Maya's Army Fills the World, Yet She Is Only Rama's Handmaid
Uttara Kanda, Doha 72
Doha 72 · Movement 2 of 2
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Bhushundi sees the world occupied by maya's fierce army. Desire and its companions command the divisions. Hypocrisy, deceit, and false display march as soldiers, taking ground in thought, relation, ritual, and public life.
Then the scale reverses in a single revelation. This apparently unconquerable power is the handmaid of Raghubira. When understood, she is known as false, dependent rather than self-existing, unable to stand as ultimate reality.
Still, intellectual recognition alone does not make her release the heart. Without Rama's grace, the grip remains. Bhushundi plants his feet upon this declaration and speaks it as a vow. Advaitic seeing and bhakti meet without contradiction: maya has no independent truth, yet the embodied seeker cannot turn that insight into freedom through pride of understanding. The army vanishes only before the sovereign grace of the one whom it serves.
The army seems to cover the earth, but every banner belongs to a handmaid who waits upon Rama's slightest command.
Read the passage from the Manas
ब्यापि रहेउ संसार महुँ माया कटक प्रचंड।। सेनापति कामादि भट दंभ कपट पाषंड।।71(क)।। सो दासी रघुबीर कै समुझें मिथ्या सोपि। छूट न राम कृपा बिनु नाथ कहउँ पद रोपि।।71(ख)।।
Maya's fierce army has pervaded the entire world. Its generals are kama and the rest; its soldiers are dambha (hypocrisy), kapata (deceit), and paakhanda (heresy). That Maya is the daasi (handmaid) of Raghubir. Though upon understanding she proves to be false, without Rama's kripa she never releases her hold. O Nath, I say this with firm resolve, planting my feet upon it.