In myths there are many different names and figures that represent The Highest. What ever figure is representing The Highest is also called the Godhead. Depending on which culture the myth originates will depend on which character will be used to represent the Godhead of the Supreme. In this story from India, the Godhead is Brahma.
Brahma is the Supreme one energy and in the beginning of this story nothing existed but Brahma. Imagine one big green blob which is Brahma. This green blob is totally divine and has the “Essential Attributes of the Absolute” including: absolute Goodness, Being, Consciousness, Bliss (Sat-chit-ananda), pulsation, self-awareness, ultimate freedom (Svatantrya) and perfect fullness (Purnatva). Since all that exists is Brahma (this green blob) he gets bored and decides to play a game, but he has no one to play with. So out of his ultimate freedom (Svatantrya) he creates the goddess of illusion Maya. Brahma told Maya that he created her so he could play a game.
Maya told Braham that they will play a wonderful game, but Brahma has to do what she says, and Brahma agreed. Maya first told Braham to create the whole universe, the stars, moons, and the planets. Brahma created earth with animals, plants, oceans, air, and everything. Maya then said “How beautiful is this world of illusion you created, now I want you to create a kind of animal that is so intelligent and aware that is can appreciate your creation”. Brahma created humans.
Brahma was getting excited and wanted to know when the game would start. Maya said right now…Maya cut Brahma (I still imagine at this point that Brahma is a green blob) up into thoughts of tiny little pieces. She put a little piece of Brahma into every human and said, “Now the game begins! I am going to make you forget what you are, and you are going to try to find yourself!” So this is why the universe exists. It is out of Lila (playfulness), because Brahma wanted to have fun. So the game of life is Brahma trying to remember who he is. Brahma is inside of each one of us. Each one of us is part of the divine. However, Maya is stopping us from remembering our true nature.
How cool is that! I have been learning and studying this story a lot. I have finally found a way good quick to summarize this fascinating story. I used to have a problem with the idea of maya. Maya is this cloak that covers up and hides things from us. In this story she is covering up our inner divinity and making us think that we are not whole, we are not complete, that we are not perfect, that we are not divine, that we are not worthy…. I didn’t like maya because I thought she was mean and evil for hiding these qualities, hiding the fact that we are Brahma. But now I see that she did it out of play too. She is just playing a game. She is actually playing a game with us. And instead of getting mad we can choose to play as well. We can play this game of lila by working and studying and trying to remember and uncover who we are at our essence. Not just remembering that at our essence we are supreme but remembering that everyone has this same supreme little piece of Brahma with in them.
My airport experiment: I have heard this story in more detail many times and it was when I was reading the mastery of love by don Miguel Ruiz that I could summarize it quickly and see that Maya is playing with us as well. I read this story when I was in Fiji and on our trip back home (it was long 11 hour airplane ride from Fiji, 9 hour layover in LAX, 2 hour air plane ride back to SLC). So I had a lot of time to people watch. And instead of looking at people and judging them for this or for that I would look at each person and think to myself “Brahma is in him, or her, and in that little girl, and that old man, and that person with lots of tattoos….” I would then take a moment in between looking for the divine with in other people and to remind myself that the divine energy that I am looking at in them is also in me. This was a really cool exercise, at first when I would looked at each person I would see their age, gender, style… before seeing their inner light and saying “Brahma resides in them”. After doing this for a while but after while all those categorizes my mind sorts people into went away and I would just saw their unique oneness radiating from each person in a different way.
Resources:
The Mastery of Love, Don Miguel Ruiz
Anusara Immersion Packet, John Friend
Image:
http://yogizendude.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/hindu-trinity-brahma-vishnu-and-shiva.jpg
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