Part 1

 
Questioner: If all the beautiful things we have known — moonlight, stars, music, the sound of the sea, the fragrance of flowers, our little dreams — are Maya, what is there left to take their place when you sweep them out of our hearts and minds and leave only the concept of a very far-off and abstract goal — Realization? For until we are realized, it leaves us nothing but emptiness, and very sad.

BABA: Beauty and ugliness has relative existence. To one trudging along under a scorching sun bare-footed with an empty stomach, Maya outside will not look beautiful. The mood of the subject (the perceiver) invests the object (the perceived) with its own colouring.

The goal of Realization does not necessarily imply, for an average man denial of things good or bad. It only emphasizes its relative worth. From the heights of Realization, Maya would cease to exist; it was pure imagination. Even apart from this experience the conception that you are in the world but not of the world, would go a long way in dissipating sadness and the feeling of void, emptiness.

If one were to treat, sincerely and whole-heartedly Maya as pure imagination, this external disinterestedness would automatically open up one's internal fountain of bliss, and instead of feeling sad and empty, would enable one to live the perfect life of being in harmony with the whole universe.

Questioner: Shall we, who dare not entertain what to us is the presumptuous hope of attaining Realization at this point in our journey, finish this life with none of the small but beautiful things that we as human beings have been used to turn to for solace?

BABA: It all depends whether what you term as solace is elevating or degrading. Recourse to alcohol for drowning one's sorrows is the perverted form of solace. Solace afforded by things outside of you is synonymous with doping which gives a certain amount of relief or relaxation. Real and unalloyed solace is within you.

It is never presumptuous for anyone to hope for Realization. It is the goal of creation and the birthright of humanity. Blessed are they who are prepared to assert that right in this very life.