#70. What Is Maya? | Vigyan Bhairav Tantra

Namaste Sanyasa family and everyone.

A very warm welcome to all of you in this daily live meditation session with me,

Dhyansa.

We're meditating on 112 meditation techniques of Vigyan Bhairav Tantra.

What if you could experience something beyond your body,

Your mind?

What if you could experience another person that is in front of you as yourself?

What if you could experience the whole world that is out there as yourself?

All the trees,

All the animals,

All the people,

All that is there,

Out there in the world,

If you would experience all that as yourself,

What if?

Put yourself in this imagination,

In this contemplation,

What if that really your experience of the whole world becomes one with the whole world and not just limited to this body,

To this mind,

To this limited experience,

But the experience of the whole?

What will happen if something like that happen to you?

If it not only remains as a beautiful idea,

As an intellectual idea,

But becomes your reality,

Imagine what will happen.

If that really becomes your experience that the whole world,

Every person in the world,

Every animal,

Every plant,

Everything that is there,

Out there,

You start feeling this as yourself,

As your body,

As your mind,

The entire world,

The entire earth,

The entire universe.

What if that happens?

What will happen to all your miseries?

What will happen to all your fights?

What will happen to all your conflicts,

All your pains,

All what you are going through in life?

What will happen in that scenario where everything that is there,

Out there in the world,

Becomes your experience?

Would you like that to happen?

Would you like to live exactly like that all throughout your life?

If you ask yourself this question,

Some of you will say,

Yes,

I want to live this expansion,

This infinite expansion all throughout my life.

And some of you will say,

No,

I don't want to live that.

I love this individuality.

I love this limited experience that is there,

Which I can hold on to and call as my body,

As my mind.

Because if there will be this expansion,

What will be there which you can call as my body,

My mind,

My things,

The I and the my and the me all will have no relevance.

What will you do?

Maybe you don't want it to happen.

Maybe you love this idea of I,

Me,

Myself so much that you don't want that expansion.

Or maybe you want to experience it,

But you also want to hold on to this individuality.

You want to have the expansion of the unlimited,

But you also want to have this limited self as well.

This is the paradox of life.

You can have both in life.

You don't have to choose between this red pill of the limited experience or the blue pill of the expansion.

You can have both.

You can have both this expansion and this limited experience,

This limited field of experience that you call as life,

That you call as me,

Myself.

In life,

Both are possible at the same time for you.

You do not even have to make a choice between this or that.

Both this and that.

Expansion and limit,

Both are possible.

Both the bliss and this misery of being this limited field of experience is both possible at the same time.

Both you being the God,

Being the all,

Or you just being yourself.

This one tiny little self,

Tiny little speck,

A dot in this vast expansiveness.

You can be both the whole and this small individual that you are.

This is the paradox of life.

This is the beauty of life.

This is what is life in all its possibilities.

And you must have all these possibilities.

You must live all these possibilities of the expansion and of all also this limited experience.

What is significant is to understand how is this limited experience created and how is this expansion possible.

See that this expansion is your reality.

And this limitation,

This limited experience is the illusion.

I call this reality an illusion and in several traditions it is known as Maya.

Maya the illusion.

Such a beautiful word,

Maya.

Maya the illusion that creates this sense of limitation.

That creates this sense of limitation to something that is limitless.

Create this foundation to something that is boundless.

You this expansion.

You this boundless,

Limitless feels the limitation,

Feels this individuality,

Feels that this experience field of yours is just this body,

Is just this mind,

Is just limited to these few things that you call as yourself.

This limitation,

This contraction is the illusion in traditions known as Maya.

Very beautiful to understand and see the play of this illusion of this Maya which gives you on one hand this individuality which takes away this expansion because in that expansion you are not there.

In that expansion of you being all,

You are also nothing.

So see that this Maya,

This illusion gives you,

It takes you something away from you which is your true nature,

Which is your reality,

This expansion,

But it gives you also something pleasurable,

Something that is limited but you can call it yourself.

You can call this as my body,

You can call this as my mind and you can play in that Maya,

In that illusion,

In that limitation of yourself.

Understand this play of Maya.

Understand this illusion not just intellectually but experience in your awareness what is this Maya,

How is this Maya creating this illusion on your consciousness which is vast,

Which is expanded.

