A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

""MAYA AND FREEDOM. 195cruel gods, and they are worshipped what is the very idea;of the god or departed ancestor ? That he is superior toNature, not bound by this Maya. Their idea of Nature isvery small of course. All the powers they know are repulsionand attraction. The worshipper, an ignorant man of crudeideas cannot pass through a wall of the room, cannot jumpup into the skies, or fly through the air, and his idea ofNature consists in all these powers, resistance and non-resistance, and the gods whom he worships can pass throughwalls, or the air, or change shape. What is meant by that,philosphically ? That the assertion of freedom is there,that the gods whom he worships are superior to Nature ashe knows it. So with those who worship still higher beings ;it is the same assertion. As the view of Nature expands,the view of the soul superior over Nature also expands, andat last we come to what we call Monotheism there isMaya, this Nature, and there is some one who is superiorto the whole of this Maya, and this is the hope.Here Yedanta begins, where monotheistical ideas firstappear. The Yedanta philosophy wants further explanation.This explanation that there is a soul beyond all thesemanifestations of Maya, which is superior to, and independent of Maya, and He is attracting us towards Himself, and we are allgoing towards Him is very good,says the Yedanta, but yetthe perception is not clear, thevision is dim and hazy, althoughit does not directly contradict reason.Just as in your hymn it is said,Nearermy God to Thee,"the same hymn would be very goodto the Yedantin, only he would change a word, and makeitNearer my God to me." The idea that the goal isfar off, away beyond Nature, attracting us all towardsit,has to be brought clown nearer and nearer, without degrading or degenerating it, until it comes closer and closer