SvgGrdnBeauty
03-26-2005, 09:05 AM
This is an essay I wrote for English...I thought I'd share because it was related...(btw...I am not saying that Stevenson definetely wrote the book about maya...it was an idea that I tossed around and my English teacher was interested and asked me to write an essay):
How Robert Louis Stevenson Uses Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to Portray the Concept of Maya
In many schools of Hinduism as well as other Eastern religions the world is thought to be nothing but a dream of God. The human being is strictly immortal soul (atman) made in the image of God (which is also stated in the Bible in the Book of Genesis). The physical body is part of a larger concept of maya. Maya is “the delusory power inherent in the structure of creation…the principle of relativity, inversion, contrast, duality, opposition states, the “Satan”… of the Old Testament prophets; and the “devil” whom Christ described picturesquely as a ‘murderer’ and a ‘liar’” (Yogananda 476). Maya is not a black and white concept, however. Maya is not always necessarily evil; rather the concept that this world is a dream and that God is the Ultimate Reality. In his novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Stevenson portrays maya in the characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde showing maya as the dualism between good and evil, giving in to the senses, and also the necessity to seek God over the illusion that is maya.
“…that I not only recognized my natural body from the mere aura and effulgence of certain of the powers that made up my spirit, but managed to compound a drug by which these powers should be dethroned from their supremacy, and a second form and countenance substituted…” (Stevenson 56). It is here that Stevenson refers to the expulsion of maya. This is the science of self-realization. Here he refers to Dr. Jekyll’s desire to dispel illusion and to seek only his Divine existence, separate from evil and the physically body. It is here that Stevenson addresses the spiritual side to Dr. Jekyll’s experiments. For aren’t these moral wishes related to spiritual aspirations? Inserting Jekyll’s desires for spiritual freedom also helps to show the temptation of maya. On his way to finding the Absolute Truth, Dr. Jekyll gets caught up in the temporal happiness that Mr. Hyde brought him. This is true of most human beings who find many physical and material things distract them from their spiritual goals. It is here that Stevenson first introduces the dualism in man taken literally as good v. evil, but when examined deeper as Reality v. illusion.
“I felt younger, lighter, happier, in body; within I was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images running like a millrace in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown, but not an innocent freedom of the soul” (Stevenson 56-7). Here Dr. Jekyll talks about his first experience as Mr. Hyde. Maya has an effect on human beings that makes them think they are happy. Always we are searching for something, something to make us feel alive. Money, power, material possessions, all are maya. All are the “sensual images” that Stevenson talks of through Jekyll. Once someone has a taste of the false happiness that these things can bring, they are addicted. But happiness dependant on maya is fleeting, because maya is just an illusion. This is why Hyde is shown as a different image. He is an unpleasant image to behold, because compared to one’s Spirit; they are nothing but a gross physical illusion. Dr. Jekyll was happy when he first experimented with Mr. Hyde because he thought that this experience was what he wanted. But as many become addicted to money or power, Dr. Jekyll became addicted to this illusion of happiness, until one day he realized that he was not happy, but he had no power to change it. By stating that this freedom was not innocent, Stevenson acknowledges that this freedom that Dr. Jekyll was feeling was not freedom at all.
“…Henry Jekyll, with streaming tears of gratitude and remorse had fallen upon his knees and lifted his clasped hands to God. The veil of self-indulgence was rent from head to foot. I saw my life as a whole…through the self denying toils of my professional life, to arrive again and again with the same sense of unreality, at the damned horror of the evening…” (Stevenson 64). At this point, Dr. Jekyll has realized the effects that self-indulgence has had on him. That he was not happy because of his actions. It is here that Stevenson identifies the first step to solving any problem: admitting you have one. By Jekyll realizing that maya has had an influence on his life…he can begin to separate himself from it. It is also here that Stevenson refers the concept of reincarnation, which works hand in hand with maya. But releasing yourself from the grip of maya, you can release yourself from the built up karma that keeps you reentering the physical world through the cycles of birth and death. With each birth and death you retain the same desires and very similar traits that you had in your previous life until your desires are fulfilled. But these are the unreality that Dr. Jekyll talks of. If you release yourself from them than you begin to turn to God, and you seek the end of reincarnation, the end of suffering, the end of being controlled by habits from times you cannot even remember.
