Maya-Illusion

sarpa rajju bhranti is a very famous example in the ancient philosophy to know thyself process. Sarpa rajju brhanti is from sanskrit which means, mistaking a rope to be a serpent (sarpa) because of illusion . one day one king woke up from his sleep and used to shout " Know thyself" "know thyself". Queen could not understand what he means and asked why he is shouting know thyself . The king did not answer but continued to shout know thyself first. he is not stopping to shout know thyself. Then the prince and princess approached the king and asked "father, why are you suddenly shouting know thyself. what is your intention. who should know whose self? should i know myself now ?" The king did not answer but shouting like a mad man, know thyself know thyself, and also murmuiring know thyself to him. The philosophy teacher of the king was sent a word about the peculiar condition of the king. The teacher is a wise man. He came and saw the condition of the king. He asked the king "oh king what you want?".The king shouted " know thyself". The priest cum teacher, thought for some time, and answered that "i knew my self". The king stopped his shouting and with surprise asked how did you know yourself? The priest said, "oh king, i know am just I. But in my dream i forgot about me and was thinking that i am some thing else. When i got up from my dream, i knew myself. Thus i knew . The king understood what the priest meant, and stopped shouting know thyself and started to learn the methods from the wise priest. Thus he got self realization through knowing himself. We all are in a dream. We assume that to be us, which is not we. You have to come out of that dream to know thyself. Sarpa Rajju Bhranthi (The illusion of rope and serpent) When we are in dim light like twilight, we see a rope laying on the ground and assume it to be a serpent. We dont see a rope but we see a serpent in that , though in fact rope only is there. When our mind gets the signal of serpent, shivering,sweating starts.we shout, cry for help. A wise friend brings a lamp nearer to the illusionary serpent and proves that it is not yet all serpent but a rope. Then we get up from the illusion,. our body comes to normal. Now where is the serpent that caused the trouble? Has it come into the rope, and gone after a while? no. Entire issue is just because of seeing a non existing thing in the existing thing. Maya , illusion is like that. What is the reason for such illusion. The contaminated mind. It first will not see what really exists (the rope). Then it sees what is not existent in the really existing thing (serpent). It also then creates shocks and waves and creates more illusions like it is moving, it is hissing , it has stripes etc. This is a very good example of the illusionary world.Only the wake up call from guru (the lamp in this case) can drive the illusion and help us to see the truth.