What is Maya?

Ramakrishna regarded the Supreme Being to be both Personal and Impersonal, active and inactive:

When I think of the Supreme Being as inactive – neither creating nor preserving nor destroying – I call Him Brahman or Purusha, the Impersonal God. When I think of Him as active – creating, preserving and destroying – I call Him Sakti or Maya or Prakriti, the Personal God. But the distinction between them does not mean a difference. The Personal and Impersonal are the same thing, like milk and its whiteness, the diamond and its lustre, the snake and its wriggling motion. It is impossible to conceive of the one without the other. The Divine Mother and Brahman are one.

Ramakrishna regarded maya to be of two natures, avidya maya and vidya maya. He explained that avidya maya represents dark forces of creation (e.g. sensual desire, selfish actions, evil passions, greed, lust and cruelty), which keep people on lower planes of consciousness. These forces are responsible for human entrapment in the cycle of birth and death, and they must be fought and vanquished. Vidya maya, on the other hand, represents higher forces of creation (e.g. spiritual virtues, selfless action, enlightening qualities, kindness, purity, love, and devotion), which elevate human beings to the higher planes of consciousness.

A story by Ramakrishna on Maya.. the Illusion..

Once Narada requested the Lord of the Universe to show him a glimpse of His Maya through which the impossible is made possible. After some days the Lord set out on a trip with Narada. After travelling some distance, He felt very thirsty and requested Narada to fetch some water. Finding no water nearby, Narada went far away and finally found a river. He saw a very charming young lady sitting on the banks and was at once captivated by her beauty. She began to address him with sweet words and before long they both fell in love with each other. Narada then married her and had a number of children through her and was living happily when a severe pestilence struck the country. Assessing the situation, Narada decided to abandon the place and go elsewhere. His wife agreed to his suggestion and both of them left their house along with their children. But, soon they came across a river and stepped on to the bridge on the river to cross it. All of a sudden there were terrible floods and in the rush of water Narada’s children and wife were swept away and drowned. Overwhelmed with the grief of bereavement Narada sat down on the bank of the river and started weeping. Just then the Lord appeared before him and said, “O Narada, where is the water and why are you weeping?” At the sight of the Lord he understood everything. He said, “My obeisance to Thee and my obeisance to Thy Maya”.
Sri Ramakrishna used to narrate the above Pouranik story to impress upon his devotees the beguiling power of Maya. He used to say that if a divine personality like Narada could get so enmeshed in it, what to speak of ordinary mortals. He would always advise the devotees to keep sharpened their powers of Vichara i.e. discrimination if they have to cut asunder the bonds of Maya.

In the book “The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna” the enlightened master said the following things about Maya:

“None of the three gunas can reach Truth; they are like robbers, who cannot come to a public place for fear of being arrested. Sattva, rajas, and tamas are like so many robbers.
“Listen to a story. Once a man was going through a forest, when three robbers fell upon him and robbed him of all his possessions. One of the robbers said, ‘What’s the use of keeping this man alive?’ So saying, he was about to kill him with his sword, when the second robber interrupted him, saying: ‘Oh, no! What is the use of killing him? Tie him hand and foot and leave him here.’ The robbers bound his hands and feet and went away.

After a while the third robber returned and said to the man: ‘Ah, I am sorry. Are you hurt? I will release you from your bonds.’ After setting the man free, the thief said: ‘Come with me. I will take you to the public highway.’ After a long time they reached the road. Then the robber said: ‘Follow this road. Over there is your house.’ At this the man said: ‘Sir, you have been very good to me. Come with me to my house ‘ ‘Oh, no!’ the robber replied. ‘I can’t go there. The police will know it.’

“This world itself is the forest. The three robbers prowling here are sattva, rajas, and tamas. It is they that rob a man of the Knowledge of Truth. Tamas wants to destroy him. Rajas binds him to the world. But sattva rescues him from the clutches of rajas and tamas. Under the protection of sattva, man is rescued from anger, passion, and the other evil effects of tamas. Further, sattva loosens the bonds of the world. But sattva also is a robber. It cannot give him the ultimate Knowledge of Truth, though it shows him the road leading to the Supreme Abode of God. Setting him on the path, sattva tells him: ‘Look yonder. There is your home.’ Even sattva is far away from the Knowledge of Brahman.

According to Hinduism, especially Vedanta, Brahman, which is of the nature of existence, knowledge and bliss, is the ultimate reality or Truth.  It has been described in various ways such as, all pervading consciousness, one without the second, that which cannot be expressed in words, that which is beyond the reach of the senses, that which is birthless, deathless, boundless and so on and so forth.  It can be seen that none of the descriptions of Brahman give a complete and comprehensive picture, there being some limitation or other.

Sri Ramakrishna used to explain this beautifully through a story.

