Māya or Illusion

The theory of ‘māya’ is an important aspect of Śaṅkara’s philosophy. The conception of māya has a significant place in Vedantic view. The word māya appears in the ‘Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad’ as a reference from the Ṛgveda. The ‘Praśna Upaniṣad’ maintains that to attain Brahman world one should not possess trickery (māya). Again ‘Śvetaśvatāra Upaniṣad’ outlines that through his māya, Brahma projected this world. He creates māya and the world is māya. After the cessation from māya the attainment of Brahman is possible.

Śaṅkarācārya says that Brahman alone is real and the world is unreal, and Brahman is the causes for the origin, sustenance and dissolution of the world. According to him the relation between Brahman and the world is indefinable, anirvacanīya. He says that the world resides in Brahman like the illusion of a snake in the rope. Māya is our persistent tendency which regard appearance as reality.^[1] It is our ignorance (avidyā) that cannot distinguish difference between appearance and reality. Ignorance is the foundation of māya. According to āhaṅkara, māya is beginningless, endless, unthinkable and inexpressible.

Advaita Vedanta maintains that Brahman is the only reality, hence it is said that māya is the power that conceals the absolute Brahman under name and form. Therefore Brahman becomes Īśvara with reference to empirical standpoint. Māya has the power of concealing things, it projects the unreal as real and vice versa. Since māya is thus deceptive in character, it is called avidyā (ignorance) or false knowledge. Śaṅkarācārya and other Advaita Vedantins speak of māya and avidya interchangeably. Avidyā is regarded as prior to māya, because māya pre-supposes avidyā (ignorance). This also means that māya disappears when avidya is destroyed by the knowledge of Brahman.

The Vedanta passages assert that Brahman alone is real and unchanging, while the world of multiplicity, plurality name and form is changing. Brahman is the underline power and ground of all existence and the world. The world of our senses and intellect is merely a world of names and forms having no reality apart from Brahman, just as different objects made of clay are not permanent but only the substance, clay is real and permanent. According to Śaṅkarācārya the world of phenomena with plurality, name and form is the product of ignorance (avidyā). The external world, phenomenal world is unknowable, hence concluded as illusion (māya) the whole world is an illusion and will continue throughout once own life unless man becomes aware of the truth by perfect knowledge. It is just as the illusion of a snake in rope, or the illusion of aman while walking in a dark night, where there is only a treetrunk, or the illusion of water in a mirage which one can refute by closer observation. A magician creates magic, throws a rope in to the sky and climbs it, and the magician is unaffected by the magic. Similiarly Brahman projects this world and is unaffected by it. The world of appearance is the realm of illusion, depends on ignorance.

In Bhagavatpādābhyudaya, Lakṣmaṇa Sūrin gives a description of the relation between the Karma and Jñāna portions of the Veda. Jñāna or knowledge is supreme, it is truth. The karma is always secondary, concerned with the world and illusory. Brahman is truth.

Brahman is the ultimate truth and the world is illusion. The world is unreal like a serpant in a rope. Brahman is bliss eternal, without a rival and all alone. Liberation is caused by its knowledge and all actions are conducive to felicitate the dawning of that knowledge. It has no hand in securing liberation which is the effect of that knowledge. The friction of logs brings out sparks of fire, but the buring is not caused by the log but by the fire.

Likewise, one’s self churned by unattached action may bring out valuable knowledge that feeds the soul with immortality this is the relation between Pūrvamīmāṃsa (Karmakāṇḍa) and Uttaramīmāṃsa (Jñānakāṇḍa) of the Vedas.

brahma satyaṃ jaganmithyā bhātīdaṃ rajjusarpavat || 32 ||
rajjujñāne yathā sarpabhrāntiḥ sadyo nirvartate |
tathaiva brahmavijñānādvaitaṃ tatraiva līyate || 33 |
sajātīyavijātīyasvagatākhyabhidātigam |
akhaṇḍaikarasaṃ brahma saccidānandavigraham || 34 ||
tajjñānenaiva muktiḥ syātkarma tvasyopakāram |
jñānasyotpattaye nāsya phale mokṣe manāgapi || 35 ||
araṇermanthanaṃ vahnerutpattāvupakāram |
notpannasya phale'pyasya dāhādau ca yathā tathā || 36 ||
karmaṇā saṃskṛtātmā'tha jñānenāmṛtamaśnute |
evaṃ pūrvottarībhāvasaṃbamdhaḥ kāṇḍayordvayoḥ || 37 ||^[2]

Brahman the Existence-Consciousness-Bliss-Absolute is the one ultimate Truth. It is He who appears as the entire world of multiplicity owing to dense ignorance just as a rope appears snake. Just as when the illusion is dispelled snake is sublated by and dissolved into, its substractum, the rope, so also, when ignorance is erased, the whole world is sublated and dissolved into its substractum, Brahman, which is the same as one’s Ātman.

Śaṅkara tries to reconcile and understand the trancendance of God, which are taught by Upaniṣads. According to him the world, so long as it appears, is in God the only reality. Just as the snake conjured out of the rope is nowwhere also exist in the rope. Here God is not really touched by the imperfections of the world just as the rope is not effected by the illusory characters of the snake. Brahman from he higher or transcendental point of view (pāramārthikadṛṣṭi) can not be described by qualities which real to the world. Brahman in this aspect is devoid of all distinctions, external as well internal (sajātīya, vijātīya and svagata bhedas).^[3] According to Śaṅkara Brahman, in the absolutely trancendents aspect, cannot be described to all and it is therefore, called indeterminate or characterless or nirguṇa. The description of Brahman even as infinite, real, consciousness, through more accurate than accidental description can not directly convey the idea of Brahma. It only serves to direct the mind towards Brahman by denying its finiteless, unreality and unconsciousness.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

George Victor, Life and Teachings of Adi Sankaracharya, New Delhi: D.K. Printworld (P) Ltd, 2002, p.122

[2]:

Lakṣmaṇa Sūrin, Bhagavatpādābhyudaya, VI. 32-37

[3]:

Ibid., IV. 34