Maya 101

Image credit: Tim Mossholder (Wavey Pattern)

Maya, a concomitant of Advaita, has perhaps been the single most important concept given by Hinduism/India to the world. If one could even understand it intellectually, even if not realise it through direct experience, one's worldview would change altogether. The concept is not in contravention of modern science. Not only is Maya in consonance with all scientific discoveries (both being parts of the Whole Truth), but dealing exclusively in the domain where rationality and logic, by their very dharma, dare not peep, it is fundamentally transcendent of the bounds that science can only aspire to reach some day.

Note: This write-up is not backed by first-hand experience which is the only means of understanding the actual meaning of Maya. However, it is based on intellectual understanding of first-person accounts and nothing written here is against my own experience of life and analysis of reality. Hence its basis is a sort of calibrated faith - more than blind belief and certainly much less than personal realisation.

Introduction to Maya

What is observed through the five senses may be defined routinely. Verification of such definition too can be immediate and hence we can readily appreciate the consistency between the two. Mind is an adequate instrument to deal with such observation and their definition. There exist, however, concepts of the Real which are outside of the purview of the mind, which cannot be so understood. In fact, by the term "understand" we only mean limiting within the confines of our mind. Senses are not adequate to observe them nor mind an adequate instrument to analyse and understand them. Since our education is antithetic to the understanding of such concepts (always directed at observation through the senses and understanding through the mind) it seems strange to think we can know anything except through the mind. Maya is one such concept. It transcends the usual scopes of human enquiry, and is thus difficult to understand. Nonetheless, we can understand it intellectually while acknowledging the limitations of mind.

From the very time of our birth, our mind is educated to limit everything. To finitise, if you will, the infinitude of the universe - and beyond - and thus somehow make it comprehensible. It is taught to deal strictly in the finite and it therefore tries first of all to create impregnable bounds and confines. What is outside of these boundaries is conveniently ignored and the urge even to acknowledge it - not to mention, to investigate it - is summarily suppressed. In time, this has become quite natural and instinctive to us.

Along with the finite inevitably comes relativity. Unlike the Inifinite which has to be just the One Single Entity, the finite come in multiple shapes and sizes and hence offer and submit themselves to comparison and relativity. Hence all concepts that we can grasp through mind must strictly exist within the realms of relativity. Everything we think or imagine or even dream must be reducible to the dvaitic principles of big/small, good/bad, etc. Regardless of the ventures of language to give mental concepts a certitude, a fixity and a constancy, they remain ever relative, variable and even arbitrary. The superlative is just a word which we amuse ourselves with, choosing to be blissfully ignorant of the concept it denotes!

Maya is nothing but this very semblance of finiteness and relativity which we find ourselves self-imprisoned in. The Infinite appearing as the finite is Maya. The One Whole appearing as many and partial is Maya. The Absolute being apparent as relative is Maya.

Maya can be seen as a veil covering the Absolute which is the Only Thing Real. Whatever else we see routinely simply does not exist as we know it. Every particle in the universe - from the Man with his assertive ego, through the smallest worm or plant or amoeba to all things insentient - all are in fact the One Absolute appearing as many. This is the principle of Advaita - that the Absolute is, all else is not. It is through Maya that this Absolute appears to be limited and relative. This Absolute is the Sole Reality, the One Without a Second (ekamevaadviteeya.) It is impossible to define It through the affirmative route, owing to its infinitude, and hence the Vedas choose to describe It through the negative route, by saying what all it is not (neti, neti.) It is beyond law, beyond the scope of mind and its faculties like logic and reasoning, beyond language and expression, beyond attributes or qualification, beyond any dimension like space and time. It is Maya that shows us this universe in the way we see it - just like a grand dream.

Why is Maya an illusion?

One is immediately tempted to ask - why is maya an illusion? What warrants us to believe that the Absolute, the Infinite is true and real, while the relative and the finite we so clearly see all around us is all a mirage?

The question is absurd on the face of it. Let us say, the relative is true and the Absolute is not. But then, the very definition of the relative presupposes an absolute (in reference to which it is relative in the first place.) If the absolute is not, then what is it relative to? If a body is said to be moving, it has to be relative to another which is not moving! Supposing one argues, "Maybe that the second body too is moving although at a different velocity. Then while there is a semblance of constancy in the second body, in actual fact it too is in the state of flux. Hence neither is absolute and both are just relative." The retort to this argument is simple: "OK let it be so. But you have done nothing but delay addressing the problem by one step. If both the bodies are moving, they will have to be moving relative to some other body which is stationary!" Even if extended ad infinitum, the requirement of the One Body which is constant still persists. Hence the relative necessitates the truth of the Absolute.

On the other hand, an Absolute obviates the very possibility of the relative. Its existence disallows room to anything else. It renders the dimension itself void. It transcends the dimension and does not exist in it.

