MAYA - The stories retold through our Sanskrit Puranas

 

What is MAYA?

The dictionary meaning, as everyone knows is illusion. But the Sanskrit word Maya is having more deeper meaning. It can be better explained with a journey with the thought of Maya read in conjunction of Newton's laws in physics, theory of relativity, etc. which would have already been taught in school/college levels.

Let us just have an explanation:

Imagine a person standing on the railway platform, whereby a train passes without stopping. It will seem to him that the length of the train is getting lesser with the increase in speed of the train, or more clearly the length of the train will seem to be inversely proportional to the speed of the train. It can be more easily understood, with a thought that, if the person is also travelling in the opposite direction.

If the individual is travelling by another train in the opposite direction, then the total length will seem to be well reduced with the relative speed. And if the relative speed is more than that of light, i.e., suppose both the trains are travelling with the speed of 28000 kms per hour (the figure is just shown, such that the relative speed is more than that of light) the length will seem to be zero, or negative or the train running opposite cannot be seen at all. 

Here, just imagine what has happened - the trains have really passed but, the other train could not be even seen!!

Isn't it an amazing situation?  That is Maya.

Still, if it is technically possible to increase the speed further, or at least let us imagine, we can reach back with time with travelling back to yesterdays!!!

अमृतं मधुरम् सम्यक्, संस्कृतं तु तदोधिकम् !

Butter is sweet enough, but Samskritham is even more!!

അമൃതം നല്ല മധുരമുള്ളതാണ് , എന്നാൽ സംസ്‌കൃതം അതിലധികവും!!!

Purana or Ithihasa stories or even Vedas need to be told in simple ways to awaken the human minds towards the eternal truths that the Sastras and Upanishads teach. Vedantha, the Sanskrit word meaning of which is the end of knowledge is the final word in any field.  But to access the richness in them which may not be possible at the ground level for the laymen, one has to listen to explanations of the stories by the learned people well versed in them, to be followed by mulling over what has been heard/taught to imbibe the full value of the nuances. The in-depth knowledge of the language Sanskrit is also required for the same.