What is Maya?🔗

Maya is that which is not there but which makes you run as if it is there. It creates the responses of fear and greed in you as if it is there.

Maya is nothing but running behind goals set by people who themselves have not experienced fulfillment.

A real incident:

Once a woman came to me with a complaint that her son would not listen to her. She wanted me to counsel the boy and make him understand that he should follow what she said. I was actually uncomfortable with this because I myself never followed anybody! But she wouldn't leave me without making me counsel her son.

Finally, I told the boy, 'Please listen to what your mother says. See, not only you, I am also listening!'

The boy replied, 'Swamiji, why should I follow what she says? Has she attained happiness by whatever she is doing and what she is telling me to do? No! Then why should I also repeat the same thing?'

I was shocked. What the boy said was true! When the mother herself had not realized the ultimate state of bliss and happiness, how could she guide her son's life!

So please understand, running behind goals set by people who are themselves unfulfilled can never lead to fulfillment.

Whether it is relationships or name and fame, we are constantly running behind what others say is our goal.

Many times in our lives, we can see how many decisions we have made just because people told us so. The son may want to become a painter, but he ends up becoming an engineer because his parents and society said that becoming an engineer is lucrative. The daughter may want to become a dancer but her parents persuade her to become a doctor because society does not value being a dancer as much as it respects a doctor. What will happen if these youth follow a profession they are not interested in? Naturally, when your heart is not in it, you just take it up as a profession. Neither are you able to feel fulfilled nor are you able to give your best to the work involved in the profession.

Fulfillment is within you, it is your very nature. That is why you keep trying to come out of the un-fulfillment that happens when you have a desire. You try to fulfill the desire and restore fulfillment. Fulfillment is not unknown to you. If fulfillment was something completely unknown, how could you be searching for it? If you are searching for fulfillment, it means fulfillment is known to you! You have experienced fulfillment in your life. You have experienced your true nature. But somehow you have forgotten your true nature. You have lost base with yourself. You are looking to find who you really are. All those instances when you felt some fulfillment are pulling you towards that fulfillment, giving you the hope that you will experience it again. That is why you drag your life.

First truth, whatever path you may choose, whatever you may think you are seeking, you are seeking directly or indirectly, fulfillment. That is the first truth.