Sri Ramakrishna on 'Embodied Being, World and Maya'

I accept everything – the fourth state of turiya as well as the states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. I accept all the three states. I accept Brahman as well as maya, living beings, and the world – all. If I did not accept all, I would not get the full weight.
When a man talks of the essence of a bel fruit, he means the pulp only – not its seeds and shell. But to be able to tell the weight of the bel fruit by simply weighing the pulp alone will not do. One has to take the pulp, the seeds, and the shell together to weigh it. So, I accept the Absolute as well as the phenomenal world. I don’t do away with the world by calling it maya. If I did, it would lose weight.
Qualified Nondualism is Ramanuja’s view that the finite soul and the phenomenal world are parts of the Absolute and not separate from it. The three are one.

People can be divided into four classes: those bound to the world, seekers after liberation, the liberated, and the ever-free.
There are four classes of human beings – bound souls, seekers after liberation, the liberated, and the ever-free.

Bound souls are attached to worldly things. They forget God and never give a thought to Him.
A worldly man doesn’t think of God. Even when he has leisure, he either indulges in empty talk or engages himself in useless activities.
One who constantly says, ‘I am bound, I am bound,’ that rascal really becomes bound! He who repeats day and night, ‘I am a sinner, I am a sinner,’ does become a sinner.
Bound souls remain attached to the world, that is, to ‘lust and greed.’ They remain sunk in the sordid sea and think they are very happy.
Bound creatures, the worldly, do not wake up. They suffer so much misery, so many trials, so many sorrows. Even then they do not awaken.
A camel likes thorny bushes, but the more it eats, the more its mouth bleeds. Yet it keeps on eating the same thorny bush; it doesn’t stop. The worldly suffer so much agony, so much sorrow, yet they revert back to the old self quite soon.
Bound soul state can be likened to that of a snake trying to swallow a mole. The snake can neither swallow the mole nor give it up. The bound soul may have realized that there is no substance in the world – that it is like a hog plum containing nothing but stone and skin – yet he cannot give it up, cannot turn his mind to God.
There is yet another sign of a bound soul. If he is lifted from worldly life to a spiritual environment, he will pine away to death.

The ever-free, like Narada and others, are those who live in the world for the good of mankind, to teach truth to others.

The liberated are not attached to ‘lust and greed’ – for example, sadhus and great spiritual personalities. There is no attachment to worldly things in their minds. They always meditate on the lotus feet of God.
The Divine Mother is the creator of both bondage and liberation. Due to Her maya (illusion), worldly man is bound with the chains of ‘lust and greed.’ And then he is liberated by Her mercy and grace.
When an embodied soul says, ‘O Lord, I am not the doer, You are the Doer; I am an instrument, You are the Being who uses the instrument,’ his trials and tribulations in the world cease. Only then is the embodied soul liberated; it doesn’t have to return to this field of activity.
As long as a frog doesn’t shed its tail, it has to live in water. It can’t climb onto dry land and move around. Then it can live both in the water and on the land. Similarly, until a man sheds the tail of his ignorance, he lives in the water of worldliness. When he casts off the tail of ignorance and attains knowledge, he is liberated and can move about anywhere.
When one says, ‘Naham, naham, naham’ (‘not I, not I, not I’), I am nothing, O Lord. I am the servant; You are the Master,’ it is only then that he is released, he is liberated.

Seekers after liberation struggle for liberation. But only some of them attain it.
Those who seek liberation and those who are liberated look upon the world as a deep well. They don’t like it. Some of them who attain Knowledge, the vision of God, give up their bodies. But giving up the body in this way is very rare.

Maya, or ‘I-ness,’ is like a cloud. The sun is not visible if there is even a patch of cloud. As soon as the cloud passes, one can see the sun. If, by the grace of the guru, the feeling of ‘I-ness’ vanishes, one sees God.
I’m creating a barrier in front of my face with this hand towel. You cannot see me, though I am so near. Similarly, God is so near to us all! Even then, we can’t see Him because of the veil of maya.
It is very difficult to go beyond the three gunas. It is not possible before God-realization. The embodied soul lives in the domain of maya. This maya doesn’t let one know God; it keeps a human being in ignorance.
Love toward your relatives: toward father and mother, brother and sister, wife and son, nephew and niece – that is maya. But daya means love for all created beings.
As long as you have not seen God, as long as you haven’t touched the philosopher’s stone, you remain under the delusion that you are the doer – that you are doing right or doing wrong. This awareness persists. The feeling of distinction is God’s maya and is necessary to run His world of illusion.
By taking refuge in the maya of knowledge, by taking the road of truth, you can realize Him. He who realizes God, who gets His vision, he alone can cross over His maya. (BG 7.14)

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