HARMONY WITH THE UNIVERSE

 
[Question: If all the beautiful things we have known — moonlight, stars, music, the sound of the sea, the fragrance of flowers, our little dreams — are Maya, what is there left to take their place when you sweep them out of our hearts and minds and leave only the concept of a very far-off and abstract goal — Realization? For until we are realized, it leaves us with nothing but emptiness — and very sad.]

Answer: Beauty and ugliness have relative existence. To one trudging along under a scorching sun, barefooted, with an empty stomach, Maya outside won't look beautiful. The mood of the subject (the perceiver) invests the object (the perceived) with its own coloring.

The goal of Realization does not necessarily imply, for an average man, denial of things good or bad. It only emphasizes its relative worth. From the heights of Realization, Maya would cease to exist; it was pure imagination. Even apart from the spiritual experience, the conception that you are in the world but not of the world would go a long way in dissipating sadness and the feeling of void — of emptiness.

If one were to treat sincerely and whole-heartedly Maya as pure imagination, the resultant poise and non-identification with things external would automatically open up this internal fountain of bliss and, instead of feeling sad and empty, one would be able to live the perfect life of being in harmony with the universe.