Effect of Maya

September 21, 2015 09:32 pm | Updated 09:32 pm IST

The Adyatma Ramayana features Rama’s birth in Ayodhya on the lines of the Bhagavata Purana. Just as Devaki is wonderstruck at the sight of the divine child with four arms and all the divine insignia and offers her obeisance to the Lord spontaneously, Kausalya also is shown as a realised soul who understands the supreme nature of the child. Both of them also represent the dilemma of the jivatma caught in samsara, as they are unable to tear asunder the veil of Maya that distorts and confuses, pointed out Srimati Jaya Srinivasan in a discourse.

Though they are aware of the truth of His Supreme Nature, they request Him to assume a human form. Kausalya bows to the Lord whom she addresses as the Supreme Spirit, the highest of all beings, all-pervading and limitless. The Vedas declare Him as indescribable with words and ungraspable by the conceptual process of the intellect. The radiance in the sun, moon, stars, and in fire, lightning, and in all luminous objects is because of the Supreme Brahman. All the beings and objects in the universe derive their respective faculties and forms through His grace, say the Upanishads.

By His power of Maya and in association with the Gunas, He creates, sustains and destroys the universe.

Kausalya perceives clearly her involvement in Samsara and worldly concerns and prays to the Supreme Lord to protect her from the illusory effects of Maya. Maya infatuates the whole world, affects and overpowers all.

She knows that a jivatma can overcome the formidable darkness of ignorance and gain Viveka and Vairagya only with the Lord’s grace. His charming form confers bliss on all who see it. The Lord replies that He has assumed this human form to relieve the earth of the atrocities of Ravana.

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