The Nature of Maya
the illusory power of Brahman
1. The Guru said: Maya
is the Upadhi (limiting adjunct) of Ishwara. She is an illusory power of
Brahman. She keeps up the Lila of Iswara through Her three Gunas, viz.
Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas (Purity, passion and darkness).
COMMENTARY: Maya is the cosmic aspect of the power that
hides Reality's essence. It is the limiting adjunct of Ishwara or the
highest manifestation of the Absolute. The cosmic force of mentation
limits the Infinitude of Brahman and makes it appear as the Cosmic
person or Ishwara. Brahma, Vishnu and Siva are the three aspects of this
Ishwara even as the same Mr. Jackson may be a Collector, a Magistrate
and a Minister all at once. The differences in the Person are due to his
different functions and powers, but the being is one. The power of
veiling the Reality particularises its being by a special mode of
objectification and makes it hail as the Ishwara or the God of the
universe. The absolute nature of non-duality is split up into the
quality of relativity the reason for which is not known. Even Ishwara,
therefore, has an element of non-being in him, because he is limited to
relative existence by Maya. But Ishwara is the Lord of Maya and not its
slave as the Jiva is. He puts on the cloak of Maya, and yet is conscious
of the Absolute Condition of Existence. This is the difference between
the Omniscient Ishwara and the ignorant Jiva or the earthly individual.
The qualities of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas,
light, activity and darkness, form the essence of Maya and it is these
qualities that play the havoc of the world-phenomenon. Sattva illumines,
Rajas distracts and Tamas clouds the understanding of the individual.
The appearances of Ishwara and Maya correspond to all further miniatures
of the same in the planes of greater ignorance where they get more and
more separated until in the earthly plane they are totally cut off as
the physical entities which constitute the diverse nature of the world.
In logical language, Ishwara is a degeneration of Brahman caused by the
self-limiting power of objectification or the force of Maya the reason
for the appearance of which is an eternal enigma.
2, 3. Maya is not
non-existent because it appears; neither is it existent because it is
destroyed by the dawn of knowledge. Maya is not That. It is an
indescribable appearance.
COMMENTARY: The root-meaning of the word "Maya"
indicates its non-existent nature. But we cannot account for the
existence of a non-existent appearance. Even appearance is after all not
non-existent, for a non-existent thing never is, and an appearance is
something which is. Otherwise one could not talk of and speculate over
appearances. Maya is therefore not non-existent because it appears to
us, and it is not even existent for it is non-enduring. This mystery
eludes all reason and logic and cannot be determined its nature by any
metaphysics. The greatest philosophers began to hide themselves within
the conviction that the human mind is not all-knowing and therefore it
cannot answer trans-empirical questions. Somehow Maya exists. Why it
cannot be said. And somehow Maya disappears. Why it cannot again be
said. It is an illusion that has deceived even the wisest of men and has
led astray even the ablest of geniuses. Only Self-Knowledge or
intuitive illumination can solve the why and how of Maya.
Maya is not that. It is not Brahman and
yet, it is the Power of Brahman. It is a deceptive and indescribable
appearance which not only makes the individual forget the Unity of
Brahman but in addition to it presents an unreal distractive phenomenon
of diversity. Intellect which is rooted in egoism is the distracting
factor in the individual and the Anandamaya-Kosha or the sheath of
ignorance is the veiling factor.
Maya is, therefore, a beginningless
play of cosmic imaginative force which apparently divests the Eternal
Nature of its Indivisibility and makes it put on a variety of forms in
its own being and further gives way to the descension into strong
attachment of such egoistic centres of consciousness to their particular
forms and experiences. Maya is termed in many ways, appearance, power,
force, phenomenon, and the like, which all go to point to its unreal
character and its untrustworthy behaviour. Every thought, therefore, is
an activity in the realm of Maya, for all thoughts spring from
individual consciousness which is itself the effect of the diversifying
nature of Maya. All individuals, right from the supreme Ishwara, down to
the insignificant creature of the netherlands are within the boundaries
of Maya, differing only in the degree or the extent to which each is
influenced by it.