There was a salt-doll.  It happened to be on a seashore.  It was overwhelmed by the vastness and immensity of the sea.  But, suddenly it was possessed by an idea that it should go and measure the depth of the ocean.  It wanted to tell others how deep the ocean was.  But, neither could it complete its task nor could it convey the result of its expedition.  That was because no sooner did it get into the water than it melted completely.  Now who was there to report the ocean’s depth?

Through the above story Sri Ramakrishna tried to convey the limitations of the senses to comprehend the ultimate Truth which is beyond the senses.  The entire experience of humanity can be classified under the heading perception or experience through the senses.  But, Brahman or the ultimate reality belongs to the realm of the super sensuous.  Hence, it is not possible to comprehend the super sensuous through any sense experience and as such it is not possible to truly describe Brahman.  In super sensuous experience called Samadhi one attains the knowledge of Brahman or one truly realizes Brahman.  In that state reasoning stops altogether and man becomes mute.  He is overwhelmed by the experience of the immeasurable.  He has no power to describe the nature of Brahman.

The following passage is from the book – Book of Secrets by Osho (Vigyana Bhairava Tantra). He was an enlightened master and hence his words have a great significance. Read on..
“ILLUSIONS DECEIVE, COLORS CIRCUMSCRIBE, EVEN DIVISIBLES ARE INDIVISIBLE.”

This is a rare technique, one not much used, but one of the greatest teachers in India, Shankara, has used it, and Shankara has based his whole philosophy on this technique. You know his philosophy of MAYA — illusion. Shankara says everything is illusory. Whatsoever you are seeing, hearing, feeling, all is illusion. It is not real because the real cannot be contacted by senses. You are hearing me and I am seeing you hearing me: it may be just a dream, and there is no way how to judge whether it is a dream or not. I may be just dreaming that you are here listening to me. How am I to know that this is real and not a dream? There is no way.

Chuang Tzu is reported to have said that one night he dreamt that he had become a butterfly. In the morning he was very sad — and he was not a man to have sadness, he was never known to be sad. His disciples gathered and said, “Chuang Tzu, Master, why are you so sad?”

Chuang Tzu said, “Because of a dream.”

The disciples laughed and said, “Because of a dream you are sad — you who have been always teaching us not to be sad even if the whole world causes you sadness? And just a dream has caused you sadness? What are you talking about?”

Chuang Tzu said, “It is such a dream that it causes me very, very deep confusion, sadness, misery. I dreamt in my dream that I had become a butterfly.”

The disciples said, “What is so puzzling in it?”

Chuang Tzu said, “Now this is the puzzle: if Chuang Tzu can dream that he can become a butterfly, why not the reverse? The butterfly may dream that it has become a Chuang Tzu. So now I am disturbed. What is right and what is wrong? What is real and what is unreal? Was it Chuang Tzu who was dreaming of becoming a butterfly or has the butterfly now gone to sleep and dreamt that it has become a Chuang Tzu? If one is possible, then the other is possible.” And it is said that Chuang Tzu never could get over this puzzle. This remained for his whole life.

How to decide that I am not in a dream talking to you? How to decide that you are not dreaming I am talking? With senses no decision is possible, because while dreaming, dreams look real — as real as anything. When you dream, you always feel it is real. When dreams can be felt as real, why can reality not be felt as dream?

Shankara says with senses there is no possibility to know whether the thing confronting you is real or unreal. And if there is no possibility to know whether it is real or unreal, Shankara calls it MAYA: it is illusion. Illusion doesn’t mean unreal. Illusion means an impossibility to decide whether it is real or unreal — remember this.

In Western languages MAYA has been translated very wrongly, and it gives the feeling in Western terms that “illusion” means “unreal.” It does not! “Illusion” means the inability to decide whether the thing is real or unreal. This confusion is MAYA.

This whole world is MAYA, a confusion. You cannot decide; you cannot be decisive about it. It is always escaping you, always changing, turning into something else. It is fantasy, a dreamlike thing. 

This technique is concerned with this philosophy. “ILLUSIONS DECEIVE:” or, that which deceives is illusion.

— “COLORS CIRCUMSCRIBE, EVEN DIVISIBLES ARE INDIVISIBLE:” 

In this world of illusion nothing is certain. This whole world is like rainbows. They appear to be, but they are not. If you are far away they are, but if you come nearer they dissolve. The nearer you come, the more they are not. If you reach to a point where you were seeing a rainbow, it is no more there.

The whole world is like rainbow colors, and it is so. When you are far away everything is hopeful; when you come nearer the hope disappears. And when you reach the goal, only ashes are there — just a dead rainbow. The colors have disappeared, and things as they appeared are not. As you feel them to be, they are not.

