I must have watched the movie 'Matrix' in 2001 or so. I remember the conversation wherein I had suggested to a friend of mine that the central idea of the
movie was similar to the concept of 'Maya' in Hinduism. He laughed out loud, making some of the residual snow fall down from my windows, in the remote town
of Schenectady. I later read the same analogy in some movie review and felt relieved. Not to mention, a little angry at my friend who had made me appear stupid
for a while.Increased confidence about Maya, later, made me rank 'The Truman Show' in the same category.
Many years before, as a kid, I used to be very fond of comic books. Among the earliest ones that I can remember getting my hands onto were Superman, Disney
collections, Mandrake, Phantom, etc. Gradually I became a fan of the desi Amar Chitra Katha as well, which was excellent in pictorially presenting anecdotes
from the great Indian epics. That was when I chanced upon to read the story about Devarshi Narada's encounter with the great illusion of Maya.
As per the tale, Narada requested Mahavishnu to explain the great illusion of Maya to him. And boy! He did get a lot more than what he had bargained for. All the devas and asuras, between whom he had incited countless quarrels, must have thought - 'serves the guy right!' I must have read the comic at least 20
years back and hence my memory may be a little foggy. But the gist of it was that Narada, soon after making the request, found himself leading a life on
earth, fell in love with a woman, married her and soon had kids. He lead a happy life with them for many years, and grew very attached to his family. Then,
tragically, he lost them in a flood. Narada could not bear the pain. He cursed his fate and questioned god as to why such a punishment was meted out to him,
when all along, he had lead a good life. And if I remember correctly, he was almost on the verge of giving it all up, when Mahavishnu appeared before him
and snapped him out of the Maya. Being just about 10 years old, I could not make head or tail about any of what that meant. All I could get out of it was
that there was something called Maya.
Fast forward 24 years. Mother Universe is less than a month away from giving birth to the year 2011. Atheism is more fashionable than ever. And books
claiming that god is a delusion end up being best sellers. There also appear to be a huge number of extremists who, in the name of god, does exactly what he
had told not to. And then, there are the in-betweens, who are the people I like. They may or may not believe in god, or debate about it, but they don't like
to take it too seriously either. Depending on their natural inclinations, regardless of whether they have faith, lead a good, average or bad life (in the
conventional sense).
I, myself, am a Roman Catholic Christian. I believe in Jesus, Mother Mary and almost everything that the Bible says. I have equal respect for other
religions, be it Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism or any other. I despise people who profess extremist steps or hate and suspicion in the name of religion. But have
great admiration for people who take pains to worship god, such as a Catholic who fasts during Lent or a Muslim who kneels down 5 times a day, regardless of
where he is - as long as they don't force others to do the same. And in my humble view, that could very easily be wrong, in a strictly academic sense,
Hinduism is the richest religion in the world.
My family background made me a strong believer from a young age. But when I was 15 years of age or so, it became more fashionable to be an atheist. Plus, I
had probably started relying more on science, as I knew then, and logic. I continued to be an atheist, and a very argumentative one at that, for the next 15
years. I used to mock anybody who professed faith, during that time. As they say, we live in cycles of ups and down, and for the last 3 years or so, I am
back to being a fairly firm believer. I pray to god to not let that change.
Life on earth is confusing, even at the best of times. There are some days when we see a person seeking alms on the street, pass him a coin or a note and
feel great about ourselves. There are other days, when we pass by someone seemingly in need, only to ignore him to be at a certain meeting from the start. We
are what we are! Human beings, evolved supposedly from primates about 50,000 years ago. We have been learning a lot since then, and thinking way out of our
league. In the last 2000 years we have begun to understand the universe quite a bit. But we are still a long way from being wise to rely fully on science
alone. What we know today may turn out to be just an elephant's tail tomorrow. Several paradoxes remain a mystery, even as we call ourselves advanced. They
say that you can bypass time and travel to the future, by journeying close to the speed of light. Stephen Hawking even believes that it is achievable in his
lifetime. May he live long! It is so wonderful, that anything forced artificially to travel at enormous speeds, cannot cross the speed of light, as that is a
boundary parameter set for the world. Our universe itself has limits! To me, it looks like a system built for a purpose, than a harmony formed out of chaos.
I personally feel that life is a divine educational course. The objective of the course has been provided to us, through scriptures, parents, preachers,
extremists and our own experiences. Just as space and time in this universe is not absolute, every aspect of this universe has a relativity linked to it.
Beauty is relative! Achievements, fame and wealth have a relative value! Even hardships are relative! And all of these are transient as well. My two year old
son places a lot of value in any new toy he sees. His initial valuation may be higher than anything he already has. Give the toy to him for a few days to
play and the value becomes almost nil. He is never able to figure its absolute value, as there is no such thing in the universe. My cousin keeps telling me
that he would do anything to get a job in the same company as mine. Relative to him, my job is one of great value. I, on the other hand, think of it as just
a regular job. The perception of relativity as absoluteness is what Maya is all about, in my humble view. The very few who are able to see past Maya should
have been able to see the absolute.
There are things in life which transcends us. Love, compassion, truth, courage to face hardships, humility, just to name a few. Deep within us, we know these
as the original directions to follow. But there are forces which pull us away from them. And therein starts the exams for our course. While people can
advise, nobody can tell us what to do. Some advisories may even be deceitful. There are transient distractions, very forceful in the relative, that almost on
a regular basis, do not even let us attempt the exam. But there is always a place to go. That is our beloved lord. And if his direction is for you to have a
tough ride, you better ride it through. You are scoring high!
