The role of Maya
(...) It seems then, that many actions and communications connected with UFOs are consistent with the ancient Vedic worldview. Some UFO entities present philosophies representing particular subsets of Vedic thought. There are discussions of the soul and its evolution in consciousness. There are practical demonstrations of different kinds of travel of the gross and subtle bodies, and of spiritual states of consciousness up to Brahman realization. There are also theoretical descriptions of these states, especially in channeled communications. I am not aware, however, of any discussions of direct love of God. At the same time, many UFO communications present bizarre stories that vary widely from one case to another. It was shown in Chapter 6 that these stories contradict one another in many details, and thus most are demonstrably full of false assertions. There are also the disturbing UFO abductions, and the indications of overtly harmful UFO activity discussed in Chapter 10. How are we to understand all of this? One interesting idea that appears in some communications is that there is a cosmic law of confusion that regulates the dissemination of information to human beings. This law may help explain why UFO communications seem to contain a bewildering mixture of nonsense and possibly valid information. The Ra entities mentioned this law in accordance with their story of how they built the Great Pyramid of Egypt. When they said that they built it out of thought-forms, they were asked why it was created in separate blocks, as though it had been assembled from quarried stones. Ra replied:
"There is a law which we believe to be one of the more significant primal distortions of the Law of One. That is the Law of Confusion. You have called this the Law of Free Will. ... We did not desire to allow the mystery [of the Great Pyramid] to be penetrated by the peoples in such a way that we became worshipped as builders of a miraculous pyramid. Thus it appears to be made, not thought."/37/
Regardless of how the Great Pyramid was really built, this Law of Confusion is worth thinking about. The basic idea is that in order to preserve the free will of human beings, it is necessary to withhold information from them, and even bewilder them with false information. This concept is interesting, if we consider not only the bewildering character of UFO communications, but also the illusive nature of UFO evidence in general. Often this evidence is strong enough to be impressive, but it is never so overwhelming that a skeptic would be denied his own free will in deciding whether or not to accept it. One can conceive of scenarios, such as a mass landing of UFOs in Washington, D.C., which would be so convincing as to rule out this exercise of free will. Could it be that the Law of Confusion is being applied to the UFO phenomenon so as to preserve people's free will, while at the same time providing useful information for people who are prepared to accept it? Vedic ideas can throw a great deal of light on the nature of the Law of Confusion. According to the Vedas, the material world is fashioned out of an energy called maya. Maya means, illusion, magic, and the power that creates illusion. The basic Vedic idea is that the universe is created as a playground for souls who seek to enjoy life separately from the Supreme Being. If these souls were in full knowledge of reality, then they would know the position of the Supreme, and they would know that such separate enjoyment is impossible. The universe is therefore created as a place of illusion, or maya, in which these souls can pursue their separate interests. Another aspect of the Vedic worldview is that the Supreme Being wants the materially illusioned souls within the universe to return to Him. But for this to be meaningful, it must be voluntary. The real essence of the soul is to act freely out of love. Thus if the soul is forced to act by superior power, then this essence cannot be realized. For this reason, the Supreme Being tries to give the soul the knowledge of how to return to the Supreme in a delicate way that does not overpower the soul's free will. Here is the perspective of the Bhagavata Purana on the relationship between the Supreme and the world of illusion:
"I offer my obeisances to Vasudeva, the Supreme, All- pervading Personality of Godhead. I meditate upon Him, the transcendent reality, who is the primeval cause of all causes, from whom all manifested universes arise, in whom they dwell, and by whom they are destroyed. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. "It is He only who first imparted Vedic knowledge into the heart of Brahma, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal."/38/
In Section xx, I compared the universe to a virtual reality manifested within a computer by a master programmer. In a virtual reality, people actually exist outside of the false, computer generated world, but they experience the illusion that they are within that world. If they forget their actual existence, then the illusion becomes complete, and they identify themselves fully with their computer generated, virtual bodies. According to the Vedas, this is the position of conditioned souls within the material universe. Within the overall illusion of maya, there are many subillusions. The overall illusion causes one to forget the omnipotence of the Supreme, and the subillusions cause one to forget the cosmic managerial hierarchy set up by the Supreme within the material universe. All of these illusions allow the individual soul to act by free will, even though he is actually under higher control. At the same time, the illusions are not so strong that an individual who wants to seek out the truth is unable to do so. If maya were so strong as to stop any effort to find the truth, then this too would block people's free will. According to the Vedic system, the Supreme Being arranges for teachers to descend into the material world to give transcendental knowledge to the conditioned souls. By the arrangement of maya, people will always have plentiful excuses for rejecting these teachers if they so desire. But if they desire higher knowledge, they will also be provided with adequate evidence to distinguish that knowledge from illusion. Within the last few centuries on this earth, the view has been developed that life is simply a physio-chemical process that evolved gradually over millions of years. According to this view, we are the topmost products of evolution on this planet. If there is life elsewhere in the universe, it also had to slowly evolve on planets with suitable conditions. Therefore, intelligent life forms that might be superior to us are likely to be safely far away, and we don't have to worry about them. This view is highly conducive to a program of free enjoyment and exploitation for people of this earth. But unfortunately, such a program causes damage to the earth's biosphere, and it blocks the path of advancement for those who might want to learn about their spiritual nature. This means that even though the modern, materialistic worldview expedites the free will of some persons, it blocks the free will of others. Perhaps the UFO phenomenon is one way in which the modern materialistic outlook is being gently revised by higher arrangement. Scientists are given their comeuppance by being confronted with impossible flying machines that break the laws of physics. Beings with magical powers appear to show us that we are not the topmost living species. Yet at the same time, the UFO phenomena are illusive, the communications are contradictory, and there is always room for doubt. If this is what is happening, I suspect that it involves complex arrangements involving many different forms of life. Some UFO phenomena may be directly caused by beings in the mode of darkness that frighten people but at the same time expand their understanding of life and its powers. Some of these activities may involve a genuine protest by beings that live in our own world and are disturbed by our technological misadventures. Other phenomena may involve preaching programs carried out by beings who have a message to convey. After all, religious proselytizing does not have to be limited to ordinary humans. These messages may vary in quality and in depth, and ultimately individuals will have to use their own discrimination to decide what to accept and what to reject. I suggested in Section 5.3 that some beings who produce lights, high pitched sounds, and telepathic communications may even be human yogis with highly developed mystic powers. The events at Fatima discussed in Section 9.7 suggest that persons from higher planets may also be appearing on the earth, moved by compassion for human suffering. All of these possibilities are consistent with the Vedic tradition. According to ancient Vedic texts, there was a time when people of this earth were in regular contact with many different kinds of beings, from negative entities in the mode to darkness to great sages in advanced states of spiritual consciousness. The modern phenomena tend to confirm the Vedic picture, and this may also be part of the plan behind these phenomena. The teachings of the ancient sages are still available, but they have become eclipsed by the modern developments of materially oriented science and technology. Perhaps the time is coming when they will again be taken seriously.
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