The Province of Quacks
Kissing Women and The Master of Illusions
“What is Illusion?”, the Sri Sri Mahavikid Maharishi asked to the legion of Superhereos sitting quietly in attendance.
The space was mellow, everything about it soft, from the cool light to the sweet evening breeze, fresh with the scent of mountain flowers.
Vikid was sitting next to his favorite friend, the goldy-locked, blue eyed, Hercules. Hercules had a glowing presence, where Vikid sat crossed legged, straight and still, Hercules preferred to lay on his side supported by his elbows. He like to move around, to stretch and hold impossible positions like a Shaolin master.
He wasn’t the smartest of the bunch nor did he have the largest muscles but Vikid calculated that he might just have the biggest heart and the heartiest of laughs.
“It’s like when two kissing women look like a vase.”, he said, “I saw it a lot at the Temples of Mount Olympus, back in the day, beautiful vases everywhere!”
With that he let out the heartiest of laughs and the whole crowd, even those heroes trying their damnest to mediate like the ancient sages in pure stillness, broke in laughter.
“Yes”, said Maharishi with a despondent sigh, but even he couldn’t resist letting out a smile.
“Yes, something like that”
“Vikid, you’re the ‘Hero of Truth’, perhaps you can tell us and your good willed companion there, what an illusion is?”
Vikid opened his eyes and said,
“All is illusion”
“The World is Maya after all….”
“But what we commonly call an illusion is mismatch between what we perceive and what we consider real.”
“This mismatch can occur for any number of reasons from instincts and genetic programming to cognitive biases caused by culture or incorrect education.”
“Illusions blend and lend themselves to several other phenomena such a delusion, deception, hallucination, misidentification, conspiracy theories, history and more importantly, current events etc…”
“The main characteristic being that we wrongly identify the underlying Truth to reach opposing conclusions.”
“Thus you may have seen illusions in which still pictures appear to be moving, objects not on a drawing nevertheless appearing to be there, lines of equal length looking unequal or as Hercules just pointed out, vases in the silhouette appearing to be kissing women… or is it the other way round?”
Hercules mumbled a little.
“When the ancients said, the world is Maya, they meant all that, but above all, that the Self itself is the greatest illusion.”
“I, should you permit me to use the word, have seen this only in glimpses. The revelation of what the world really is. It is a Truth unspeakable, for words are an illusion. A Truth untouchable, unwatchable and ultimately unreasonable. It does not bow to reason.”
“Lastly to finish, I would only like to add that as Superheroes, we have to be very careful identifying Demons because often they come to us in the guise of Angels. The demonic is master of all illusions.”
“It’s greatest illusion is the disappearing act. Thus almost no one today even believes in it. They cannot find it with their advanced instruments or equations, so they dismiss it as the Province of Quacks.”
“The Hero of Truth is thus seen as such a quack to all but the most discerning and open hearted.”
By now, every being in attendance was stirring.
“Thank you”, said the Maharishi with an intensity so rich that appeared to be looking at each one of them, eye to eye, directly.
“To awaken is a painful act. It is to shred one’s identity. It is a metamorphosis. For the butterfly to be born, first the caterpillar has to dissolve of its own accord.”
“Dear superhero’s please remember this. Humbleness and gratitude in being. Acknowledgement that you may be wrong about everything and the gift of your heart to face it, and to forgive others when you see the same in them.”
With that he dissolved himself in to the breeze. A bright white light flashed, encompassing everything.
Vikid awoke on his Armchair.
And that’s,