The Concept of Maya

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Vedanta declares that our real nature is divine: pure, perfect,

eternally free. We do not have to become Brahman, we are Brahman. Our

true Self, the Atman, is one with Brahman.

 

But if our real nature is divine, why then are we so appallingly

unaware of it?

 

The answer to this question lies in the concept of maya, or

ignorance. Maya is the veil that covers our real nature and the real

nature of the world around us. Maya is fundamentally inscrutable: we

don't know why it exists and we don't know when it began. What we do

know is that, like any form of ignorance, maya ceases to exist at the

dawn of knowledge, the knowledge of our own divine nature.

 

Brahman is the real truth of our existence: in Brahman we live, move,

and have our being. " All this is indeed Brahman, " the Upanishads—the

scriptures that form Vedanta philosophy—declare. The changing world

that we see around us can be compared to the moving images on a movie

screen: without the unchanging screen in the background, there can be

no movie. Similarly, it is the unchanging Brahman-the substratum of

existence-in the background of this changing world that gives the

world its reality.

 

Yet for us this reality is conditioned, like a warped mirror, by

time, space, and causality—the law of cause and effect. Our vision of

reality is further obscured by wrong identification: we identify

ourselves with the body, mind, and ego rather than the Atman, the

divine Self.

 

This original misperception creates more ignorance and pain in a

domino effect: identifying ourselves with the body and mind, we fear

disease, old age and death; identifying our selves with the ego, we

suffer from anger, hatred, and a hundred other miseries. Yet none of

this affects our real nature, the Atman.

 

Maya can be compared to clouds which cover the sun: the sun remains

in the sky but a dense cloud cover prevents us from seeing it. When

the clouds disperse, we become aware that the sun has been there all

the time. Our clouds-maya appearing as egotism, selfishness, hatred,

greed, lust, anger, ambition-are pushed away when we meditate upon

our real nature, when we engage in unselfish action, and when we

consistently act and think in ways that manifest our true nature: ie,

through truthfulness, purity, contentment, self-restraint &

forbearance. This mental purification drives away the clouds of maya

and allows our divine nature to shine forth.

 

Shankara, the great philosopher-sage of the seventh-century India,

used the example of the rope and the snake to illustrate the concept

of maya. Walking down a darkened road, a man sees a snake; his heart

pounds, his pulse quickens. On closer inspection the " snake " turns

out to be a piece of coiled rope. Once the delusion breaks, the snake

vanishes forever.

 

Similarly, walking down the darkened road of ignorance, we see

ourselves as mortal creatures, and around us, the universe of name

and form, the universe conditioned by time, space, and causation. We

become aware of our limitations, bondage, and suffering. On " closer

inspection " both the mortal creature as well as the universe turn out

to be Brahman. Once the delusion breaks, our mortality as well as the

universe disappear forever. We see Brahman existing everywhere and in

everything.