MAYA

After having spent nearly twelve years looking after my children and doing routine household work, I decided to move on and indulge myself into something that always fascinated me.

I am a visual person, and I believe that a picture can convey the message more effectively than words. And, more so if the pictures are animated with voice and expressions!

Multimedia!

I always looked and conceived multimedia as one of the most effective and modern medium of self-expression and art. I joined multimedia classes hoping to create my own world of animations, moving picture, voice, fading in, fading out.

The very first lecture that I attended, at the institute, busted my self-created myth that the multimedia was not merely an art but a scientific art. It came as a very strong cocktail; which had a lot of Vodka (science) and somewhat lesser Tomato Juice (art). I found it too difficult to gulp. I kept wondering about the presence of dry and boring words, like JIF, TIFF, GIF, BMP, PNG, JPEG, MPEG1, and MPEG2 doing in the romantic and creative world of art! Strangers!!

After a rather disappointing classroom session I thought of seeking solace in the Lab work. As the luck would have had it, the Lab session had some more surprises for me. I got an Apple PC to work with. Strange, the mouse has no ‘right click’ button. Strangers again!

My new world had all new words like Safari, Tiger, Illustrator, and Photoshop. I thought that in this world on Multimedia, I would never come across any familiar names and then I heard Maya.

The word Maya comes from Sanskrit language and means ‘illusions’.

The ancient Indian philosophy, which is often called The Hindu philosophy, started to develop in the Indus valley 3500 years ago. Many great thinkers and religions of the world emanate from the Indian philosophy.

It is believed, in the ancient Indian philosophy, that there is one and only one truth! The one and the only truth that never changes! The one and the only truth that is an absolute truth! And, the one and the only unchangeable and absolute truth is the GOD.

Everything that is not an absolute truth is MAYA or illusion.

It is believed that the part of That Absolute truth fills all the living things in the universe. Part of the God, that fills all of us, the part that is permanent, the part that is immortal, that cannot be burnt – cannot be dried – cannot be killed – cannot be aged – cannot be seen, touched or felt… that part that makes the presence of God in us is called the atma or soul.

Soul or atma has to ultimately merge with the God or the universal soul, which is called parmatma.

Parmatma is the only truth, everything else is maya.

Maya is the illusion that keeps us so mesmerized that instead of seeking the audience with the parmatma and attaining salvation, peace and happiness. The false glitter of maya, the illusion is so strong that it impairs our vision to find and follow the path to parmatma.

With every breath, with every pulsation of the heart, with every one of our movements, we think we are free, and with very same moment we are shown that we are not. Bound slaves, nature's bond-slaves, in body, in mind, in all our thoughts, in all our feelings. And this is Maya.
Hope is dominant in the heart of childhood. The whole world is a golden vision to the opening eyes of the child; he thinks his will is supreme. As he moves onward, at every step nature stands as an adamantine wall, barring his future progress. He may hurl himself against it again and again, striving to break through. The further he goes, the further recedes the ideal, till death comes, and there is release, perhaps. And this is Maya.
There was never a mother who did not think her child was a born genius, the most extraordinary child that was ever born; she dotes upon her child. The child grows up, perhaps becomes a drunkard, a brute, ill-treats the mother, and the more he ill-treats her, the more her love increases. This is Maya.

A man of science rises, he is thirsting after knowledge. He moves onward discovering secret after secret of nature, searching out the secrets from her innermost heart, and what for? What is it all for? Why should we give him glory? Why should he acquire fame? Does not nature do infinitely more than any human being can do?--and nature is dull, insentient. Why should it be glory to imitate the dull, the insentient? Nature can hurl a thunderbolt of any magnitude to any distance. If a man can do one small part as much, we praise him and laud him to the skies. Why? Why should we praise him for imitating nature, imitating death, imitating dullness, imitating insentience? The force of gravitation can pull to pieces the biggest mass that ever existed; yet it is insentient. What glory is there in imitating the insentient? Yet we are all struggling after that. And this is Maya.

True it is that we are all slaves of Maya, born in Maya, and live in Maya. Is there then no way out, no hope? And the answer was: "In freedom it rises, in freedom it rests, and into freedom it melts away." This idea of freedom you cannot relinquish. Your actions, your very lives will be lost without it. Every moment nature is proving us to be slaves and not free. Yet, simultaneously rises the other idea, that still we are free. At every step we are knocked down, as it were, by Maya, and shown that we are bound; and yet at the same moment, together with this blow, together with this feeling that we are bound, comes the other feeling that we are free. Some inner voice tells us that we are free. But if we attempt to realise that freedom, to make it manifest, we find the difficulties almost insuperable. Yet, in spite of that it insists on asserting itself inwardly, "I am free, I am free." And if you study all the various religions of the world you will find this idea expressed What happens then? The scene begins to shift. As soon as you know the voice and understand what it is, the whole scene changes. The same world, which was the ghastly battlefield of Maya, is now changed into something good and beautiful.

And in multimedia, I hope I am able to create some illusions, which can keep people mesmerized.

Miles to go before I sleep…