“…the ugly face of my iniquity stared into my soul. As the acuteness of this remorse began to die away, it was succeeded by a sense of joy. The problem of my conduct was solved…I was now confined to the better part of my existence; and O, how I rejoiced to think of it! with what willing humility I embraced anew the restrictions of natural life! with what sincere renunciation I locked the door by which I had so often gone and come, and ground the key under my heel!” (Stevenson 64). It is here, through Jekyll’s dispelling of Hyde (for a limited time, but that is not important), that Stevenson emphasizes the importance of rejecting evil, of rejected illusion. He shows that by seeking spirituality, you suddenly see your true Self—that which comes from God—full of unceasing joy, knowledge, and bliss. He also shows the important yogic principle of renunciation. Through renunciation, one is able to be unattached to that which restricts them from their goals of Truth. Renunciation is one of the ways to reject maya, and we see that Dr. Jekyll has benefited from it. Sincerity is also important in renunciation, and Stevenson makes sure the he inserts that word. By locking the door, Dr. Jekyll is stopping himself from going back to a life of delusion.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, contains many references to the Hindu concepts of the dualism of man: that man is immortal Spirit contained in a world of maya (illusion). The character of Dr. Jekyll is the best example. When under the influence of maya, he believes he is Hyde, an evil sense-addicted individual, just as many humans under the influence of maya believe they are evil sinners. When he realize that he is not Hyde, he is liberated from the appearance of Hyde and he knows that he is not evil, but instead, joyful and good. The same is also for humans, that when they realize they are not this body, but instead, Spirit made in the image of God, they realize they cannot be evil or ugly for God is neither of those things.
Works Cited
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1978.
Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man’s Eternal Quest. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1982
How Robert Louis Stevenson Uses Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to Portray the Concept of Maya
In many schools of Hinduism as well as other Eastern religions the world is thought to be nothing but a dream of God. The human being is strictly immortal soul (atman) made in the image of God (which is also stated in the Bible in the Book of Genesis). The physical body is part of a larger concept of maya. Maya is “the delusory power inherent in the structure of creation…the principle of relativity, inversion, contrast, duality, opposition states, the “Satan”… of the Old Testament prophets; and the “devil” whom Christ described picturesquely as a ‘murderer’ and a ‘liar’” (Yogananda 476). Maya is not a black and white concept, however. Maya is not always necessarily evil; rather the concept that this world is a dream and that God is the Ultimate Reality. In his novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Stevenson portrays maya in the characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde showing maya as the dualism between good and evil, giving in to the senses, and also the necessity to seek God over the illusion that is maya.
“…that I not only recognized my natural body from the mere aura and effulgence of certain of the powers that made up my spirit, but managed to compound a drug by which these powers should be dethroned from their supremacy, and a second form and countenance substituted…” (Stevenson 56). It is here that Stevenson refers to the expulsion of maya. This is the science of self-realization. Here he refers to Dr. Jekyll’s desire to dispel illusion and to seek only his Divine existence, separate from evil and the physically body. It is here that Stevenson addresses the spiritual side to Dr. Jekyll’s experiments. For aren’t these moral wishes related to spiritual aspirations? Inserting Jekyll’s desires for spiritual freedom also helps to show the temptation of maya. On his way to finding the Absolute Truth, Dr. Jekyll gets caught up in the temporal happiness that Mr. Hyde brought him. This is true of most human beings who find many physical and material things distract them from their spiritual goals. It is here that Stevenson first introduces the dualism in man taken literally as good v. evil, but when examined deeper as Reality v. illusion.
