What Maya is Not

This article appeared in the September 2020 issue of the Back To Godhead India Edition and in the March/April 2021 issue of the Back to Godhead International Edition.

What Māyā Is Not

We can get a clearer picture of what Kṛṣṇa’s deluding energy is by understanding what it is not.

 

Śrī Īśopaniṣad (Mantra 11) states that we need to understand both knowledge and ignorance to get out of material entanglement, bhava-bandhana.

vidyāṁ cāvidyāṁ ca yas
tad vedobhayaṁ saha
avidyāyā mṛtyuṁ tīrtvā
vidyāyāmṛtam aśnute

“Only one who can learn the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality.”

Understanding what knowledge is not accentuates our understanding of what knowledge is. According to the Vedas, advancement in material knowledge is advancement in ignorance, avidyā. Knowledge of the soul is vidyā. Without this understanding, one could end up dedicating one’s life to avidyā, misunderstanding it to be vidyā.

Understanding māyā is an important aspect of knowledge. Māyā covers our knowledge by using limited relative reality to blind us to the unlimited absolute reality. Being wary of māyā protects us against falling into its traps. To precisely understand māyā, let us understand what māyā is not.

 Māyā Is Not Māyā

Śrīla Prabhupāda often translates māyā as the “illusory energy of the Lord.” Let us understand this phrase in terms of its constituents. Māyā is an energy. It exists, but it is not independent; it is possessed and controlled by the Lord. The word illusory can be misleading. It means “not real,” but here it refers to the nature of this energy – “illusion causing.”

The following verse from the Bhagavad-gītā (7.14) confirms this understanding of māyā. To cross beyond māyā is to get out of the illusion created by it.

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī
mama māyā duratyayā
mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te

 “This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.”

Thus māyā is not māyā (unreal), but it causes māyā (illusion). Less cryptically, māyā (the energy) is not māyā (an illusion), but its role is to put the conditioned souls of this world into māyā (illusion).

 

The World Is Not Māyā

The material world exists; it is not an illusion. However, it is controlled by the illusion-causing energy, also known as the material energy, māyā. Māyā controls every aspect of this world using its three guṇas – sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, and tamo-guṇa. This material world deludes the conditioned soul into believing that matter is all that exists. Only in this sense is the material world called an illusion.

What Is the Nature of the Illusion Caused by Māyā?

Scripture gives the example of misidentifying a rope for a snake. Both ropes and snakes exist; they are not imaginary, false entities. But to see a rope and mistake it for a snake is an example of illusion. More generally, illusion is to accept the nature of some aspect of reality to be something other than what it really is. The greatest of all illusions is to believe that existence has only the material aspect, whereas in fact the spiritual is the cause of the material. This illusion leads to the illusion of considering oneself the temporary material body and not the eternal spiritual soul. Then follows the illusion that material sense enjoyment is the source of happiness, when actually it is the source of misery. Lord Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā (5.22):

ye hi saṁsparśa-jā bhogā
duḥkha-yonaya eva te
ādy-antavantaḥ kaunteya
na teṣu ramate budhaḥ

“An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the material senses. O son of Kuntī, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them.”

Another branch of illusion is the conviction that everything happens by chance, with no conscious controller. This idea leads to the dogmatic conclusion that even if there may be strong indicators of the working of a conscious intelligence, the ultimate cause is inert, unconscious matter. If matter alone exists, this can be the only explanation.

Yet another sinister illusion is that we are in complete control of our actions and their results, even though they are majorly under the control of material nature.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate

“The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature.” (Gītā 3.27).

This is how strong māyā is – it blinds us to blatantly obvious truths. Life after life, immersed in illusion, the soul struggles to satisfy the dictates of the temporary material senses.

