Hare Krishna to all devotees,
We always listen that 'Maya' (Illusion) is so strong. Can someone tell or explain what is 'Maya'?
Supreme Lord is called 'Mayapati' that means Maya is controlled by Lord.
It is also true that 'Maya' creates illusion and can deviate a human from the true path of Bhakti.
If Maya is controlled by Lord then why it put hurdles in the path of Bhakti? Why it takes away even Shuddh Bhakt from path of Lord though it also serves Lord?
In other religions this kind of deviation is caused only by 'Shaitan' or 'Devil'. In this way can we compare 'Maya' with 'Shaitaan' or 'Devil' ?
if Maya is so strong then a human is nothing before it. It becomes one sided game of Maya.
I apologize to create this puzzle game but I myself is so much confused with this. Kindly make me understand it well.
II namo maha-vadanyaya
krishna-prema-pradaya te
krishnaya krishna-chaitanya-
namne gaura-tvishe namah II
Nitai Gaur Hari Premanande....
Replies
Hare Krishna my Dear budding Devotee.
May Your inquiry be resultant in culmination of the final frontiers of Human Life i.e. achieving Shudha Prema Bhakti unto the Divine lotus feet of Dear Bhagavan Sri Sri Radhe Sri Krishna Chandra.
What you have just inquired is a different slot of the primary inquiry which is the way the Vedanta Sutra begins - "Athato Brahma Jignasa".(google it. buy Narada Bhakti Sutra from ISKCON/down load it. Pray to it and study it)
Now therefore the inquiry into the entirety of the Supreme Person. But your inquiry is into specific energies of the Energetic, who they are, what they do, why they do so, whom do they report to, what is their real nature and so on..
I will do my best to try to make you understand not only what you have so genuinely inquired such that the realization you may be able to harness out of my humble attempt may quickly migrate to Shudha Prema Bhakti while simultaneously destroying any traces of mundane hankering that may be lingering due to latencies which are resonated resultants of billions of births through millions of yugas.
There are two categories of Mayas who are also individuals (constitutionally and qualitatively different from us and also Bhagavan Ji).
a. Yoga Maya (Bhagavan Ji's Internal potency that takes care of His Supreme Enjoyment needs)
b. Maha Maya (Bhagavan Ji's External potency that takes care of His revolter's perverted enjoyments at the material plane)
Both there eternal servants of Bhagavan Sri Sri Radhe Sri Krishna Chandra have the ability to expand into 'n' while retaining their individuality intact and not disintegrate as one may perceive.
Your inquiry pertains to Maha Maya whose thraldom we are now experiencing.
Her work (thankless) is definitely emphasizable from the core of the heart of each fallen soul as well as the infallible One Bhagavan Ji Himself (though He does not have any direct connection with her. Indirectly yes).
To give an explanation, it is like saying laptop/Internet is Maya. My computer/laptop/tablet is all intelligent. It gives me the answer to anything I want. Shows me any movie I want to see. Any music I want to hear. Video conferences me with any person or a set of persons I want to be involved with in audio visual communication etc.
But in reality if you look at the very hard and smart work put in by various components to give you these so called magical/illusory results are as follows:
Therefore knowing all these facts any one will be clear that it is an enormous mammoth team work by billions of intelligent entities including millions of humans to give you the information you DEMAND from your laptop. It is not magic or what we understand as Maya from mundane perspective. Illusion it is. Any one ignorant (a child for example) of all the paraphernalia of the backend of your laptop will certainly consider the laptop as all intelligent.
Now you will need to understand how Maha Maya works. The brief description of Internet I gave you is nothing but a miniature of the Transcendental Network which is way – way severely and much more technically complex. All the aspects that give Your Body and You all these FXs (special effects) of sense perceptions through your body’s sense organs which you feel as you yourself.(disown that or unsubscribe from that 1st)
Now the illusory aspects/design, deployment and management of Maha Maya features are as follows:
So to sum it up Maya is nothing but Hard work by countless individuals as a seamless integrated team fulfilling our perverted desires. Not magic. Judging the size of it even compared to the Internet you can gauge its strength (actually you can’t).
Bhagavan Ji is the controller of both Yoga Maya and Maha Maya. Jivas who ditch Bhagavan Ji at the Tatastha are taken over by Maha Maya and finally passed down to Durga.
Unsubscribe from Maha Maya and you will automatically migrate to Yoga Maya where you are Bhagavan Ji’s eternal servant (this is the target of human life)
Maha Maya stringently tests your un subscription intention. Each time you slip you actually re subscribe to her thralldom with much more intensity and un subscription becomes more difficult,
The Satan is in us when we (though indolent) reject Bhagavan Ji on emanating from Him. The material world is a rehabilitation center. It is called Maithunyagara. A mammoth prison house (shackles of sex) (study Bhagavad Gita 3.39 page 207 Guru Jis purport) of transcendental defaulters
You can become stronger than Maha Maya if you want to and your intention is in line with Bhagavan Sankarshana’s primary and secondary mission (study Srimad Bhagavatas 5.25.6)
The one sided game especially towards indolent jivas emanating in the Tatastha is now in the administrative process of reversal and KEPT THAT WAY. With your sincere intentions you can contribute to it.
Kindly do not apologize for having inquired into the root of material creation which is actually against the interest of Sat Chit Ananda. Maithunyagara has actually no fitment into it even remotely as a pin prick of a thought for Bhagavan Ji while He is constrained to design, deploy and micromanage them. More and more intelligent Jivas like you need to inquire, understand, realize, and meditate upon Bhagavan Sankarshana (1st study the entire 5th canto 25th chapter – The Glories of Lord Ananta, visualize) and pray to be an integral part of this reversal process of the created mammoth material worlds.
I am sure you will have more doubts and I will strive to clarify them.
With Warm Regards
Sankarshana Dasa
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya Sankarshanaya Pradhyumnaya Anirudhaya ca.
Kali (like in Kaliyuga) is like Saitan/Devil
Maya Devi (Durga Devi) is a pure devotee of the Lord.
She controls the material world, which accounts for 1/3 of the total energy of Krishna.
A spirit soul somehow or other falls into the material world, where he can serve his own self through senses instead of serving Krishna, the Supreme Enjoyer in the spiritual world.
So why doesn't Krishna control Maya and make our life easy?
We have come to this material world, because we have become envious of Krishna. We want to be served as well. So Krishna gives us the opportunity to engage in personal enjoyment or serving ourselves. But why is there so much chaos in the world? why people are killing each other? Its like you go to your office to work. There is one boss and many people report to him and everything works fine. What happens in a place, you go to work and everybody over there is acting like he is the boss. This is the material world.
You see Krishna does not want to take away from your pleasure, if thats what you choose instead of serving Krishna (although, there is more pleasure in serving Krishna than any other). So by the way of His servant Maya Devi, an unseen wall is built between us and Krishna, so we can nicely enjoy without being disturbed by Krishna.
Discussion on how to stay away from Maya:
http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/forum/topics/2103886:Topic:465030