“I felt younger, lighter, happier, in body; within I was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images running like a millrace in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown, but not an innocent freedom of the soul” (Stevenson 56-7). Here Dr. Jekyll talks about his first experience as Mr. Hyde. Maya has an effect on human beings that makes them think they are happy. Always we are searching for something, something to make us feel alive. Money, power, material possessions, all are maya. All are the “sensual images” that Stevenson talks of through Jekyll. Once someone has a taste of the false happiness that these things can bring, they are addicted. But happiness dependant on maya is fleeting, because maya is just an illusion. This is why Hyde is shown as a different image. He is an unpleasant image to behold, because compared to one’s Spirit; they are nothing but a gross physical illusion. Dr. Jekyll was happy when he first experimented with Mr. Hyde because he thought that this experience was what he wanted. But as many become addicted to money or power, Dr. Jekyll became addicted to this illusion of happiness, until one day he realized that he was not happy, but he had no power to change it. By stating that this freedom was not innocent, Stevenson acknowledges that this freedom that Dr. Jekyll was feeling was not freedom at all.
“…Henry Jekyll, with streaming tears of gratitude and remorse had fallen upon his knees and lifted his clasped hands to God. The veil of self-indulgence was rent from head to foot. I saw my life as a whole…through the self denying toils of my professional life, to arrive again and again with the same sense of unreality, at the damned horror of the evening…” (Stevenson 64). At this point, Dr. Jekyll has realized the effects that self-indulgence has had on him. That he was not happy because of his actions. It is here that Stevenson identifies the first step to solving any problem: admitting you have one. By Jekyll realizing that maya has had an influence on his life…he can begin to separate himself from it. It is also here that Stevenson refers the concept of reincarnation, which works hand in hand with maya. But releasing yourself from the grip of maya, you can release yourself from the built up karma that keeps you reentering the physical world through the cycles of birth and death. With each birth and death you retain the same desires and very similar traits that you had in your previous life until your desires are fulfilled. But these are the unreality that Dr. Jekyll talks of. If you release yourself from them than you begin to turn to God, and you seek the end of reincarnation, the end of suffering, the end of being controlled by habits from times you cannot even remember.
“…the ugly face of my iniquity stared into my soul. As the acuteness of this remorse began to die away, it was succeeded by a sense of joy. The problem of my conduct was solved…I was now confined to the better part of my existence; and O, how I rejoiced to think of it! with what willing humility I embraced anew the restrictions of natural life! with what sincere renunciation I locked the door by which I had so often gone and come, and ground the key under my heel!” (Stevenson 64). It is here, through Jekyll’s dispelling of Hyde (for a limited time, but that is not important), that Stevenson emphasizes the importance of rejecting evil, of rejected illusion. He shows that by seeking spirituality, you suddenly see your true Self—that which comes from God—full of unceasing joy, knowledge, and bliss. He also shows the important yogic principle of renunciation. Through renunciation, one is able to be unattached to that which restricts them from their goals of Truth. Renunciation is one of the ways to reject maya, and we see that Dr. Jekyll has benefited from it. Sincerity is also important in renunciation, and Stevenson makes sure the he inserts that word. By locking the door, Dr. Jekyll is stopping himself from going back to a life of delusion.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, contains many references to the Hindu concepts of the dualism of man: that man is immortal Spirit contained in a world of maya (illusion). The character of Dr. Jekyll is the best example. When under the influence of maya, he believes he is Hyde, an evil sense-addicted individual, just as many humans under the influence of maya believe they are evil sinners. When he realize that he is not Hyde, he is liberated from the appearance of Hyde and he knows that he is not evil, but instead, joyful and good. The same is also for humans, that when they realize they are not this body, but instead, Spirit made in the image of God, they realize they cannot be evil or ugly for God is neither of those things.
Works Cited
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1978.
Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man’s Eternal Quest. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1982