4, 5. Maya is
Indescribable. Maya is Sat-Asat-Vilakshana (distinct from existence and non-existence), Anadi Bhava Rupa (beginningless existence), Anirvachaniya (inexpressible by speech).
She is neither Sat nor Asat (not real not unreal). Maya is Anadi Santam (Beginningless but with an end). She is beginningless
but has an end only for the sage who has realised the Self. Maya is
Suddha Sattva (pure Sattva).
COMMENTARY: Maya is neither Sat nor Asat, neither real
nor unreal, neither is, nor is not. It transcends human comprehension,
it stands above all ratiocination, it controls even the reasoning
capacity of the individual. The degree of intelligence of a person is
proportional to what extent he is freed from the stupefying influence of
Maya. It is hard to withdraw oneself from its clutches for it
originates from and is based on the Eternal Brahman Itself. That which
is based on the Infinite Reality must therefore be a hideous power
difficult to win victory over. To extricate oneself from the hypnotic
effect of this Divine Illusion the individual has to dehypnotise himself
into the consciousness of Self-Illumination and absoluteness.
The nature of Maya is Anadi-Bhava or
beginningless existence and is Anirvachaniya or inexpressible by speech.
It is Sat-Asat-Vilakshana, distinct from existence and non-existence.
It is Anadi-Santam, without beginning, but with an end. It is ended by
Brahmajnana or Absolute Wisdom arrived at through intense meditation or
Nididhyasana. Maya differs from Brahman in that Brahman is
Anadi-Anantam, beginningless and endless, whereas Maya is Santam or
removable. The origin of ignorance cannot be found out, but it is well
known that sages who have realised the Eternal Brahman free themselves
from the effects of Maya. One can only tell how to free oneself from
Maya, but one cannot say why Maya creates a universe.
Maya is Shudda-Sattva (pure sattva) and is not
preponderated by Rajas or Tamas. That is the reason why Ishwara or the
Cosmic Lord is uncontrolled and unaffected by the hypnotising power of
Maya.
Ishwara who is the Infinite limited by Maya is midway between the
Indivisible Brahman and the multiple universe. Hence Ishwara is
conscious of the Eternal Reality as well as of the diverse world of
nature.
He is in a sense, the mediator between Jiva and Brahman. Here is
the necessity of the Jivas for developing devotion to God, for a sudden
jumping into the Infinite Brahman is hard for the ignorant Jivas,
without the help of the Universal Controller, Ishwara. Ishwara is the
Personal God, the object of religious worship, and Brahman is the
Absolute Truth, the object of philosophical quest.
6. He who gets knowledge
of the Self having overcome Maya, the illusory power, will alone know
what Maya is, how it arises and is destroyed.
COMMENTARY: One who acquires Infinite Knowledge does
not find any mystery in the appearance of Maya. The spiritual seeker
overcomes Maya through meditation on Brahman and negation of worldly
propensities. The Truth-centred Sage possesses the wealth of
imperishable wisdom and is ever in unison with the One Whole Being of
Brahman. The terrible sport of Maya appears as Satya or real to a
worldly person, as Anirvachaniya or indescribable to an aspirant, and
Tuccha or mean to a Jnani.
Knowledge of the Self is the resting in
the awareness of the unlimitedness of Consciousness and Bliss in one
unchangeable mass. When this stupendous state of Truth is experienced
Maya flees away from that Light of Enlightenment. Where there is Light
there cannot be darkness. When Avidya is destroyed, Vidya shines by
itself. When the clouds are no more, the sun shines in his pristine
greatness. When ignorance is removed, Knowledge at once reveals itself.
When egoism is disintegrated, the Absolute alone hails supreme.
