THE MAKE-BELIEF WORLD

Some of life’s greatest and purest lessons are not learnt inside classrooms. One day in the unsullied environs of the Himalayas, on the sand of the Ganges, Swami Rama asked his Master the meaning of Maya. The Master agreed to do so, and said that the next day he would give a demonstration of Maya. After a bath in the River Ganga, and while on way back to the cave where they lived, they came across a large, dry tree trunk. The Master ran very quickly and suddenly wrapped himself around the trunk. Having done so, he started calling out to his disciple for help, saying he was trapped. The surprised disciple wondered about what was going on. His Master had been helping out others and, all of a sudden, he was seeking help from his own disciple. As doubts began to cloud his mind, Swami Rama thought if he went near the tree, it could entrap him as well, and then there’d be no one around to rescue the two.

But he saw his Master in real trouble as he was unable to free himself from the menacing tree trunk that had him in its grip. His Master asked the disciple to pull him by the foot and separate him from the trunk. But try as he did, Swami Rama could not pull him apart. Having exhausted his pupil, the Master began to laugh and said that this was Maya, the cosmic illusion. We latch on to that which is not real. The human mind, energy and resources are focused on believing that which is non-existent as true, as though they exist. He said the strongest of bondages are created by attachment which makes one weak, ignorant and unaware of the absolute Reality.