part of the system and the point of the wrong answers is that they are going to check whether we have got the right answer or not so like that Maya tests us, her service is what? to test how much we have internalized the desire to serve Krishna and if we have not internalized the desire then we get caught by other things so she is also Vaishnavi, she is also a devotee and her service is just like examiner may test by giving wrong options she also tests us by giving wrong options now yes Maya is often personified as female but then we see most of the adharmic people that are described in the Vedic literature they are all males all the Rakshasas are primarily males sometimes there might be some Rakshasis but most of them are Rakshasas and they are all male so it’s not that we can so obviously the Asuras the Dhanavas, the Rakshasas, they are all Maya so they are all actually masculine so we can’t extrapolate the gender of this world into a philosophical principle so yes, for a man a woman is Maya for a woman, man can be Maya but the important thing is that it is not that the object or the person that is attracting us they are actually Maya in the third chapter of the Bhagavad Gita from 3.36 to 43 Krishna analyzes the nature of lust and there he identifies where is lust located and interestingly he says that in 3.40 Indriyani parant Indriyani Manobuddhir asyadishthanam chithi etair momo yathyesha jnanam amruttehinam Indriyani Manobuddhir he says that lust actually doesn’t only mean sexual desire, lust means actually any kind of selfish desire this is situated in the senses the mind and the intelligence so Krishna is not saying that it is situated in some some person, some object no, he is saying it is situated in our own senses mind and intelligence and when we can understand let’s look at something else say we consider alcohol this is an alcohol bottle now, a person who is never drunk and as we have considered drinking a lot of good culture even that person sees the alcohol bottle, there is no desire coming out on the other hand for a person who has drunk alcohol, who has got into addiction and who is now recovering the sight of the alcohol bottle causes agitation so now both of them are seeing the same object one feels desire the other doesn’t feel desire why is that? that means the desire is not present in the alcohol bottle the desire is present in the person itself the person by repeated indulgence in alcohol has got the desire for alcohol and now we may say no, but if that person had not seen the alcohol bottle then that person would not have felt the desire so certainly seeing the alcohol bottle plays a role so here we have to differentiate between the cause and the trigger so the cause of agitation that is within us only the selfish desire is present inside us but that desire which is dormant that may be triggered into action by some stimuli but we can’t blame the stimuli for that the problem is the desire is inside us itself and now of course we do need to take precautions and the first thing they are told is don’t go to a bar don’t go to places where people drink and that way you will be able to control yourself so if we know that I have certain triggers which agitate me then it is my responsibility to guard myself from the triggers so yes for a man a woman can be a trigger for a woman a man can be a trigger but the trigger is not the cause the trigger is not the cause you know if a person presses a gun because they press the trigger of a gun you know just pressing the trigger will do nothing if there is no bullet inside because there is a bullet inside that’s why a wound happens so like that the trigger will not agitate us if there is no desire inside us now of course all of us have desire and that’s why we have to take due precautions with respect to the triggers that agitate us but we can’t blame anyone for getting triggered ourselves Krishna says if you want to control us control your senses control your mind purify your mind educate your intelligence that’s what Krishna tells basically so in general when when we find certain things which trigger us we have to take due caution and we have to protect ourselves and at the same time especially if somebody is a we should not see the adversarial relationship like you know you are tempting me or I am tempting you no rather both of us have to deal with temptation to death so I answer questions on my website thespiritualscience.com and because people can ask anonymously over there people often ask me candid questions so once when Mataji asked a question she is not exactly a devotee she is becoming a devotee so she said that my sister and I from our childhood we were of a religious nature and we had decided that we will only marry men who are devoted to God she said my sister now she is in her office she met a very religious Christian man and they developed a relationship and then we got married and he says I met a Hare Krishna devotee and I found him very religious, very devoted and then we got married he said that my my brother-in-law’s religion my sister’s husband’s religion my brother-in-law’s religion teaches him that a good wife is a gift from God is a blessing from God but my husband treats me like a temptation who is deviated from God I never forced him to get married he chose to marry me I also want to go towards God is this the way that God wants