Illusion of the World

Maya. The Illusion. The great dream of the Paramatma. The source of all creation. Maya is perhaps the most misunderstood concept in Hinduism, with many believing that it is either that the entire creation is but an illusion or that the existence of man is pointless, he is but a tool in the greater will of god, and Maya is man’s delusion of control. Since the entire concept is metaphysical, there is no right or wrong, but perhaps, in my opinion, the interpretation that most suits the concept of Maya is explained by the concept of society.

Scientifically speaking, life is a sum of dead things. The cell is the smallest living thing, but the individual components of the cell are each not living. The beauty of nature and life exists in that fact that things which individually cannot be classified as living, join up to form life as we know. It evolves with time, adapting to the changing world, becoming more complex and sophisticated, and becoming more diverse as time grows. A fundamental aspect of life is that each species has a unique evolutionary advantage over its predecessor that helps it better survive in the current world. We are one among the many species that inhabit this beautiful world, with our own unique biology and a massive brain, our evolutionary advantage. Most animals have the basic instinct in their genome to hunt in packs, or to move and stay as a pack to provide better numbers to fight predators. What differentiates Man from others is his ability to form a pack almost with an unknown group of individuals based on a common ideology. This is where the brain played a significant advantage. Most animals form a pack to help survive better and this group maximizes at hundreds. The group is formed because it helps the species as a whole survive better and is genetically encoded in each individual. This is where we differ from most animals, we have the capacity to form a very large group based on a concept that is more than survival, a larger than life belief that is not tied to our genome. The brain here has played a significant evolutionary advantage; it enables almost total strangers to bond based on a larger than life ideal, forming huge groups that help us survive better, form society, civilization and even a complex socio-economic system.

Now most of you will wonder why I have written a biology essay under the name of Maya. The fact lies in the point that most of these beliefs, that have helped humans survive as a group, these larger than life ideals, are almost always, never found in nature, and not remotely real. The idea of the tribal god residing in the tree, the idea of a savior from a life of sin, the idea of a protector of a city-state, the idea of economics and even the idea of a nation, are all are in fact an illusion that man has created to shield himself from the harsh nature, to make his life easier, more comfortable and to work as a group. I believe that Maya refers to this aspect of mankind, his ability to create a very real illusionary world within nature, and live, survive and prosper in it. The society is the most fundamental block that is built from these illusions, for example, the idea of money, a piece of paper that has no practical use in nature but is used to sustain the society and make transactions and exchanges easier among humans. The idea of law is a fiction that is used to maintain order and discipline in the society, so that the core beliefs of a society are protected. Maya refers to the bubble we have created from nature to ensure a more comfortable existence and propagation of out species, the illusion of the material world. The story of Nara and Narayana, the divine twins, elucidates this fact.

Nara and Narayana are twins who are in a goal to find the meaning of Maya. In order to do this, they detach themselves from the material world, and do severe penance.  Indra, the king of gods, is afraid that the penance is to usurp his throne and sends Apsaras to distract their penance. But by this time, the twins have acquired so much spiritual power that they are not distracted. However due to their persistent efforts to distract the twins, Nara gets irritated and creates an Apsara more beautiful than the others by slapping his thigh, thereby creating Urvashi , the most beautiful materialistic creation in the whole world. It is only then that Indra realizes that the twins are not after his seat of power and apologizes to the twin Rishis for the distractions and lets them continue their penance. In due course they discover the meaning of Maya, that the entire world is a dream of the Paramatma, the Lord Vishnu, and that Maya is what helps the world move on.

This story is symbolic on many levels. Nara and Narayana are on a quest to discover the meaning of Maya, the cause of all creation. The material world, the creation itself, puts barricades in their path. Indra, the leader of the material world, is afraid of disturbance to his order, as the creation hinges on the belief of his divine kingship and to secure his world, he decides to send distractions like Apsaras (symbolic of wealth) to the Rishis to re-attach them to the world. However the Rishis are not disturbed by this and to show that materialism is not their concern, they create the finest being in the entire world that makes all other objects look pale in comparison, showing that they have given up their materialistic needs as they can create something finer that all that Indra has to offer and still have no need of it. Since they don’t influence the material world anymore, Indra finds them no longer a threat, apologizes for his actions and moves on. But perhaps the most important conclusion that can be drawn from this story is that Paramatma, the sum of all souls, has dreamed the world that he lives in and this dream is what Maya is. Paramatma is basically the sum of all living humans and the world we live in is but a dreamy illusion created by us.

Maya is thus the world that we the humans have created within nature to ensure civilization and survival. Does that mean that we are all deluded? That is a question with a more complex answer than ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as Maya is what helps us survive in this world and helps us continue to survive as a species and dominate the planet, but at the same time disconnects us from the reality of nature.