Maya

The power by which brahman appears as the many — time, space, causation, and all the objects within them.

Overview

Maya is how Advaita answers the question of how a non-dual reality shows up as a multiplicity. It is neither a second thing alongside Brahman (which would break non-duality) nor simply “nothing” (since we manifestly experience a world). It is the projective power of Brahman — inseparable from Brahman as the burning power of fire is inseparable from fire.

Everything that has borrowed existence — every nama-rupa, every vikara — is a product of maya. The jiva‘s own sense of being a separate individual is also maya. Swami Sarvapriyananda notes that in Indian village usage “sab maya hai” has become a catchphrase for “let it go” — which, though colloquial, is not far from the technical point: don’t give ultimate weight to things with borrowed reality.

Asking why there is maya is, Shankara argues, a malformed question. “Why” presupposes causation, and maya is time, space, and causation. To ask why causation causes is to use the concept against itself.

Related concepts

• brahman — that which maya veils and reveals
• mithya — the ontological category produced by maya
• nama-rupa — the name-and-form content of maya’s projection
• saguna-brahman — Brahman seen through maya as creator-God
• samsara — the lived consequence of misreading maya as real

In the Gita

• 02-16 — the verse that sets up the sat/mithya distinction maya depends on

Lecture evidence

• Ep. 3 [~35:00]: Maya is why the one appears as many; the jiva’s apparent separateness is its work.
• Ep. 5 [22:50]: Everything Shankaracharya calls mithya is maya; maya presents Brahman as the ever-changing world.
• Ep. 5 [73:00]: Why maya? The question itself is wrong — “why” presupposes causation, and maya is time-space-causation.