The why, what and how of Maya can be known
only by one who has transcended Maya and has entered the Glory of the
Self. Others can merely speculate over it, but cannot solve the riddle,
for the instrument or the mechanism of human knowledge is centred in his
psychological organ which is a modification of Maya itself. Darkness
cannot destroy darkness. Ignorance cannot remove ignorance, for they
both are not contradictory forces. Man's highest faculty of knowledge is
the intellect which is itself a creature of self-limitation and hence
it is impossible for the human being to determine the nature of the
Power that supersedes him in extent and subtlety. It is only the
intuitional light which comprehends in itself the totality of existence
that can step above Maya and behold the majesty of the Self. Only then
can the illusoriness of Maya and the eternity of Brahman be realised in
completeness. Intellect should give way to the higher religious
experience not based on the ego. Real religion begins when the intellect
stops working. That is the religion of Self-realisation where the
entire Brahman is experienced and Maya is totally negated.
7. The five elements,
the five Tanmatras (subtle or root elements) and the various objects of
the world are all products or modifications of Maya.
COMMENTARY: The five rudimentary principles of sound,
touch, colour, taste and smell and the five gross elements of sky, air,
fire, water and earth are born of the Vikshepa-Shakti or the distracting
power of Maya, which projects thereby the world of objective existence.
Constant change within itself is the natural tendency of the force of
Maya. Maya does not rest in itself. It is a vigorous active agent whose
sole purpose is to transform itself into the phenomenon and Noumenon
through evolution and involution of diverse bodies. Disintegration and
integration are the two aspects of the destructive and constructive
powers of Maya. Individuals are thrown into Being or Becoming by this
gigantic Power according to the extent of the process of development
undergone by each individual.
The fivefold functioning of breath, the
five sense-organs and the five organs of action are again the further
modifications of the subtle root-elements. Mind, intellect,
sub-conscious and ego are the fourfold functions of the psychic
mechanism which is the product of the Sattva-portion of the subtle
elements. The macrocosm and the microcosm are thus closely related as
the original and the duplicate. The physical sheath or the body is the
materialised effect of the psychic being and thus the entire universe
with its individuals is a modification of Maya.
8. Just as you can infer
the existence of fire through smoke, so also you can infer the
existence of Maya through Her various manifestations.
COMMENTARY: The existence of Maya is inferable through
the universal workings of nature. The main action of Maya is
diversification and Unification. The existence of Maya is felt by the
perception of something which cannot belong to the Eternal Reality.
Birth, growth, change, decay and death are the common phenomena which
are seen in the daily life of every individual. These fivefold
modifications are the essence of egoistic life.
Creation, preservation,
destruction, love, hatred, exhilaration, pain, are certain factors in
the evolution of the universe. Such activities as these cannot belong to
what is absolutely permanent. Activity is a struggle to overcome the
existing defect. An untainted being which has no reason to wish for
anything else, which is in itself full and perfect, changes not and acts
not, for there is no purpose whatsoever in modifying itself into
something else. It is ever satisfied in itself and is eternally in
joyous repose. Therefore, the bustle of universal life and the daily cry
and strife of individuals must be Maya.
Moreover the existence of individuality
itself proves the existence of Maya. Individuality is not permanent, for
it is limited and finite. A finite being cannot be everlasting.
Therefore, individuality is a negation of Absoluteness. Hence,
individual existence must be Maya.
The people of the world struggle to obtain
external objects, because their egoistic personalities are not allowed
their existence independent of the other objects of the universe. They
strive hard and feel the necessity to relate themselves to the manifold
entities that exist apart from themselves, thus proving the unreality of
their individual independence. Therefore life as different
personalities in the world is Maya. Thought, speech and action are
non-eternal and are mere expulsions of consciousness-rays, and
therefore, the multitudinous appearance of degrees of reality also is a
phase of Maya.
9, 10. Maya is of the
nature of mind. Maya generates different degrees of illusions. Maya
pervades everywhere. If your mind is destroyed by discrimination and
Vichara, (Self-enquiry) then Maya will not afflict you.
COMMENTARY: Maya is centred in the individual
consciousness in the form of mind. Whatever Maya does, that the mind
also does. Mind is miniature-Maya.
The veiling and distracting activity
of Maya is undertaken by the mind in the form of nescience and egoism.
