“Brahma satya, jagan mithya.” – this famous quote is from Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Adi Shankaracharya. The core meaning of this quote is that the world is full of illusion and this is not the reality and Brahma is the reality. Let’s understand why Adi Shankaracharya ji, who was one of the most famous spiritual Guru’s said that and what he wanted to explain through this statement.
“Brahma satya, jagan mithya.”
Brahma (Brahman), which is an absolute and eternal reality. Satya means the ultimate truth that never changes.Jagan means Jagat, the world.Mithya means false, something which is not permanent. According to Adi Shankaracharya, Brahma is the eternal truth that exists and the world in which we all are living is full of illusions (maya) and temporary. Here, in this world nothing is permanent and everything is temporary. For example; if you are living a life full of luxury then you never know when you become a poor and you have to live a basic life because neither happiness is permanent nor sorrow.
What is Maya (Illusion)
Maya is known as illusion which means something which is not real. The birth, death, success, failure, the name you have, the body you get, the role you are playing in your life, relationships that you make here in this world, everything, which is related to this world is just Maya or illusion. You are living in an illusionary world which is not permanent because it keeps on changing time to time and according to the karma you do in your life.
Relevance of this quote in this modern world:
In today’s world, we often get attached with the materialistic things such as money, wealth, success, position and others but we should always keep this in our mind that these things are just a part of this maya or illusion not the reality. According to this quote we should not get too much attached to these things because if one day these things disappear then we will become sad or upset because of our dependency on them. To save ourselves from being sad or being dependent on these things, it is very important to understand that they are just temporary things that belong to maya and not permanent so we should be aware of the reality that only God is the ultimate truth. Yes, it is very difficult to make yourself understand about illusions because illusion looks like reality but you should think other way for example: your birth was not by your choice, your death will not be by your choice, nothing is in your control then who is controlling your life? there must be some power who is controlling your life and that power is God definitely.
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