Example 1)
There lies a rope, but you mistake it to be a snake. In fact, it’s not a snake -- it’s only a rope. It’s only your mistaken identity. It’s only your wrong identification that made you confused and totally fear-stricken.” You run away from it, thinking it’s a snake; but actually it’s not a snake. It’s only rope. So mistaken identification or mistaken identity is what is called ‘illusion’. The reality is not understood. We go by falsification; we go by super imposition. That is responsible for illusion, which leads to fear.
Example 2)
It seems a young man was crying. A noble and aware soul happened to pass by and he asked, “Young man, why are you crying, my boy? What makes you cry?”
This young man said, “I lost my mother. My mother, who loved me so much, is no more. I lost my mother and that’s why I’m crying.”
And this wise man said, “Where has she gone? Your mother is lying right here. Your mother is very much here -- you have not lost her. She’s here, so why do you cry?”
This story helps us to understand that the mother’s body was still there, but not her life. So if the boy considered only the body, then the mother was not lost as her body was right there. But still the boy cried because, even though his mother’s body was there, it was not his mother in reality. Why? Her life was gone. So this mistaken identification with the body, the wrong identification with the body, is what is called ‘illusion’ or ‘delusion’, which leads to subsequent fear and sadness.
Example 3)
To think that ‘I am Indian’, to think that ‘I am Russian’, to think ‘I am American’ is also an illusion. It is an illusion because, though you were born in America and are therefore an American, you are not America. You were born in America and hence you are American by citizenship, but you are not America. You are different. Now you are visiting here in India, so you are not the place you normally live. You are not your profession; you are not your gender -- you are beyond all that. The reality is none of these. The true Self is above all of them.”
Example 4)
The whole world is like a beautiful mansion, like a beautiful building, and each room is a country. But to consider this room to be the only one in the building is foolishness. This building has so many rooms -- some of this type and so many of that type. All the rooms together make one building.
Similarly, the whole world is one mansion, and the rooms are the different countries. What is it that separates us? What is it that differentiates us? What is it that demarcates us? Only the walls of caste, community, race, nationality, creed, cadre, that’s all. When all these walls are removed, when all these narrow chains are cut off, then we are all One -- one caste of humanity and one religion of Love. The realization of Oneness is the Truth. The experience of diversity, multiplicity and plurality is the delusion.
Creation date :23/03/2009 @ 18:54Last update :09/09/2009 @ 22:29