So this Maya,

It sits on top of your consciousness like sheets,

Like layers of sheets put on you as you sleep in a nice beautiful dream of the Maya,

Of the illusion and dream that I am this body,

I am this mind,

I am this limited self.

This Maya has five sheets,

This Maya has five coverings which cover your consciousness,

Which cover this expansion,

Which take you from this reality of the expansion to the contraction to the limitation of what you call as yourself,

This limited field of experience.

The first sheath,

The first layer is Kala.

Kala is the doing,

Is you feeling that I am the doer.

This sense that the moment you are born,

You are given this life,

You feel that I can do something,

I can change something about this life,

This sense of doing is what is known as Kala.

This Kala,

This doing is an illusion.

It gives you a sense that you are the doer.

It brings this limitation to your vast experience,

To your vast reality into a very limited small experience.

When I was a child in India,

I used to enjoy sitting in my father's lap while he was driving.

Of course,

In other parts of the world,

That is an impossibility to sit in your parents' laps while the car is moving and you would sit rather at the back seat with all the safety measures.

But in India,

Everything is possible.

And one of those possibilities was that I was sitting in the lap of my father while he was driving the car.

And I used to enjoy that.

I used to hold the steering and while the car was moving,

I used to feel that I am moving the car.

I turned my hands to the right,

Then the car used to move to the right.

I used to turn my hands to the left,

The car used to turn to the left.

And I was so pleased,

Such a pleasurable experience that I am moving this car,

I am driving this car not knowing that I am not the doer,

I am not the driver.

This limited self,

This limited understanding of the doer,

This kala that we are the doer is one of the components,

One of the layers that are there on our consciousness which make us have this experience of limitation,

Which does not allow this expansion,

Which does not allow this reality.

The second sheath is of vijana.

Vijana which is the jnana and the ajna,

Both together the knowledge that you have about yourself.

The knowledge that we have about the world.

If you put all the knowledge together,

All the sciences,

Be it modern science or ancient science or religious science or spiritual science,

Any kind of knowledge that is there for thousands of years,

If you put all of them together,

It is so tiny as compared to the vastness of this whole universe.

When we are caught up in that knowledge and that limitation of this knowledge,

This jnana or ajna,

This is what is the second layer on us which keeps us limited,

Which keeps our consciousness limited and not let us experience this expansion.

The third layer raga,

Your likings,

Your dislikings,

Your attachments to things,

To possessions in life,

To attachment to the body,

Attachment to the mind,

Attachment to things around you,

Your likings and dislikings.

You may define yourself as a set of what you like and what you dislike.

If you characterize yourself,

It is nothing but what you like and what you dislike.

This limited sense of self based on liking and disliking,

This raga,

It keeps you busy with desires all your life.

You keep on fulfilling those desires,

You keep on running all throughout your life in desires in this limitation of liking and disliking.

Trying to chase what you like,

Trying to avoid what you dislike.

And in this busyness of the raga,

In this busyness of the liking and the disliking,

You remain limited,

You remain contracted and you never are able to experience your expansion.

The fourth kala,

Time,

Which is giving you this sense of time from you being the eternity,

You being this all present eternity,

This timeless,

You start feeling the time.

You start feeling the past,

The present,

The future.

You start feeling this limited time that we have on this planet,

Such a limited time and we call ourselves in this such limitation known as life which ends and which begins somewhere and ends in a few years at some point of time.

Such a limited short time,

This sense of time,

This sense of past,

Present,

Future,

This sense of limitation as time is another sheaf,

Another layer that is put on top of your consciousness never allowing you to experience the expansion,

To experience the whole.

And the last,

Niyati.

Niyati is order,

Is this sense of fate,

Of destiny,

Of order that something is moving with some laws,

With some rules,

With some order in place and there is a cosmic order,

There is no chaos,

There is order and everything is following that order and we are bounded by that order.

That sense of boundation,

That sense of limitation by the order,

By the law,

By the cosmic law,

By this sense that there is a destiny,

There is a fate,

We are bounded by all this also keeps you always limited.

Never lets you experience your true nature of the vastness of consciousness.

