Maya

Maya - the Illusion

The Monkey way!

One day, a monkey by name Lalchiram was very hungry. In his search for food, he came across a surai (a pot like container with a very small opening) with groundnuts in it. He very happily put his hand inside the surai, filled his palms with groundnut and tried to get his hand outside the surai. He couldn’t do it. He tried in vain but to no avail. He became tired, tensed and also very much angry. But, none of his reactions could solve the issue. However much he tried he couldn’t get to bring his hands outside surai.

A Buddha passing by, understood the situation, came near and said “just leave the groundnuts and get your hand out of the surai”. The monkey was puzzled at first. He said “But, I am hungry. How can I leave what I have come searching for?” Buddha smiled and explained “For a handful of groundnuts, how can you risk your life? Leave the groundnuts, go search elsewhere for the food.” The monkey Lalchiram thought “This man is trying to eat my groundnuts. So, he is asking me to drop them and run away from here. He is trying to frighten me. But, I have already decided not to leave these groundnuts for anything.” So saying, he held on to the groundnuts and left his body.

It was Lalchiram’s greed that brought his end. And to think of it, he didn’t even enjoy the groundnuts the greed of which saw to his end. What a pity! This is what greed does to us and our life!

Whenever we invite greed to take over our senses, we not only cannot enjoy what we are greedy for, we in the process die slow but sure death also. Peace and happiness is the compulsory price we pay the moment greed enters our life!

What is the symptom that our wants are greed based?

a) First is, it makes us restless till we get it.
b) We want to possess it come what may.
c) We are not bothered about the means of possessing it.
d) Possessing it is the only thing that drives our reasoning.
e) Over the period it becomes our obsession and zidd.
f) Manipulation becomes our key way of functioning to get it.
g) We just stop bothering about our losses – be it physical, emotional or spiritual.
h) The worst stage would be when we are ready to harm others too just to get the object of our desire.
i) Jealousness becomes our second nature.
j) Mindset that says others have/get more than what they deserve and we have/get less than what we deserve.
k) We are not able to celebrate in others joys. (Know anymore?)

The things that we wish to acquire through greed are:

a) All physical possessions: food, clothes, jewellery, vehicles, houses and property, gifts, cash and any such possessions
b) Name, fame, posts, success, job, career, business, degrees – you name it, it’s there
c) Even relationships can be lived out of lust….
d) Our prayers are also greed oriented – wanting something in exchange for our poojas, japas, pradakshinas etc. When we don’t get our prayers answered the way we want them, we even stop praying till our next need forces us to kneel in front of him to ask for it. In the in between period we even go to the extent of saying “I don’t believe in prayers and God anymore. I have stopped doing it.”

How do I know that my wish is out of greed?

Any wish that is coming out of emptiness is out of greed. Whenever we think that the emptiness in me can be filled by the possessions that I desire to have or the relationships that I wish to live, then it is a sure sign that the greed is the basic factor of that desire.

Even after fulfillment, emptiness doesn’t go. It extends the yardstick of achievement further on to feel miserable and empty. Then we complain “I am working so hard, yet am so unhappy.” What we don’t tend to see is “I am working so hard to be unhappy.”

Greed functions like a ‘blackhole’. However much I try to fill it, it still is empty. The world has enough to fulfill every man’s need, but doesn’t have enough to fill even one man’s greed.

दिल-ऐ-नादान तुजे हुआ क्या है?

आख़िर इस दर्द की दावा क्या है?

हम को उन से वफ़ा ही है उम्मीद

जो नहीं जाने वफ़ा क्या है?

oh you innocent heart, what's become of you?

what is the way out of this pain?

i long for loyalty from the one

who knows not what loyalty is?

This would be the summed up position of the self! and the tragedy is inspite of others telling that just by dropping our greed we can be happy, we don't see reason in it!!!!!

The only way to minimize if not fully do away with greed or ‘kama’ is ‘sadhan’. And the techniques again are more or less the same old routine : (is it not beautiful that the same technique attacks so many of my ‘vikaras’ – negativities at one go).

a) Full body reiki
b) Mediation (only in mediation are we really able to separate ourselves from our sense organs and this separation is the only way we can ultimately see the Truth!)
c) Practice Mindfulness
d) Re-birth meditation with greed
e) Let go with greed
f) Homam (it develops surrender bhava in us that helps grace descend which makes it easy to drop these vikaras)
g) Start and maintain reiki groups which would work as remainders to practice sadhan

Wishing you clarity of thought that would make you see reason in sadhan and in dropping all these limitations of your Self is

revathi