Maya - Illusion

Author: Kalyani Subramanyan
Published on: Jun 10, 1999

MAYA

That which truly is not, but appears to be, is Maya. That which causes infatuation is Maya.

You know you will die, and yet you think you will live forever. This is Maya. You know that the world is full of miseries, and yet you take delight in the perishable objects and will not leave them. This is Maya. You know that the human body is made up of all sorts of impurities, flesh, bone, urine and faecal matter, and yet you rejoice in embracing it under the sway of lust. This is Maya.

Maya has countless potencies. Solidity of stone is a power of Maya. Fluidity of water is another power of Maya. Fire is a third burning power. Air is the moving power of Maya. Ether is the void or space power of Maya.

Maya is an appearance. It is semblance. It is the illusory power of God.

Maya deludes us. Maya havocs through the mind. The things that we perceive all round us are only mind in form or substance. The world is a product of the mind. The whole world is an expansion of the mind. The entire universe arises and exists in the mind. Nothing of the world is outside the mind. Earth, mountains, and rivers-all are fragments of the mind, appearing as it were to exist outside.

The world does not exist by itself. It is not seen without the aid of the mind. It disappears when the mind ceases to function. It is imagination alone that assumes the forms of time, space, and motion. Space and time have no independent status apart from Brahman or the Self, which is Awareness.

There is no space without time, and there is no time without space. Space and time go together. Space and time are interdependent. They are unreal. Time and space are mental creations. Time and space are mental projections, unreal as dreams. However real they may seem to be, they are not ultimately real. Timeless, spaceless Brahman is the only Reality.

This Maya is a sort of jugglery. You are astonished so long as the juggler is not seen. As soon as the juggler is known, the results are known to be unreal; the wonder ceases at once. When you realize Brahman, the wonder of Maya's working vanishes.

When the mesmerist hypnotises the whole audience, all people believe that the man is ascending the rope in the air. All people see that the mesmerist devours a big sword and cuts the body of a lad in the box. Even so, you are all hypnotised by Maya and Avidya (ignorance) and you take this unreal world as a solid reality. De-hypnotise yourself by getting Knowledge of Brahman. Then alone you will understand the grand jugglery of Maya.

Apparent reality as viewed by the human being is the result of five outer sheaths masking or veiling the truth. These sheaths - annamayakosha (physical body), pranamayakosha (breath or life energy), manomayakosha (mind), vijnanamayakosha (intelligence), anandamayakosha (awareness of bliss) - have to be progressively transcended in order to attain ultimate realization. It is not that what is perceived does not exist but that erroneous perception sees it for what it is not. There is attachment to the world of forms, for example, unless one retains sight of the void behind it.

The sky appears blue at a distance; but look at it closely and you will find that it has no colour. The water of the ocean looks blue at a distance, but when you go near and take it in your hand, you find that it is colourless. Men are deluded through her maya and have become attached to the world. Bondage and liberation are of the mind alone. It is all a question of the mind. The mind will take the colour you dye it with.

Maya is the illusory power of God. She is the creatrix of this universe. She projects this world for His Lila (sport). Mind, intellect, body, and senses are her forms. She is the energy or mother-aspect of the Lord. Just as heat is inseparable from fire, coldness from ice, Maya is inseparable from Brahman (God). It is dependent on Brahman.

There is no duality in Reality. All modification is illusory. Multiplicity is an illusion. Maya projects multiplicity. Maya creates division, division between the individual soul and the Supreme Soul.

Brahman alone is. It is Brahman alone that shines as the world of variegated objects, like waves differentiating the water into many kinds of foam, bubbles, etc. Brahman appears as the world when cognised through the mind and the senses. The Lord on account of Maya is perceived as manifold

The finite human mind cannot comprehend the exact relationship between the One and the many, Reality and appearance, the Absolute and the relative. From the standpoint of the relative, there is no Absolute. The Absolute is a mystical experience characterised by the absence of duality.

That is why Vedanta calls this apparent identification of the Absolute with the relative by the name of MAYA. It is an inscrutable power that inheres in Brahman, or the Godhead. Under the influence of this cosmic ignorance, the all pervading, eternal, and infinite spirit forgets its real nature. It is something like a man going to sleep, which first makes him oblivious of himself and then creates the fantastic dream world. It is also a well known fact that on account of ignorance one sees water in the desert, as in the case of a mirage. As long as the sleep and the illusion last, the experience of the dream and the mirage appear to be real. On account of maya, the infinite soul, or the Godhead, identifies itself with the finite, material forms and becomes individualised.

Furthermore, it superimposes upon itself the attributes of the material form with which it is identified. Thus the birthless, deathless, immortal soul, which is of the nature of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, appears to be finite, phenomenal being subject to hunger and thirst,pain and pleasure, birth and death, good and evil, and the other pairs of opposites.

As long as ignorance lasts, these relative characteristics appear to pertain to the soul and to be real. All the individualised, finite beings one sees in the universe are manifestations of the non-dual soul through maya; but as maya has no absolute reality, the individual soul created by it not, ultimately speaking, real. As, in spite of the perception of the illusory mirage, the real nature of the desert is not affected, so, in spite of the perception of illusory birth and death, the soul is always of the nature of light, infinity,bliss, and immortality.

It is known that the ultimate, most important goal in Hindu life is to recognize everything in creation as one, seeing Brahman in everything. The ability to see Brahman in everything is not achieved by rigorous, intellectual effort. This comes almost intuitively. But, before one can see the unity of all creation, there is a time when all focus is on the many-ness of creation. This time is many-ness is characterized by making distinctions between all elements in creation and noticing how all those elements are different.

Hindus believe that this view of many-ness and distinctions is caused by maya. Maya can sometimes be compared to a veil. When this veil, or maya, is over people,their view of the creation is altered. On the other hand, when the veil is removed from their eyes, the people are able to see things clearly. Seeing things clearly means seeing things as one, seeing Brahman in everything. Thus, the trick of maya is to convince people that differences in the world are all that exist and thus blind them to reality of Brahman and the oneness of existence. While people are in this state in which maya exists, they just continue to be born and reincarnated, ever and over again.

Finally, when the veil of maya is lifted, people are in the ultimately desired state of eternal being with Brahman.

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