“EVEN DIVISIBLES ARE INDIVISIBLE:” 

Your whole mathematics, your whole calculating system, all your concepts, all your philosophy, just become futile. If you try to understand this illusion, your very effort confuses you more. Nothing is certain there; everything is uncertain — a flux, a flux of change, with no possibility for you to decide whether this or that is true or false. What will happen? If you take this attitude, what will happen? If you really go deep in this attitude that everything which cannot be decided is illusory, you will automatically, spontaneously turn to yourself. Then the only point where you can have a center is in your own being. That is certain.

Try to understand this: I may dream in the night that I have become a butterfly, and I cannot decide in that dream whether this is real or unreal. In the morning I may be puzzled like Chuang Tzu whether instead the butterfly may have been dreaming. These are two dreams, and there is no way to compare which is real and which is unreal.

But Chuang Tzu is missing one thing — the dreamer. He is thinking only of dreams, comparing dreams and missing the dreamer — the one who dreams that Chuang Tzu has become a butterfly, the one who is thinking that it may be quite the reverse: that the butterfly is dreaming that she has become Chuang Tzu. Who is this observer? Who was asleep and is now awake? You may be unreal, you may be a dream to me, but “I” cannot be a dream to myself, because even for a dream to exist a real dreamer is needed. Even for a false dream a real dreamer is needed. Even a dream cannot exist without a real dreamer. So forget dream. This technique says forget dream. The whole world is illusion, you are not. So don’t go after the world, there is no possibility to gain certainty there. And now this appears to be proven even by scientific research.

For the last three centuries science was certain, and Shankara looked to be just a philosophical mind, poetic. For three centuries science was certain, but now, during these two last decades, science has become uncertain. Now the greatest scientists say nothing is certain, and with matter we will never be certain. Everything has again become uncertain. Everything looks like a flux, changing. Only appearance looks certain. The deeper you go, the more everything becomes uncertain, indefinite. Shankara says, and tantra has always been saying, that the world is illusory. Even before Shankara was born, tantra was preaching one technique — that the whole world is illusory, so think of it as a dream. If you can think of it as a dream — and if you think at all, you will come to realize it as a dream — then your whole focus of consciousness will turn inwards, because there is a deep urge to find the truth, the real.

If the whole world is unreal, then there is no shelter in it. Then you are moving after, following shadows, and wasting time and life and energy. Then move inward.s One thing is certain: “I am.” Even if the whole world is illusory, one thing is certain: there is someone who knows this is illusory. The knowledge may be illusory, the known may be illusory, but the knower cannot be. This is the only certainty, the only rock on which you can stand.

This technique says look at the world: it is a dream, illusory, and nothing is as it appears. It is just a rainbow. Go deep in this feeling. You will be thrown to yourself. With that coming to one’s own self, you come to a certain truth, to something which is indubitable, which is absolute.

Science can never be absolute. It is going to be relative. Only religion can be absolute because it searches not the dream, it searches for the dreamer; not for the observed, but for the observer, the seer, the one who is aware.

माया महाठगिनी हम जानी।
निरगुन फांस लिए कर डोलै, बोलै मधुरी बानी।
केसव के कमला होइ बैठी, सिव के भवन भवानी।
पंडा के मूरत होइ बैठी, तीरथ हू में पानी।
जोगि के जोगिन होइ बैठी, राजा के घर रानी।
काहू के हीरा होइ बैठी, काहू के कौड़ी कानी।
भक्तन के भक्ति होउ बैठी, ब्रह्मा के बह्मानी।
कहै कबीर सुनो भाई साधो, वह सब अकथ कहानी।
Kabir

In this beautiful work Kabir talks about those moments when we focus ourselves completely in search of the supreme power (Brahmna/ God) without any distraction. “It frees us”, he says, “But when we get too much involved in worldly affairs, the Maya binds and entices us.”

Aim at the salvation, through meditation, through loving one and all; Devote the life to the absolute Brahmn (God); and live a pious, meaningful life – opposed folly, see the futility of social practices, carried out mindlessly in the name of traditions or religion.

This, in nutshell, is all that Kabir said in his lifetime – Live a happy, content life, peacefully and you will find all the answers within yourself.

Poem translated in English

Maya is biggest Thug, I have come to know the illusory power of the great Thug.
Her hands Sway Holding a Web-like Trap, She Speaks in a Sweet Voice
Along with Kesavashe manifests herself as embodiment of abundance
With Shiva, she is the empress of the worlds
For Priest she is seated as the idol of worship, and at pilgrimages she manifests herself as the holy water
For Yogis (hermits) she takes form of a spiritual goal, In the King’s palace she becomes the Queen
For some she appears as a priceless diamond, while for some others she is worth-less
For Devotees she’s object of Devotion, With Brahma (5) she becomes his consort
Kabir says listen oh practicing aspirant, all this is an untold story, which everybody knows.