Web of Maya

Excess of everything is bad and yet we require everything in creation to go beyond creation. Creation has given enough for every human being to live properly and satisfy all needs. Needs are limited but desires are unlimited. The web of maya stems from desires, not from needs.

If an insect caught in a web starts shaking itself, it gets stuck more and more — that is how maya functions. There is no end to desire. The more you desire, the more is the attachment to the senses, and the more you are attached to the senses, the more temporary are your assets and physical attributes. It is the same as what happens when you try to hold sand in your hand — the harder you try, the faster it slips away.

If you keep chasing your desires, they will make you run after them throughout your life — the same desire, simply changing forms. Today you want a car, tomorrow you will want a bigger car, and the day after that, an even bigger and luxurious one and so on. And when the time comes to leave your body, you will still not be satisfied and be left wanting more.

While you are busy collecting more and more for yourself, your desires take you down the ladder of evolution, resulting in rebirth in a lower form with far greater pains and hardships than what you are facing today.

If you have more than what you need, you are actually eating into someone else’s share. There is a simple law in economics that resources are limited and wants are unlimited.

The underlying thought of religion and economics is the same. So if you are enjoying by depriving someone else of what their need is, you are knowingly or unknowingly being the cause of their pain. The law of karma states that what goes around, comes around.

That is why aparigraha or non-collection has been emphasized upon as a yama in Patanjali Ashtanga Yog. Do you know of anyone who is a normal person and yet happy and satisfied with life? If you do then make him your guru, for he has the key to creation. If not, then come to Dhyan Ashram.

Yogi Ashwini is the guiding light of Dhyan Ashram and can be reached at dhyan@dhyanfoundation.com. For more details, visit www.dhyanfoundation.com.