Maya mui na mind muwa, dead dead body!

- Identity of the Sky - Kumarpal Desai

The world is engrossed in the fleeting happiness of Maya. Where infatuation goes, Maya is ever present. Expressing this form of maya universally, Saint Kabir says, 'Man te maya upjai, maya tirguna roop,

Paunch tattva ke mel mein, bandhe sakal sarup.'

I know the ten directions very well. Eight directions on all four sides and then up and down—making a total of ten directions. Man largely spends his life running here and there towards these ten directions, but he is unaware of the eleventh direction.

This eleventh direction is neither east-west nor north-south. It is neither above man nor below man. This eleventh direction is within it.

Life is over and yet it wanders here and there in ideal directions. Circling outside results in the acquisition of external-objects or physical objects. By moving to the eleventh inner direction it gets its address. The mind always drives man outward. A dream is an external thing and the race to achieve it is Maya. A man who rushes out because of Maya does not realize at any moment of his life that his whole life is going wrong. He had to go inside and he went, walked, ran, fell, stumbled, fell outside. Inner spirituality was to be attained and outer materiality was attained.

His outer race kept him immersed in Aadhi, Vyadhi and Upadhi, but why did all this happen? No one else is to blame for it, but the person himself. A person suffers most in his life because of himself. The name of inner darkness is Maya. This maya is very insidious. It has no single form, no single demand, no single identity. Your mind takes the shape of what it craves. The desire of your mind forms its face and takes shape as you imagine.

Many such disguises. A man living in multiform maya has no rest even for a moment and yet achieves nothing spiritually. Because Maya is a dream created by a person in his mind. Maya is its sweet perception. And Maya is a novel concept. This maya has no fixed form, clear shape or substance. It keeps the man running. This is why Kabir Saheb says in his unique eloquence,

'This charm of Mohini has enthralled the wise. Even if one is enveloped by that tenderness, one cannot escape from it. Can't get over it. It leads man astray by shooting the arrow of greed on the bow of temptation. Maya is the biggest obstacle in the path of welfare. Saint Kabir painted the form of Maya and said in his ironic speech,

'Maya mui na mind muwa, dead dead body!

Asha did not crave, Kabir said.

What is the form of Maya? Even though the body continued to die again and again, neither love nor mind was found and hope and desire did not cease.'

As long as one is surrounded by maya, mind, infatuation and craving, one's course is taught in the ten directions of Chopas. Its eleventh direction, which lies within, does not open. Saint Kabir has called Maya, which drives man in ten directions, the dark night, and elsewhere has described it as Shakini and Dakini. It is called the lampshade that destroys the human-shaped butterfly, it is called the trickster that creates the entire world. Although the momentary happiness of such love is for four days, man runs after it to catch it. A man has got the kingdom, wealth etc. like a dream, but how often do you feel that?

To Sant Kabir, Man Maya is the fascination of the mind and also the indulgence of fascination. Maya is what drives the mind and the same Maya becomes the attachment and support of a person's desire for wealth, wealth, power, position, honor etc. If a man does not love, he will not love any thing. So when he seduces, Maya wakes up and then because he is unaware, he gets seduced by wealth, wealth, fame and land-houses and because of that he commits mischief. It also happens that a man runs in greed to get this charming love, but does not get anything according to his desire. He does not receive the sacrifices he had expected and the poor man ends his life burning in unfulfillment and unsatisfiedness.

Saint Kabir constantly makes the distinction that the nature and results of those who are turned towards Maya and those who are turned away from Maya are different.

According to him, although Maya and shadow are the same, very few people understand it. He says that Maya is one who keeps his back to him, follows behind him, meaning he is indifferent to Maya, he gets everything and those who walk behind the shadow of Maya. Maya running ahead of him is running the man.

The work and wrath of those who have fallen asleep in lust and greed because of Maya, like a dark night, is plundered by bandits like them. Saint Kabir goes further and says that this Maya is like a pile of dry bones and a greedy person is like a fox or a dog. Just as dry bones are dragged by animals, so man with illusions succumbs to death by pulling things towards him.

The human body dies, but its mind, hope, desire or maya do not die with it, so maya as the origin of suffering is in a sense a three-branched tree and the branches are called grief, sorrow and anguish. One who develops these branches does not feel cold even in his dreams and ultimately gets disappointment and sorrow as its fruit.

Saint Kabir pointed out that sacrifices that seem attractive to humans are in fact degenerate and renunciation that seems bitter is actually beneficent. Through a beautiful parable, he says that everyone feels like eating sweet, but that sweet is like a disease-causing poison in the body. When people do not crush neem and drink it, that cures all diseases.

Thus the world remains engrossed in the fleeting happiness of Maya. Where infatuation goes, Maya is ever present. Saint Kabir, describing this form of Maya universally, says,

'Man te maya upjai, maya tirguna roop,

Paunch tattva ke mel mein, bandhe sakal sarup.'

This means that Maya arises from the delusion of the mind. It originates from the mind and in it sat, raja, and tam are all three combined. Manomaya Maya has created perfect bodies in the harmony of water elements like earth, water etc. Saint Kabir points to Sadgurusharan as a means of getting rid of maya. Maya is not such a power where the saints are frequent pilgrims. Showing the form of Maya in this way, the man wandering in the ten directions spoke about the eleventh direction. How the door of that direction opens, we will discuss later.