If there is indeed an Infinite, how can there exist a finite? What is the infinite not, that the finite shall be? It is ridiculous and illogical to think what we have been conditioned to think - that the finite will ultimately add up to the Infinite. What part, what portion, what fragment of the Infinite can become finite? Its half is no less Infinite than its double. The Infinite, the Absolute is all that exists, the finite, the relative is just an illusion.

Then why does it appear as such? Why does the Absolute seem relative; the Infinite, finite?

Simply because we try to understand it through the mind. The mind being limited in its scope, the Infinite appears as finite.

Maya works through the trilogy of space, time and causation (desha-kaala-nimitta). The mind, soaked in Maya, is conditioned to think within these three dimensions only. Whatever we think, dream or imagine through the mind MUST, of its constitutional necessity, be within the bounds of this trilogy. Words like eternity, omnipresence, absolute, etc., mean nothing to us at all. Try to conceptualise spacelessness, timelessness or any other infinite and a humbling reality will descend upon us. The mind is not equipped to conceptualise them. Nothing, not one single thought, in our oceanic wisdom is independent of these limits.

If one wears red-lens glasses and sets out to observe the world around, it would indeed appear red. The world has not changed simply because of the red lens but none can deny its appearance as such. The Infinite through the mayaic lens of space-time-causation appears finite. It is this mayaic trilogy that presents the One Infinite into a multitude of the finite.

Space, time and causation themselves are functions simply of the mind. If we can transcend the mind, they cease to exist and the One Absolute is seen untrammeled in its full glory. The world, as we have come to understand it, suddenly disappears. Finiteness and relativity vanish instantaneously and one immediately establishes one's true identity with the One Infinite. Yogis call this the state of Samadhi. Here there is neither time, nor space nor causation. It is inexpressible in words, their scope itself being finite.

Why did the Absolute become the relative in the first place? What has caused this Maya of space-time-causation? Why does it come into being at all?

We must be cautious in formulating questions while dealing with the current object of study. Because of want of another medium, we are trying to understand Maya while ourselves being within Maya, using the instruments (mind and senses) and faculties (logic, reasoning, etc.) that too are within Maya. Now to analyse anything, we first objectify it - we make it an object external to us and then observe and analyse it from the outside. This luxury which we take for granted for matters mundane, is not afforded to us in this case since it is in and through Maya itself that we are trying to understand Maya. It is thus reasonable that we formulate questions, like the current one, which are essentially illegitimate.

In asking a "why", we presuppose, with a rather naive confidence, that there does exist a "why" for everything; that everything is caused by something else (its cause) and results in something else (its effect.) This is what is the law of causation. However, when referring to the Absolute, it is illogical to ask a "why". The Absolute is not bound by any law. When time is nonexistent, how can there be causation? The Absolute is unchangeable, immovable. What is It not already that It shall become? Causation means change from one thing (cause) to another (effect) - but the Absolute, the Infinite, is invariable. To say that the Infinite has become the finite is an impossible proposition. It is the Absolute alone that exists unalterably.

The question of why does not arise - it cannot be logically formulated for Something that is beyond causation and change.

Does that mean there are two entities - the Absolute and Maya?

There is but One Entity, Which is absolute, infinite, attributeless, immovable. We are nothing but That one single undifferentiated Being though we appear as a multitude of objects - both sentient and insentient. The question is simply of the nature of existence of Maya. Does it exist? Is it real?

The answer is both yes and no.

Let us consider it through an analogy. The ocean has millions of waves, each rising in time, lasting sometime in that shape and form and finally subsiding in time. Now each wave seems to have its own individuality during the life of its shape and there seem to be a multitude of them at any point in time, each in a separate shape and form of its own. However, does the individuality actually exist; or do they have an identity, a oneness in the ocean? Each wave is nothing but the ocean - their shapes just being ephemeral and hence unreal. The wave cannot exist bereft of the ocean and in the ocean it is one with all others and hence the individuality is in fact unreal. At the same time, it is not totally unreal - the shape and form of it does make it seem distinct and individual.

Ocean = the One Absolute

Waves = the multitude of the finite

Wave form = Maya

Like the wave's form, Maya gives a false sense of individuality, finiteness and relativity to the One Infinite Undistinguished Absolute. So while the shape does not have any real existence - ever changing, ever in a flux - it is not totally unreal, given that it is temporally extant. That also means that Maya exists only within Maya! At realising the Absolute, the Maya ceases to exist, as time itself ceases to exist. While we dream, nothing can convince us it is a dream. When we finally wake up, we realise it was all an illusion only. Maya is similar - as we wake up in the Absolute, the dream of our relative existence ceases. This might as well be plain speculation. Where is the proof of all this theory?

Verification is the best proof of a theory. In case of this one, it is also the only. That cannot be proved logically What is beyond rationality. Direct experience is the only way to realise the Absolute. Raja Yoga is the science that gives the precise methodology for attaining the Absolute State. (There are other paths also.) Yogis assert that it is available to any student to study and to verify the results for themselves. It is a challenge thrown to the world and in the spirit of true scientific temper, it should be taken up by capable students enthusiastic to discover truths much higher and more pertinent than any modern scientific discipline is qualified to explore.