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Mohan Sagar • February 19, 2002 


Dear Sri Venkata Ramakrishna,

The first step towards gaining an answer to this question is to try and
foster an understanding of "Maya" as described by our AchAryans.  The analogy
that is used is to think of a magician on a stage.  A magician finds joy in
enthralling and delighting an audience by performing tricks that the audience
cannot fully figure out. The audience, at the same time, certainly knows that
there is some practical application taking place in the background, but their
joy lies in giving into the fact that only the magician can really explain
the trick.  Indeed, the greater the mystery behind the trick, the more we
appreciate the magician.

Similarly, our Lord is Mayan, the Ultimate Magician, who fascinates us by
providing us  this terrific and complex magic trick that we call "life," that
He performs and controls simply for the Pleasure of His Audience, all of
us.   His Joy is  delighting us with its beauty and mystery such that it will
encourag us to turn our hearts towards Him, similar to how we develop
appreciation for a great magician as described above.  In recognition of
this, we should not we should not attempt to put it down or overanalyze it,
but simply to give into the fact the Magician is finding His Joy by
delighting us with His Magic.

Knowing this, there is no question of falling down from a place of Good to a
place of suffering, for all this is really in His Compassionate Hands.  Our
AchAryans teach us that the Lord created this Universe for the benefit of we
baddha jivAtmas, in order to rescue us from the bounds of our self interested
false egos.

So, any suffering that we are feeling in this world is not due to the world,
but this ego, which is the result of the karmas that have been generated, and
continue to be generated, from our self interested actions.  Letting go of
this ego by simple acceptance of the Lord's Supremacy and Compassion will
deepen our appreciation of this world that He has provided to us, and will
encourage us to serve it selflessly in loving gratitude and service to Him.

I hope this helps.

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan
Mohan


Venkata Ramakrishna wrote:

> Dear Elders and learned ones,
>
> Please enlighten me.
> Why is this 'Maaya' created and 'What purpose does it serve?'
> 'Why does Lord Naarayana make his children fall into Maya?(or do they
> themselves fall?)
>
> Daasanu daasudu,
> Ramakrishna.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2002 3:40 PM
> Subject:
>
> Story on Vishnumaya
>
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           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
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