V. The Upanishads: Shvetashvatar: The Faces of God
How does this world of separateness, with its inescapable forces of pain and pleasure, so intricately involve us? The Upanishads’ answer is maya. The objective world is neither real nor unreal; it is appearance—specifically, the appearance of separateness, the illusion that happiness comes from the world outside…
“The world is the wheel of God, turning around
And round with all living creatures upon its rim.
The world is the river of God
Flowing from him and flowing back to him.” [Dao De Jing: Chapter 40]
“On this ever-revolving wheel of life
The individual self goes round and round
Through life after life, believing itself
To be a separate creature, until
It sees its identity with the Lord of Love
And attains immortality in the indivisible whole.”
“He is the eternal reality, sing
The scriptures, and the ground of existence.
Those who perceive him in every creature
Merge in him and are released from the wheel
Of birth and death.”
“The Lord of Love holds in his hand the world
Composed of the changing and the changeless
The manifest and the unmanifest.
The separate self, not yet aware of the Lord
Goes after pleasure, only to become
Bound more and more.
When it sees the Lord
There comes an end to its bondage.”
“Conscious spirit and unconscious matter
Both have existed since the dawn of time
With maya appearing to connect them
Misrepresenting joy as outside us.
When all these three are seen as one
The Self reveals his universal form and serves
As an instrument of the divine will.”
“All is change in the world of the senses
But changeless is the supreme Lord of Love.
Meditate on him, be absorbed in him
Wake up from this dream of separateness.”
“Know him to be enshrined in your heart always.
Truly there is nothing more in life to know.
Meditate and realize that this world
Is filled with the presence of the God.”
“The Lord of Love is one.
There is indeed no other.
He is the inner ruler in all beings.
He projects the cosmos from himself
Maintains and withdraws it back into himself at the end of time.”
“He is this boy, he is that girl, he is this man, he is that woman,
And he is this old man, too, tottering on his staff.
His face is everywhere.” [we are an ocean full of faces…]
“From his divine power comes forth
All this magical show of name and form…”
“What use are the scriptures to anyone
Who knows not the one source from whom they come…
The Lord, who is the supreme magician
He remains hidden in the hearts of all…”
Hidden within the hearts of all like cream in milk.
“Know him to be the supreme source of all religions…
The embodied self assumes many forms
Heavy or light, according to its needs
For growth and the deeds of previous lives.
This evolution is divine law.”
“The Lord is the operator;
We are his innumerable instruments.”