Q. Can you explain about Maya, please?

M. Oh, No! I'd rather explain about God. Maya is nothing but our own laziness. We give up, we give in, and we don't want to strive. It's too hard. It's too long. It's too difficult -- all these kinds of things. We don't worry about it. There are two forces within us. One says, "You have to do what is good." The other says, "Oh, why bother. Just sleep!" That's Maya. There's no outside Maya. It's in us. So fight with it yourself. But of course, there are some outside influences, like the place or the people we interact with, and the atmosphere which people create, and then we tumble in, and we get affected and we are affected by that, too. But it all comes down to our laziness; we don't want to struggle to get out of it. We don't want to better ourselves. We don't want to think that we are strong.

You should never give up, but just continue and then you will get the reward, really! You will feel better after you achieve something, after you struggle and stand up for yourself. It's nothing impossible. We might be miserable. We might cry, but stand up; we must, in the end. It's our own laziness. No Maya can beat us, really. Because we are saints, we are Gods incarnated.

Maya is just a test, an examination that we have to take now and again in the school of life. There is no school here except us training ourselves. Every situation is for us to be stronger. There's no Maya, just tests! We test ourselves. Before we came down into this world, we vowed to do this, do that and do others. But there are also obstacles in our way, so that we will know what we can do, how strong we are, how determined. So there is no Maya; don't worry about it! It's just us! Maya is us!

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Q. Master, in one of the News magazines recently, You said that there was no Maya, only God wearing a mask. When You do good things for us, we always have obstructions ahead, so I am wondering whether that is the Maya doing a bad scene to prevent You from doing everything for us?

M. Of course there is a struggle, because Maya is just another force trying to keep the people here, and the Master Power is another force trying to uplift people, because the people who come here are the ones who want to remember they are God. But if it were so simple - you just get a mother, come into the womb, become a baby, and then grow up to become an enlightened Master - then it's so easy, so cheap; what for would you even have to come to the physical body?

So there must be something, like a test in the school. The teacher who gives you very difficult tests is also the one who teaches you every day, who loves you, and who guides you in every step of your education. But he has to test whether you've become strong enough, whether you've understood it, whether you've grown up, whether it was beneficial for you. So Maya is just a test. If you fail the test, then you fail and you will have to begin again, and sometimes it's more difficult. Every time you fail a test, it's doubly difficult the next time. And if you fail the third time, it's six times more difficult.

Be careful all the time with your actions, speech, and thinking; don't fail the test. Whatever is good for other people or good for you, you know you must do it; and there's not even any "in case" and "suppose to" about it. Just do it if you can do it; and don't listen to the Maya, the mind, telling you, "Think of yourself first. Why are you doing that? You have your life to take care of. Forget about her, forget about them; forget about everyone else except yourself. Just do what you want right now regardless of how many people suffer." If you listen to that voice, you will fail. If you listen to your soul, you will pass with flying colors.

So, Maya is no problem; the problem is you, is us. Suppose you go to school and there are no tests, no exams, then what for? How do you know if you're good or not? All the people in the Olympics have to pass their tests also. It's very difficult to pass the tests, and they would say, "Oh! That's Maya!" Most of the time, it's very, very difficult. Often we fail. Only once in a while we succeed in standing up. Once we can stand up, we feel the real difference in progress. We feel we have been uplifted to a much higher level; we feel like a burden has been lifted from our shoulders and we will be stronger, more clear, and more proud of ourselves. Try it! I have tests all the time also. I do.

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Q. Since You are an enlightened Master, and if the Maya tests You, is there a way to know the Maya is testing You?

M. No, it doesn't test me straight away. It puts a lot of disciples and trouble in front of me. If it tests me, I would just say, "Get lost! I know you." It just tests my attendants, my disciples, my loved ones, my friends, relatives; it brings that person trouble, and in turn, he troubles me. That should be enough. It never tests me alone, no! It knows me. For example, I want to go to group meditation, and then probably I have only one driver or one attendant at the time. Normally, we don't have any problems with each other, but suddenly, just before I go to group meditation, all kinds of problems come. Maybe he's sulking; maybe he is thinking of going home, maybe he is thinking of his girlfriend, maybe he is thinking of going somewhere else instead. And then he makes a lot of noise, a lot of trouble: anger, arguments, and walks or drives away somewhere else leaving me alone there. Maybe I am late for group meditation, maybe I couldn't come at all; maybe I am too tired and exhausted after trying to win him back onto the right path. Just to rescue one person alone sometimes can be very exhausting because that person is next to me, and all the force of Maya is on him. So I have to help him; and in helping him, I am exhausted. Then I can't go to you, I come late, I come with a big head, or I come in no mood at all to talk.

That's the way it works; it doesn't test me. Nothing can test me. How - money? Give me money so I'll stop being a Master or what? Give me a lover so I'll stop, no! I cannot. Even give me money, okay, I'll accept it, but I'll continue my work. [Applause] Give me a husband, okay, come work with me. What now, make me become a president? Make me sick? Okay, I'm sick, fine. I'll go to the doctor, get a shot and all that, and then I'll get up to do it again. It can only stop me for a while and not for long; it knows that.

All these sicknesses and troubles on my part are not Maya's tests on me; they are tests through my disciples, through my close ones. It is always like that, one hundred percent of the time like that. So even if it doesn't make me sick directly, through the disciple, it can make me sick, make me worry, make me sleepless, make me hurt. Then I get sick, and that also can, in turn, hinder my work or make me weaker for my work, make me work with effort, with suffering that I have to try to overcome. That's all. How else can it test me? The Maya can't do much. Even if it kills me, that's the worst. Then I'm free.

Talking about Maya, I know it every day. It just hides behind some of my people; it never comes face to face with me. Never! But I know it is somewhere. The problem is that most of the disciples are Maya themselves. Like attracts like. If you're strong and good, how can Maya attract you, how can Maya use you? You know immediately that you're doing wrong to yourself, to the Master, and to the public, and then you stop. But they don't know; they think they are doing good. They help the Maya to trouble me, often times. So you can see whether a person is weak or strong by seeing his actions or her doings. You know right away whom he is helping, who he is working for, who the boss is. Anything that works to help the public or the Master is the work of the Master Power; anything that goes against that for any reason at all is the Maya. That is very simple.

You see it right now, but you don't see it when you're around me because that's the time the Maya will dig out the Maya in you, and use it. Now it's lying asleep under control. You will know how much Maya there is when you come face to face with a test; when you have to work for the public; when you have to sacrifice your ego, your time, your physical being, and your likes and dislikes for the benefit of other people. At that time, then you will know how much Maya you still have in your body, in your mind. Otherwise, you will never know. Nothing changes. It's just that you have it inside, and the Maya or the God quality comes when the time, when the situation comes. When it's required, that side of nature comes out. Then you will know how much God Nature and how much Maya nature you reveal to yourself and to other people to see. Everyone can become an enlightened Master. It's just that they don't choose to, that's all. They choose the easy way, the habitual way. That means they take care of themselves first. To take care of yourself is very good, it's a duty, but not at the expense of everyone else. That is disastrous; that is when you are really working for the devil.