Meaning of "Maya" - sanskrit - please help!

Hi, I'm trying to find the meaning & origin for the name "Maya" (pronounced 'may-a' or 'my-ah').

I think the origin in Sanskrit - & means "illusion". Which is pretty much our reality & the world etc etc.

I'm not very clear on it though - & I would love someone to be able to explain it to me clearly if they know about it..and what religion it is from etc. (hinduism?)

Thankyou so much...any help is appreciated!

 

This is a simple and a complex issue. Complex because different schools of Hindu philosophy (it is a Hindu concept) have different ideas about where to place the emphasis.

Maya means the creative power of Brahman or the absolute, whose qualities are generally described as sat chit ananda - being bliss awareness.
Some (eg Adwaitins) say Maya is a power of illusion - they believe that only Brahman really exists - it is the One Reality, and what we percieve as the universe is mere illusion created by Maya.

Others place a different emphasis on this concept, and see it as the manifesting power of Brahman. All is Brahman, but all is differentiated too.

The difference is that like Buddhism, Adwaita Vedanta sees the universe and manifest existence as an illusion or a mistake, whilst those who hold different positions would see it as a real manifestation with a positive purpose.

This concept of Brahman/Maya is repeated in various Hindu philosophies at different levels. The same thing is meant by other dualisms such as Iswara/Shakti and Purusha/Prakriti.
Even Radha-Krishna - in very simple terms 'God and his Wife'
Anyway, there's a little bit of info. Happy to help with any further questions if I can.

Shanti.

 

Actually, Bill, in advaita there are two kinds of maya that the teachers refer to - avidya maya and vidya maya. Avidya maya is the power of ignorance, which leads to the suffering, attachment and limitation that characterize the life of a typical individual.
Vidya maya is the creative power of God, by which the entire universe is organized. Although some rabid "advaitins" may call the universe a mistake that has neither the sanction of the scriptures nor the great masters that taught them. Creation and the universe is not the mistake, nor is it seen as non-existent. The mistake is in the way we tend to look at it - as permanent, independent entities, separate from God. If the universe is seen as a manifestation of God ("All this is Brahman - sarvam khalu idam brahma") then there is no mistake, indeed it is all perfection and pure existence alone. The mistake is not seeing the world as a manifestation of god and instead attrributing to it those characteristics which are not its own, such as thinking of the world as a source of joy, or permanence, security, etc.

So what is the mistake, the illusion, that which does not exist is our false view of the world, which is what is commonly called maya (avidya maya). And the vedas define maya beautifully as "ya ma sa maya" - that which is not is maya.

 

Well I'd agree with that broadly. The illusion is a mental illusion - a false consciousness of the world. All I'd add is that there is also the possibility of seeing the world as an evolving manifestation of God.

Moving always towards a greater perfection. A more perfect manifestation.

Hence I suppose 'new age' is appropriate......

Shanti.

 

Without getting too technical, maya is the world around you. All the stars and planets included.

This world is real only to those who dwell in it.

Imagine yourself inside a theater watching a good movie. It can make you laugh or cry or scare the living daylights out of you. It isn't real, but your senses respond as if it were.

Maya is a projection of your own human mind. Literally. Your mind has a very interesting ability to not only think but project what it thinks. It actually creates physical matter around your soul like a cocoon. (or a movie projected on a screen)

Your whole world, everything you know, is within this cocoon. Many call it a veil.

When enlightenment occurs, this cocoon rips, and the reality outside is seen by your human identity, who up to that point, had been asleep within the cocoon.

You REALIZE all that you knew as a human was just a dream of your own making.

That's the personal scale of maya. Created by your own individual soul.

The "God" scale would include all of creation. Souls included.


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