A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

176 MAYA AND THE CONCEPTION OF GOD.world is a Tantalus hell, that we do not know anythingabout this universe, yet at the same time^ we cannot saythat we do not know. I cannot say that this chain exists,when I think of it I do not know. It may be anentire delusion in my brain. I may be dreaming allthe time. I am dreaming that I am talking to you, andthat you are listening to me. No one can prove that it isnot. My brain itself may be a dream, and as to that noone ever saw his own brain yet. We all take that forgranted. So it is with everything. My own body I takefor granted. At the same time I cannot say I do notknow. This standing between knowledge and ignorance,this mystic twilight, the mingling of truth and falsehood^where they meet no one knows. We are walking in themidst of a dream, half sleeping, half waking, passing allour lives in a haze, this is the fate of every one of us.This is the fate of all sense knowledge. This is the fate ofall philosophy, of all boasted science, of all boasted humanknowledge. This is the Universe.What you call matter, or spirit, or mind, or anythingelse you may like to call them, any nickname you maychoose to give them, the fact remains the same, we cannotsay they are we cannot; say they are not. We cannot saythey are one, we cannot say they are many. This eternalplay of light and darkness, manifold weakness, indiscriminate, indistinguishable, inseparable, yet always there. Afact, yet, at the same time, not a fact, awake, and at thesame time, asleep. This is a statement of facts, and this iswhat is called Maya. We are born in this Maya, we livein it, we think in it, we dream in it. We are philosophersin it,we are spiritual men in it, nay, we are devils in thisMaya, and we are gods in this Maya. Stretch your ideas asfar as you can, make them higher and higher, call it in-