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi
bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān
kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo ’sya
sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

“The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil among various species.” (Gītā 13.22)

 

Activity and Desire Are Not Māyā

Some philosophers impulsively conclude that since every material desire and activity is induced by māyā, the way to transcend māyā is to stop desiring and acting. But suppressing the symptoms does not fix the root cause. Māyā’s influence is so deeply rooted in our conditioned consciousness that we cannot just wish it away. The Gītā (3.5) states that we are forced to work (and desire) in a particular way by our specific material conditioning, our svabhāva. Merely giving up activity further complicates things.

karmendriyāṇi saṁyamya
ya āste manasā smaran
indriyārthān vimūḍhātmā
mithyācāraḥ sa ucyate

“One who restrains the senses of action but whose mind dwells on sense objects certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender.” (Gītā 3.6)

Purificatory activities enjoined in scripture are the means to get out of illusion. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this in his purport to Bhagavad-gītā 3.5:

It is not a question of embodied life, but it is the nature of the soul to be always active. Without the presence of the spirit soul, the material body cannot move. The body is only a dead vehicle to be worked by the spirit soul, which is always active and cannot stop even for a moment. As such, the spirit soul has to be engaged in the good work of Kṛṣṇa consciousness; otherwise it will be engaged in occupations dictated by illusory energy. In contact with material energy, the spirit soul acquires material modes, and to purify the soul from such affinities it is necessary to engage in the prescribed duties enjoined in the śāstras.

Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth. He is the master and controller of māyā. Surrendering to Kṛṣṇa means to act and desire according to His desire. Such activities are not māyā – they are spiritual and liberating.

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī
mama māyā duratyayā
mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te

“This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.” (Gītā 7.14)

 

Kṛṣṇa Is Not Māyā

Another almost ubiquitous misunderstanding is that all forms are material and hence temporary, and that all variety and relationships are also material, or in other words, conducted by the three modes of nature. This conclusion arises only if one ignores the existence of the supreme transcendental Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead – Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā
mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto
mama bhūta-maheśvaram

“Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be.” (Gītā 9.11).

Śrīla Prabhupāda gives a stunning purport to this verse. 

Here is an excerpt:

He [Kṛṣṇa] claims that the material energy, although very powerful, is under His control, and whoever surrenders unto Him can get out of the control of this material energy. If a soul surrendered to Kṛṣṇa can get out of the influence of material energy, then how can the Supreme Lord, who conducts the creation, maintenance and annihilation of the whole cosmic nature, have a material body like us? So this conception of Kṛṣṇa is complete foolishness. Foolish persons, however, cannot conceive that the Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, appearing just like an ordinary man, can be the controller of all the atoms and of the gigantic manifestation of the universal form. The biggest and the minutest are beyond their conception, so they cannot imagine that a form like that of a human being can simultaneously control the infinite and the minute.

It’s true that the forms, variety, and relationships of this world are māyā-induced. But Kṛṣṇa’s form, the variety in the spiritual realm, relationships with Kṛṣṇa, and activities done for His service are eternal truths, outside the jurisdiction of māyā. Even engaging our temporary material bodies in relation to Kṛṣṇa is a nonmaterial act because such activities are the eternal function of the soul.

Then What Is Māyā?

Kṛṣṇa is the Absolute Truth. Everything else emanates from Him and exists only because of His desire.

mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat
kiñcid asti dhanañjaya
mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ
sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva

 “O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.” (Gītā 7.7).

Thus, māyā means to see anything as having an existence independent of Kṛṣṇa.

ṛte ’rthaṁ yat pratīyeta
na pratīyeta cātmani
tad vidyād ātmano māyāṁ
yathābhāso yathā tamaḥ

“O Brahmā, whatever appears to be of any value, if it is without relation to Me, has no reality. Know it as My illusory energy, that reflection which appears to be in darkness.” (Bhāgavatam 2.9.34).

Śrīla Prabhupāda states in the purport: 

[I]t has already been concluded that in any stage of the cosmic manifestation – its appearance, its sustenance, its growth, its interactions of different energies, its deterioration and its disappearance – all has its basic relation with the existence of the Personality of Godhead. And as such, whenever there is forgetfulness of this prime relation with the Lord, and whenever things are accepted as real without being related to the Lord, that conception is called a product of the illusory energy of the Lord.

Thus, starting from what māyā is not, we have arrived at what māyā is. Real knowledge then is to dovetail everything in relation to Lord Kṛṣṇa. This is called yoga-māyā, or the energy of union. This is the platform of the Absolute Truth. Only this is not māyā.