Karma/Maya

Karma (Sanskrit: कर्म from the root kr, "to do") is a word of ancient origin meaning action or activity and its subsequent results (also called karma-phala, "the fruits of action"). It is commonly understood as a term to denote the entire cycle of cause and effect as described in the philosophies of a number of Dharmic Religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism.

Karma is a sum of all that an individual has done, is currently doing and will do. Individuals go through certain processes and accompanying experiences throughout their lives which they have chosen, and those would be based on the results of their own creations: "karma". Karma is not about retribution, vengeance, punishment or reward. Karma simply deals with what is. The effects of all deeds actively create past, present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one's own life, and the pain and joy it brings to others. In religions that incorporate reincarnation, karma extends through one's present life and all past and future lives as well.

Hindus believe that everything in the Universe is in the state of creation, maintenance or destruction. The Hindu trinity of Gods Brahma (creator), Vishnu (maintainer) and Shiva (Destroyer) correspond to the states of creation, maintenance and destruction. At the thought level, the mind creates a thought, maintains (follows) it for some time and the thought ultimately dies down (perhaps to be replaced by another thought).

Maya (Sanskrit: माया māyā, from mā "not" and yā "this"), in Hinduism, is a term describing many things. Maya is the illusion that the phenomenal world of separate objects and people, is the only reality. For the mystics this manifestation is real, but it is a fleeting reality; it is a mistake, although a natural one, to believe that maya represents a fundamental reality. Each person, each physical object, from the perspective of eternity is like a brief, disturbed drop of water from an unbounded ocean. The goal of enlightenment is to understand this—more precisely, to experience this: to see intuitively that the distinction between the self and the universe is a false dichotomy. The distinction between consciousness and physical matter, between mind and body, is the result of an unenlightened perspective.

Maya is the limited, purely physical and mental reality in which our everyday consciousness has become entangled.maya is the limited, purely physical and mental reality in which our everyday consciousness has become entangled.

Maya is neither true nor untrue. Since Brahman is the only truth, Maya cannot be true. Since Maya causes the material world to be seen, it cannot be untrue. Hence Maya is described as indescribable. She has two principle functions—one is to cover up Brahman and hide it from our mind. The other is to present the material world instead of Brahman. She is destructible. Consider an illusion of a rope being confused as a snake in the darkness. Just as this illusion gets destroyed when true knowledge of the rope is perceived, similarly, Maya gets destroyed for a person when he perceives Brahman with the transendental knowledge.

In Hinduism, Maya must be seen through in order to achieve(liberation of the soul from the cycle of death and rebirth)— ahamkar(ego-consciousness) and karma are seen as part of the binding forces of Maya. Maya is seen as the phenomenal universe, a lesser reality-lens superimposed on the one that leads us to think of the phenomenal cosmos as real.

------------------------------------------
Yup - I went on an ego trip :)

Also: my dear boy, be warned...

Heart break

What hurts more… a broken heart or breaking a heart?

Circumstances are such that the one thing I was looking forward to at the end of the year for nearly most of the year now won’t happen. And I’m disappointed. More so since there is another person looking forward to the same thing that I was…. I’m going to disappoint him.

Incomplete

Usually one is supposed to meet the person that is the completing half. I’ve met the person that makes me feel incomplete.

Now incomplete does not mean inadequate or less than what I am. All it means is that when I’m with this person I know exactly what (kind of person) I need to be complete, which highlights the fact there is something to complete (no matter how much I’d like to believe that I, me & myself is more than sufficient)

Why can this person not complete me, you ask? This person is a friend and will always be that. He is everything that I want in a guy. He is the right guy for me in all terms except that he is unavailable.

Such is life.

Experiences

I’ve had so many things that I wanted to write about over the last few weeks/months, but 2 things have kept me from bloging; first, an absolute lack of time & second, a lack of the right words.

I’m hoping today I will have the right words…

Over the weekend I was in Pushkar. THAT is something everybody must do once in their life. There is nothing much in Pushkar per se except the lake, a few temples, lots of people & even more shops (slightly Anjuna flea market). The experience comes from the people and the energy of the fair. I think Rajasthani people asre probably the most hospitable of all Indians. “Atithi devo bhav” (Guest equal god) takes on a whole new meaning when an old nomadic lady with obviously not very much invites 2 healthy affluent young urbanites to her house for a meal. This invitation would have probably stretched her family’s rations to the limit but she still invited us.

The sheer number of people at the Pushkar fair is overwhelming. The energy in that place is a cumulative of individual energies and you can feel the energy (noise level as well) all the way up on the top of the hill with the Savitri mandir. There is a background roar of hundreds of thousands of people going about their religious rites, sale & purchase of camels/horses/cattle & entertainments at the fair.

The one other thing I will always remember from this trip… the strength of a genuine smile. A lot of the people that we saw/met are simple nomads that came to the fair from various parts of Rajasthan. They own virtually nothing. Still they showed generosity & kindness like nowhere else and if nothing else they smiled at you because they wanted to & meant it.