So these 5 layers,

These 5 sheets which are laying on top of your consciousness,

They create maya,

They create this illusion of this limited experience of the self and just to contemplate,

Just to confront these layers in your awareness and see them in your own experience in itself gives you that liberation,

Gives you that key which allows you to be the both.

If you want expansion,

If you want to be in your true nature,

In your reality,

You can be that or you can simply also just act out in maya,

In the illusion,

Knowing that this is an illusion,

Knowing that this limitation is just a play,

Is just something that is not real is an illusion and the whole quality of your life changes.

Knowing that,

That what you are experiencing,

This limitation is an illusion.

Experiencing that you are limitless,

It changes the quality of your daily life,

It changes how you are and how you interact with others,

How you interact with the whole world,

It completely changes.

So in today's meditation let us listen to what Bhairava has to say in this context and we sit in silence in meditation becoming aware of these 5 sheets.

In Vigyan Bhairavtantra,

Bhairava says,

Maya is the delusive principle residing causing involution of consciousness,

Meditate over it and be free.

So here Bhairava simply says this maya,

This delusive principle that is there causing involution of consciousness,

Causing your consciousness to contract,

To remain limited,

To give you this only limited field of experience,

Meditate over it and be free.

Simply by meditating over it,

Simply by recognizing these 5 layers in you,

You become free of them,

You become limitless and move in your true nature,

In the reality of your consciousness.

That is all pervading,

All expanding.

Let us bring this in our own experience,

Let us bring this in our own awareness,

In our own silence in the next minutes.

Please close your eyes and take a posture that is comfortable for you.

Restful posture with your body relaxed,

Alert yet relaxed.

Awareness inwards,

In contemplation,

In silence.

Recognize this sense of doing and allow it to rest,

Allowing the doer in you to be at rest by simply becoming aware of it,

Of the doer in you.

Let us bring this in our own experience,

Let us bring this in our own silence.

As the doer rests,

The body relaxes,

The mind rests,

You remaining aware of this doer and letting be at rest.

Let us bring this in our own experience,

Let us bring this in our own silence.

Knowledge in you,

All what you know.

Knowledge that you carry in your thoughts,

Your name,

Descriptions,

Everything in your ideas,

Allow this knowledge to be at rest,

Becoming aware of this knowledge in you.

Let us bring this in our own experience,

Let us bring this in our own experience,

Let us bring this in our own experience.

Let us bring this in our own experience.

Let us bring this in our own experience.

Let us bring this in our own experience.

No doer,

No knowing.

Shifting awareness to raga.

In these moments of silence,

No likings,

No dislikings,

Not attaching to anything,

Not trying to resist anything.

Let us bring this in our own experience,

Let us bring this in our own experience,

Let us bring this in our own experience.

No doer,

No knowledge,

No attachment,

No repulsion.

Shifting awareness on time.

Letting go of the past.

Letting go of the future.

Letting go even of the present.

Letting go of the past.

Letting go of the past.

Letting go of the past.

Letting go of the past.

No doer,

No knowledge,

No attachment,

No repulsion,

No past.

No future,

No present.

Simply silence and awareness.

No doer,

No knowledge,

No repulsion.

No doer,

No attachment,

No repulsion.

No doer,

No attachment,

No present.

No doer,

No attachment,

No present.

No doer,

No attachment,

No present.

No doer,

No attachment,

No present.

No doer,

No attachment,

No present.

Allowing your consciousness to expand in this silence.

No doer,

No attachment,

No present.

No doer,

No attachment,

No present.

No doer,

No attachment,

No present.

No doer,

No attachment,

No present.

No effort whatsoever.

No visualization.

Simply in silence,

In awareness.

No doer.

No doer.

No knowing.

No attachment.

No repulsion.

No time.

No order.

And very gently and slowly you may open your eyes.

With this sense of liberation,

Sense of freedom,

Expansion,

Silence and awareness.

Taking this truth to your daily life.

In the maya,

In the illusion.

Living in the truth that this is an illusion,

This is maya.

On your spiritual journey,

If you wish to move along with me and other meditators on the path of truth.

On the path of love,

On the path of connection.

On the path of this oneness that we all are.

You are more than welcome to join a community of meditators.

If you are interested,

Please apply by writing me an email,

Introducing yourself,

Telling me about your calling for the community and what can you give back to the community.

Thank you very much.

Namaste.