Nescience is seated in the innermost sheath or the Anandamaya kosha of
the soul and the ego is seated in the intellect. The mind projects the
physical body even as Maya projects the cosmos. The activity of the
universe is going on in the human body too. The Chandogya Upanishad says
that the space within the heart contains the earth and the heaven, the
sun, moon, stars, lightning, clouds, wind, fire, etc., in the same way
as the outer space contains. Whatever is found in the external universe
is found exactly in the miniature cosmos or the human body. Jiva is
therefore a degraded copy of Ishwara. And Atman, therefore, is Brahman.
There are different degrees in the
manifestation of Maya or illusion. The power of disfiguring Reality is
not of the same degree everywhere. Maya is more manifest and works more
powerfully in inanimate beings than animate, more in brute nature than
in refined, more in Tamas and Rajas than in Sattva, more in the
uncivilised than in the civilised, more on earth than in heaven, more in
man than in the celestial, more in an aspirant than in a saint, more in
the sleeping and dreaming states than in the waking, more in gross
forms than in subtle. Maya is manifest in a progressive evolutionary
basis on one hand and as a steady concealing of Reality on the other
hand. In other words the whole process of appearance is in the domain of
Maya.
Maya pervades in every quarter and cranny.
There is nothing on earth or in heaven which is not controlled by the
play of Maya. The universal change drags together with it the entirety
of the individuals also and each individual is compelled by the cosmic
change to change itself in the same manner befitting the cosmic process
of Maya. Nothing here, not even a piece of straw, can be excluded from
the operation of the law of Mayaic evolution. Maya is the ruling power
which borrows its strength from Brahman.
When the mind is destroyed, Maya also is
swept away from the vision of the individual. When the eye-sight is
corrected, the appearance of two moons vanishes. When sun sets, there is
no more the dance of the mirage. The whole universe is the perception
by the mind of the Absolute Brahman in varieties of forms due to the
fluctuations caused by desire for objective gain. Hence, the destruction
of the mind is the brushing aside of the entire phenomena and that ends
in the experience of the light of the Self.
11. This mind which ever
hankers after sensual objects is the seed of Maya. If the mind is
annihilated Maya will vanish. You will attain the state of quiescence.
Brahma-Jnana will dawn in you.
COMMENTARY: The seed of Maya is the mind which sends
forth branches of its objectifying force through the channels of the
organs of sensing. The mind hankers after the objects of the senses,
including the intellect and the ego. The craving for objects is the
effect of the desire of the individual consciousness to flow with the
process of self-multiplication and self-preservation as laid in the
scheme of the workings of Maya. The very meaning of phenomenal existence
is preservation of the egoistic individuality and reproducing oneself
into manifold forms. The senses are projected by the mind of the
individual in order to effect this process of Maya. The functions of the
mind day and night are in accordance with Maya's law of diversification
and preservation of the diversified forms through attachment to such
forms and further through an additional external urge to reproduce
oneself and strive to maintain individual life. This whole mad process
of the mind constitutes the life of man on earth.
When these functions of the mind are
inhibited through the force of conscious effort on the part of the
discriminative consciousness, the play of phenomenal existence is
stopped its further progress, and when the seed of the mind is burnt by
spiritual knowledge, the tree of Samsara is cut off root and branch!
The restlessness of the individual is
caused by the projecting forth of mental forces for purposes of
acquiring objects of sense. So long as the objects are not obtained
there is the reign of agitation and irritation everywhere. There is only
a temporary peace when the objects required are acquired, but the next
moment the mind darts upon some other source of objective gratification
and keeps the restlessness in continuity. Perfect quiescence comes only
when the functioning of the imaginative mind is restrained and put an
end to through meditation and Self-Knowledge. Only Brahma-Jnana can
dispel the mental ignorance completely.
When true wisdom dawns the mind realises
its nature of Self-sufficiency and turns back to the Atma or the Source
of Consciousness and rests as one with it in peace.
This is the
salvation of the individual, where the individual merges itself into the
Infinite Consciousness and exists as the Absolute.
