Maya - The Ultimate Trickster

 

 

Maya is by far the most inexplicable and mysterious phenomena there is in all of existence. On the other hand, it is very easy to understand Brahman since Brahman is simply unchanging, attribute-less and limitless pure awareness. It exists as the self-evident “I” that allows all experiences to be known within itself.  It is maya however that causes great confusion and a misapprehension of truth.

Maya is often synonymous to illusion. This word consists of 'ma' which means NO, and 'ya' which means THAT.  It is THAT which doesn't exist as an actual thing, but only seems to exist as an actual thing. However, the best definition of maya that can be provided is: the innate conscious power of Brahman that allows Brahman to pretend that it is something that it is actually not. Maya is therefore that which makes Brahman appear as something it is not. 

 

In the world of duality or the phenomenal world of experience, we are all experiencing life as individual subjects perceiving individual objects. It is this dualistic pair that allows us to have an experience through the fabric of space and time. Experiences can only exist if there are pairs of opposites. For example, for me to see up, I must be able to see down. For me to move right, I must be able to move left. For me to see others, I must be able to see myself. It is these pairs that allow us to experience the empirical nature of this dualistic world. 
 

All realities which consists of everything that can possibly be known can be referred to as maya. It is also called an illusion because it is not considered real as it will all inevitably disappear. Brahman however is unchanging, eternal and attribute-less awareness. It is considered real because it does not change.  But if Brahman is all that exists, how then do we see a world full of forms that are constantly changing? The answer ironically is: MAYA. This is our only explanation available. It is the only single word we can use to explain this mysterious phenomena. We only see changes because of Brahman's own power of being conscious.  Given Brahman is pure consciousness and its very nature is being conscious; it somehow becomes conscious of itself by dreaming a world full of name and form held in its own singularity.  Through Brahman's own power of maya, it automatically turns Brahman into a mind which we refer to as ignorance. The mind is not considered separate from Brahman because there is only Brahman.  We just raise it as a concept to describe why Brahman is now conscious of itself in the wrong light. In other words, you're only ever conscious of yourself but perceive there to be something else other than yourself. As a result, we've now mistaken our true identity for something that is false.  This means right now, you are actually Brahman, not a person. You're only *seemingly* conditioned by a body-mind and erroneously believe yourself to be something other than your true nature as pure awareness. Brahman is essentially entangled in its own dream and has lost its own self-knowledge. 

 

If we wanted to use a good metaphor that best describes this phenomena, it would be that of the dreamer-dream analogy. Every night, we all have the innate ability and power to dream when we fall asleep.  We dream up an entire world, experiencing life and adventures with other dream characters. From your own perspective as a dream character, you believe the dream to be real and there is no doubt about the validity of the dream while you're in it. You never question the dream or even know that you are in a dream. It is only when you wake up as the dreamer, you realize it was just a dream and none of it was really real. Furthermore, it is realized that all constructs within the dream never existed as actual constructs such as time and space, but only as knowledge of constructs known in your location-less awareness, since at no time was there ever such thing as time and space.

 

Similarly, Brahman is the *apparent* dreamer who is dreaming up the universe along with all realms and beings via its own power of maya. The power of maya is already innate in Brahman which allows Brahman to dream naturally and automatically without having a cause or intention of doing so. As a result, Brahman *appears* to be entangled in its own self-existing dream assuming ownership of a dream character and is now oblivious of its true self. It is this dream character that perceives maya and the entire false appearance. Though Brahman is the dreamer, in essence, it is always completely detached from the dream as it is impossible not to abide in its own glory as the attribute-less Nirguna (without form). In other words, from Nirguna Brahman's point of view, there is no dream that is happening as that would contradict the truth of there only being a non-dual reality. So then how can there be duality? Answer: There isn't! There only *appears* to be duality.  We only speak of duality because we have the wrong perception of truth.  However, even though this perception is wrong, it doesn't alter the truth of there being only a non-dual reality.  In other words, when the dreamer begins to wake up and is able to see through the false dream, there is only the clear knowledge of there only being the pure self.  The ultimate realization is when one recognizes that there was never any dream character nor a dream that was ever taking place.

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​It is important to note that Brahman never caused the dream to happen. Brahman is causeless. We only say maya is the cause when we perceive ourselves be something other than Brahman (which gives rise to this false concept of maya).  But even from this false perspective, there isn't a cause nor is there maya!  There is only Brahman.  We only use the concept of maya to point those who are ignorant of their true nature to the truth of their real self.

 

This means there was never any creation nor intention behind anything. Take for example the analogy of the hair on the head. The hair is the universe and the head is God. Although the hair is grown from the head, the head does not know how, why or where it comes from. It just comes out as a natural expression. So how can it be said that the head created the hair or that God created the universe? The universe however depends on God. It is sheer illusion. It is the force of imagination. 

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Maya is therefore inseparable from Brahman. There is no Brahman AND the world. Brahman IS the world. It only appears that the world is separate from Brahman due to ignorance or the mind which projects duality and allows us to experience life as a separate self. It is just our wrong perception that sustains the illusion and causes it to persist. But just because something looks a particular way, doesn’t mean it IS that way. It is a trick from maya - the ultimate trickster. 

So why does maya exist? Maya only exists because you still believe yourself to be in this world experiencing separation. With self-knowledge or direct experience of the truth, there is no such thing as maya. Furthermore, you can only question maya within the realm of causation under the assumption that causation is true. However, if you remove the false concept of causation, then questions do not arise at all! So the question as to why maya exists is moot.  The question should rather be pointed to Brahman instead. Of course at that level, the question is dropped, because who is there to even ask the question? Brahman is therefore a "cause-less cause". The world cannot exist without Brahman yet Brahman never even caused the world to be. Maya is therefore beginning-less. How can something start within Brahman if Brahman is eternal?  Similarly, did you ever plan to dream? Or did it just happen naturally? Did you build the structure of the entire dream from scratch? Or did it all just appear with structure naturally without intention? 

 

The reason why maya never started is because truly, there is no maya. There is only Brahman which is eternal, so it is impossible for anything to have ever started. Even within creation, we can clearly see that there isn’t any evidence of a beginning to anything. What came first? The chicken or the egg? The seed or the tree? There isn't creation because creation is anadi (beginningless). If it is beginningless, then we can't even call it creation because creation implies an action.  An action can only happen within space and time where there is a medium in place to perform an act.

 

If maya is beginningless, then it must not have an ending.  Why? Because there can never be a start or an end to anything if there is only eternity (Brahman).  But given we perceive a world of change through our false self, we have to come to terms that there is a beginning and an end to everything.  This means there can be an ending to maya from your own perspective of the false self. 

 

There is one way we can abolish maya forever. The cure is self-knowledge. This is not the conceptual knowledge I'm providing you right now about your true self, but the direct knowledge that only you can reveal within through persistent sadhana (practice).  Once you experientially realize that Brahman is all there is and constantly practice to remain in this self-existing truth, the concept of maya will begin to fall apart. Only then will you give it less credit than it deserves and give up the question of maya ever existing at all.