Maya

 

"When his steps are towards God, man has no reason to fear; but when they are turned away from Him, fear haunts him at every turn.  That is the source of the highest joy.  People yearn for joy and believe they can derive it through the objective world that can be cognised by the senses.  No one knows that Nature is the vesture of God; there is nothing real except He.  

When the morning sun is above the horizon and you walk away from it, towards the west, your long shadow marches before you.  That shadow is Maya which deludes and hides the Truth.  To disregard and discard Maya, you have to turn sunwards.  Then the shadow falls behind you.  

The Sun is described as the source of Reason and intelligence.  When the Sun climbs higher and higher, the shadow you cast becomes smaller and smaller until at last, when He is right on top of you, the shadow (Maya) crouches at your feet, surrendering to you and you can trample on it.  So too, when your intellect is clarified, Maya cannot harm you and cast the evil spell on you."

~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~

(Speech at a Public Meeting in Kampala - 8.7.1978.  From the book "The Light of Love".)