Hinduism

Maya, therefore, does not mean that the world is an illusion, as is often wrongly stated.

The illusion merely lies in our point of view, if we think that the shapes and structures, things and events, around us are realities of nature, instead of realizing that they are concepts of our measuring and categorizing minds. Maya is the illusion of taking these concepts for reality, of confusing the map with the territory.

In the Hindu view of nature, then, all forms are relative, fluid and ever-changing maya, conjured up by the great magician of the divine play. The world of maya changes continuously, because the divine /i/a is a rhythmic, dynamic play. The dynamic force of the play is karma, another important concept of Indian thought. Karma means ‘action’. It is the active principle of the play, the total universe in action, where everything is dynamically connected with everything else. In the words of the Cita, ‘Karma is the force of creation, wherefrom all things have their life.”

The meaning of karma, like that of maya, has been brought down from its original cosmic level to the human level where it has acquired a psychological sense. As long as our view of the world is fragmented, as long as we are under the spell of maya and think that we are separated from our environment and can act independently, we are bound by karma. Being free from the bond of karma means to realize the unity and harmony of all nature, including man, and to act accordingly. The Cita is very clear on this point: All actions take place in time by the interweaving of the forces of nature, but the man lost in selfish delusion thinks that he himself is the actor.

But the man who knows the relation between the forces of Nature and actions, sees how some forces of Nature work upon other forces of Nature, and becomes not their slave.8 7 To be free from the spell of maya, to break the bonds of karma means to realize that all the phenomena we perceive with our senses are part of the same reality. It means to ex- perience, concretely and personally, that everything, including our own self, is Brahman. This experience is called moksha, or ‘liberation’ in Hindu philosophy and it is the very essence of Hinduism. Hinduism holds that there are innumerable ways of liberation. It would never expect all its followers to be able to approach the Divine in the same way and therefore it provides different concepts, rituals and spiritual exercises for different modes of awareness. The fact that many of these concepts or practices are contradictory does not worry the Hindus in the least, because they know that Brahman is beyond concepts and images anyway. From this attitude comes the great tolerance and inclusiveness which is characteristic of Hinduism. The most intellectual school is the Vedanta which is based on the Upanishads and emphasizes Brahman as a nonpersonal, metaphysical concept, free from any mythological content. In spite of its high philosophical and intellectual level, however, the Vedantist way of liberation is very different from any school of Western philosophy, involving as it does daily meditation and other spiritual exercises to bring about the union with Brahman. Another important and influential method of liberation is known as yoga, a word which means ‘to yoke’, ‘to join’, and which refers to the joining of the individual soul to Brahman. There are several schools, or ‘paths’ of yoga involving some basic physical training and various mental disciplines designed for people of different types and at different spiritual levels. For the common Hindu, the most popular way of approaching the Divine is to worship it in the form of a personal god or goddess, The fertile Indian imagination has created literally thousands of deities which appear in innumerable mani- festations. The three most worshipped divinities in India today are Shiva, Vishnu and the Divine Mother. Shiva is one of the

oldest Indian gods who can assume many forms. He is called Mahesvara, the Great Lord, when he is represented as the personification of the fullness of Brahman and he can also impersonate many single aspects of the Divine, his most celebrated appearance being the one as Nataraja, the King of Dancers. As the Cosmic Dancer, Shiva is the god of creation and destruction who sustains through his dance the endless rhythm of the universe. Vishnu, too, appears under many guises, one of them being the god Krishna of the Bhagavad Gita. In general, Vishnu’s role is that of the preserver of the universe. The third divinity of this triad is Shakti, the Divine Mother, the archetypal goddess representing in her many forms the female energy of the universe. Shakti also appears as Shiva’s wife and the two are often shown in passionate embraces in magnificent temple sculptures which radiate an extraordinary sensuousness of a degree completely unknown in any Western religious art. Contrary to most Western religions, sensuous pleasure has never been suppressed in Hinduism, because the body has always been considered to be an integral part of the human being and not separated from the spirit. The Hindu, therefore, does not try to control the desires of the body by the conscious will, but aims at realizing himself with his whole being, body and mind. Hinduism has even developed a branch, the medieval Tantrism, where enlightenment is sought through a profound experience of sensual love ‘in which each is both’, in accordance with the words of the Upanishads: As a man, when in the embrace of a beloved wife, knows nothing within or without, so this person, when in the embrace of the intelligent Soul, knows nothing within or without.q

Shiva was closely associated with this medieval form of erotic mysticism, and so were Shaktiand numerous other female deities which exist in great numbers in Hindu mythology. This abundance of goddesses shows again that in Hinduism the physical and sensuous side of human nature, which has always been associated with the female, is a fully integrated part of the Divine. Hindu goddesses are not shown as holy virgins,

but in sensual embraces of stunning beauty.

The Western mind is easily confused by the fabulous number of gods and goddesses which populate Hindu mythology in their various appearances and incarnations.

To understand how the Hindus can cope with this multitude of divinities, we must be aware of the basic attitude of Hinduism that in substance all these divinities are identical.

They are all manifestations of the same divine reality, reflecting different aspects of the infinite, omnipresent, and-ultimately-incomprehensible k&man.