me to feel she had not yet become a devotee she was a religious person is this what your God teaches you people so is this how I am meant to feel throughout my life so then I answered elaborately I said that actually the whole point is that if we want to call anything that tempts us as a temptation then the world is filled with temptations for that matter if we see there is gross sex and there is subtle sex subtle sex is when we get when people glorify us when people glorify us then we feel I am special I am great and there is also self centered enjoyment we are not really thinking of God we are thinking about ourselves so now if we see it is told that when the disciple meets the spiritual master or when they say a devotee meets a senior devotee that they appreciate the senior devotee so then if the spiritual master start thinking oh if my disciples praise me hearing my praise is temptation so I will not hear my disciples I will not associate with the disciples and that’s not the point yes that possibility is there but after sometime one gets beyond that yes the disciple may glorify but afterwards one gets beyond that and I am focusing on the substance of the relationship so now similarly yes there is a temptation as an aspect in the relationship but that has to be dealt with at an individual level based on the mutual needs of both people and that should not become the definer of the relationship yes the definer of the relationship is both of us are trying to serve Krishna and yes at different times I may be attacked by desire and another person may be attacked by desire and we help each other deal with the desire in the whatever way is practical we don’t have to become judgmental it’s not that it’s never that actually now our spiritual standards should never be made into weapons in domestic ego battles what I mean by that is domestic ego battles means you know you are attached you are so attached I am detached therefore I am greater than you so if our spirituality becomes a tool for you know placing our ego on top of others then instead of coming together the relationship can become very hostile so ultimately the purpose is to move closer towards Krishna and we are together moving towards Krishna so how to deal with temptation that is something which each person will have to deal with practically according to one’s own level according to one’s own situation but the important thing is that the temptation should never be seen as the definer of the relationship yes that’s one part of life just deal with it the way you can focus on serving Krishna to the end and by that gradually we will find that we will find a level where we can practice bhakti in a sustainable way and continue on that way so if we yes definitely there is the temptation that is there in any relationship but temptation or the capacity to resist temptation is not meant to be the definer of the relationship the definer of the relationship is how much we help each other and move closer towards Krishna and if we keep that then automatically other things will be adjusted at a level that is that is realistically practical for us so we don’t process of bhakti is not the process of giving up it is the process of taking up so we take up positive things in Krishna’s service and the more we take up positive things in Krishna’s service the negative things gradually start disappearing we focus on no I shouldn’t do this, I shouldn’t do this, I shouldn’t do this it just doesn’t work because in saying no to anything there is always the feeling of deprivation and then we keep saying no, keep saying no we feel deprived and eventually we succumb to it so they there is an atheist joke against Christianity they say in the bible it says in the beginning was the word and the word was God so the atheists they twisted around and said the beginning was the word and the word was no no you cannot do this no you cannot do that no you cannot do that the purpose of God is not to deprive us actually it is our materialism that is depriving us of higher happiness and the purpose of Krishna is to help us find that higher happiness so if you focus too much on the negative then we, our mind is filled with what I have to avoid no, our mind should be filled with what I am to do in the 11th canto, in the Uddhava Gita, same section Krishna tells Uddhava that my devotee that even if my devotee is not able to control one’s senses, even if the devotee is defeated by the senses, still that devotee stays enthusiastic to serve and by staying enthusiastic to serve me gradually the devotee will become beautiful so the two we should not necessarily one is our fight against temptation and the other is our attempts to practice bhakti so our attempts to practice bhakti should be the primary thing in our spiritual life and our battle with temptation, however we deal with that that capacity to deal with it better will come when we practice bhakti positively so always keep the focus on the positive and we can’t actually drive any desire out of our consciousness we can only crowd desires out of our consciousness we can crowd desire, that means when we fill our consciousness with positive spiritual desires then the lower desires will go and the more we focus on the positive, the more we will experience higher happiness and the more we will mourn in our spiritual life so any other questions about this?