Look around you and spot something in purple.
Did you? Chances are you spotted something that you’d not seen earlier.
You know how it works- confirmation bias makes us see what we want to see. To the extent we see something that’s not even there.
Ancient scriptures have captured this illusory nature of reality and warned us against it.
In Hinduism, particularly in the Advaita Vedanta school of thought, “Maya” is a key concept. It signifies the illusory nature of the material world, which is seen as a temporary and ever-changing manifestation of the ultimate reality. Maya leads to getting entangled in a cycle of desire, attachment, and suffering.
Like the “rope that’s mistaken for a snake” the world is made of phenomena that deceives.
It was all an esoteric concept until I understood that the scriptures speak in metaphors- probably what was both fashionable and effective in the olden days. If we look closely at the rope-snake warning all perception happens within the internal framework of meaning we have built from experience. The rope is in reality a rope but it is our inbuilt fear/desire that makes us see differently.
So it’s not the illusory nature of reality. It is the illusory nature of perception. This is a fundamental shift as the blame doesn’t fall on the reality anymore. The Gucci bag is just a bag. The Mercedes is just a car. The rope is just a rope. It is the mind that makes the meaning.
Maya resides deep within. Not outside in the reality around you.
Your consciousness can get attached to this maya. If you think this sounds new age, think again. The desire for example that’s vilified in every scripture is not the desire for that gucci bag- it’s the desire to alter the reality in front of us. It is the desire to cling to the maya deep within. Eventually you will cling less as you grow older.
Until then brands carry an important responsibility. Perception alters reality and that rose tinted glasses called maya should be used wisely. We should strive to build perceptions that can benefit the buyer and the seller so that a Gucci bag means something after all.
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