The Nature of Maya
Divine Life
Society Publication: Chapter 3 Moksha Gita
by Swami Sivananda, Commentary by Swami Krishnananda
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 qualities of Sattwa, 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. Sattwa illumines,
Rajas distracts and Tamas clouds the understanding of the individual.
The root-meaning of the word
"Maya" indicates its non-existent nature. Maya is not non-existent
because it appears to us, and it is not even existent for it is non-enduring. Only
Self-Knowledge or intuitive illumination can solve the why and how of Maya.
Maya 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. 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.
Maya is neither real nor
unreal, neither is, nor is not. It transcends human comprehension. 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 beginningless
existence and is inexpressible by speech. It is distinct from existence and
non-existence. It is 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 beginningless and
endless, whereas Maya is removable. The origin of ignorance cannot be found
out, but it is well known that sages who have realized 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-Sattwa 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
is the Personal God, the object of religious worship, and Brahman is the
Absolute Truth, the object of philosophical quest.
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. The spiritual seeker overcomes Maya through
meditation on Brahman and negation of worldly propensities. The terrible sport
of Maya appears as real to a worldly person, as indescribable to an aspirant,
and Tuccha or mean to a Jnani. 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. Darkness cannot destroy darkness. Ignorance cannot remove ignorance,
for they both are not contradictory forces. 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.
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.
Just as you can infer the
existence of fire through smoke, so also you can infer the existence of Maya
through Her various manifestations. The main action of Maya is diversification
and Unification. Activity is a struggle to overcome the existing defect. The
existence of individuality itself proves the existence of Maya. Individuality
is not permanent, for it is limited and finite. 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. 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.
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 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. 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 Sattwa, 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.
There is nothing on earth or
in heaven which is not controlled by the play of Maya. 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 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.
The seed of Maya is the mind
which sends forth branches of its objectifying force through the channels of
the organs of sensing. The very meaning of phenomenal existence is preservation
of the egoistic individuality and reproducing oneself into manifold forms. 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 realizes 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.
Excerpts from:
The Nature of Maya – Moksha Gita by Swami Sivananda
and Commentary by Swami KrishnanandaArchives - Blog
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?
If you would
like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact
the General Secretary at:
