माया क्या है, आओ समझे। What is Maya, Let us Understand (In Hindi & English)

हिंदी में:

माया : उस दिन मेरा एक मित्र दार्शनिक रूप से बात कर रहा था और मुझसे कह रहा था कि यह सारी दुनिया भ्रम है, वास्तविकता में इसका कोई अस्तित्व नहीं है। हम जो कुछ भी देख रहे हैं वह सिर्फ जादू आदि है। मैं उसे सुनता रहा। फिर मैंने उसे बस अपनी आँखें बंद करने और इसे खोलने के लिए कहा, ताकि यह जादुई, मायावी दुनिया गायब हो जाए। लेकिन जब उसने अपनी आंखें खोलीं, तब भी यह दुनिया वहीं थी। यह दुनिया कहाँ जाएगी? बस वहीं थी, कहीं नहीं गयी, कोई जादू नहीं हुआ कि यह दुनिया गायब हो जाती और ना ही गायब हुई।

फिर वो क्या बात कर रहा था मेरा दोस्त? वह इस दुनिया को माया या भ्रम क्यों कह रहा था? उसके इस दुनिया को एक भ्रम कहने का दार्शनिक अर्थ क्या है? क्या उनका यह कहना गलत था कि यह संसार असत्य है? दर्शनशास्त्र में माया का अर्थ नेति नेति है। नेति का मतलब जो दीखता है "वह नहीं है"।  लेकिन वह सब जगत हमारी आँखों को वास्तविक प्रतीत होता है। हिंदू धर्म में, जिस दुनिया में हम रहते हैं उसे असत्य कहा जाता है, इसलिए नहीं कि यह अस्तित्व में नहीं है, बल्कि इसलिए कि यह अस्थिर, अस्थायी, अविश्वसनीय, हमेशा बदलने वाला और भ्रामक है। यह असत्य है क्योंकि यह क्षणभंगुर है और हर पल बदलता रहता है। बस अपने आस-पास की चीजों की जांच करें, ये हर सेकेंड बदल रही हैं। तो यह बदलती दुनिया, जो स्थायी नहीं है, माया या भ्रम कहलाती है और वास्तविक नहीं है।  

हिंदू दर्शन में, यूनिवर्सल स्पिरिट (ब्रह्म) या ईश्वर ही एकमात्र सत्य है जो कभी नहीं बदलता है और हमेशा एक ही रहता है लेकिन यह दुनिया हर पल बदल रही है इसलिए इसे असत्य कहा जाता है। चूंकि माया भौतिक संसार को देखने का कारण बनती है, यह असत्य भी नहीं हो सकती। इसलिए माया को अवर्णनीय बताया गया है।

माया का उद्देश्य : वास्तव में माया का उद्देश्य इस संसार में द्वैत उत्पन्न करना है। माया अपने काम को केवल सर्वोच्च भगवान के आदेश पर करती है। भगवान माया से बंधे नहीं हैं, जैसे जादूगर अपने ही जादू से भ्रमित और मोहित नहीं होते हैं। 

मायाके दो सिद्धांत कार्य हैं - एक है सार्वभौमिक आत्मा (ब्रह्म) को ढंकना और उसे हमारी चेतना से छिपाना। दूसरा है सार्वभौमिक आत्मा (ब्रह्म) के बजाय भौतिक संसार में द्वैत के आवरण को प्रस्तुत करना और उसका प्रचार करना।

माया का सारा भ्रम हमारे मन के कारण ही है। हमारा मन बाहर संसार की चीज़ो में फसता है। जिस बाहरी संसार की चीज में मन अटके वो माया है। चाहे वो धन हो, लड़का,लड़की हो, कार हो, मकान हो, सोना चांदी हो या और कुछ भी हो, जिस संसार की चीज में मन अटके वो माया है। इसलिए अपने अंदर निर्गुण निराकार भगवान पर ही मन को अटकाए, ध्यान लगाए, ताकि माया से परे हो सके। ॐ नमः शिवाय।

In English:

Maya: That day a friend of mine was talking philosophically & telling me that all this world is illusion, it does not exist in reality. Whatever we are seeing is just mere magic etc. etc. I kept listening to him. Then I just asked him to close his eyes & open it only when this magical, illusory world disappears. But when he opened his eyes, world was still there only. Where this world shall go? It was there only, it is there only, there is no magic that this world shall disappear.

Then what is that my friend was talking? Why he was calling this world as Maya (माया or māyā) or illusion? What is the philosophical meaning of his saying this world an illusion? Was he wrong in his saying that this world is unreal? In philosophy, the meaning of Maya is "that is not" but which appears to be real. In Hinduism, this world in which we live is called unreal not because of that it does not exist, but because it is unstable, impermanent, unreliable, ever changing and illusory. It is unreal because it is transient & changing every second. Just check the things around you, these are changing every second. So this changing world, which is not permanent is called Maya or illusion & not real.

In Hindu philosophy, Universal Spirit (Brahman) or God is the only truth which never changes & always remains the same but this world is changing every moment so that is the reason it is called untrue. Since Maya causes the material world to be seen, it cannot be untrue also. Hence, Maya is described as indescribable.

Purpose of Maya: In reality the purpose of Maya is to produce the duality in this world. Maya performs this role at the behest of the Supreme Lord only. God is not bound by Maya, just as magicians are not illusioned and deluded by their own magic. She has two principle functions - one is to veil the Universal Spirit (Brahman) and obscure and conceal it from our consciousness. The other is to present and promulgate the material world and the veil of duality instead of the Universal Spirit (Brahman).

All illusion of Maya is due to our mind. Our mind gets entangled in the things of the outside world. The thing in the outside world in which the mind is stuck is Maya. Be it money, boy, girl, car, house, gold, silver or whatever else, the things, people of the world in which the mind is stuck is Maya. Therefore, fix your mind on the Nirguna formless God within yourself, concentrate on it, so that you can be beyond Maya. Om Namah Shivay

Lord Krishna in Bhagwat Gita details about the 'Maya' in it's various chapters.

"mama yonir mahad brahma
tasmin garbham dadhamy aham
sambhavah sarva-bhutanam
tato bhavati bharata" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Fourteen verse 3)

"Sri Krishna said: O Arjuna, My womb is the great Nature (Prakriti or MAYA) which is the source of birth of all living entities, and it is in that, I place the germ (embryo of life). Thus it makes possible the births of all living beings."

"sarva-yonisu kaunteya
murtayah sambhavanti yah
tasam brahma mahad yonir
aham bija-pradah pita" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Fourteen verse 4)

"Sri Krishna said: O Arjuna, It should be understood that all species of life, are made possible by birth in this material nature (Prakriti or MAYA), and that I am the seed-giving father."

"prakrityaiva cha karmani
kriyamanani sarvasah
yah pasyati tathatmanam
akartaram sa pasyati" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Thirteen verse 30)

"Sri Krishna said: O Arjuna, One who can see that all activities are performed by the nature (Maya) alone and sees that the Self / Soul does nothing, actually sees." (The Self is the silent witness).

Ramakrishna on Maya

Ramakrishna acknowledged the power of Maya in life. He was all love and reverence for maya, perceiving in it a mysterious and majestic expression of Divinity. To him Maya was God.

In the guru Ramakrishna's experience, Maya was divine. Ramakrishna "did not, like a Vedantic scholar, repudiate the world as maya, but gave it a spiritual status, seeing in it the manifestation of Chit and Ananda." Ramakrishna had a "vision of the divine Maya, the inscrutable Power of God, by which the universe is created and sustained."

According to Ramakrishna, Maya projects and withdraws the world.
Further, "Maya . . . is the Mother of the Universe, identical with the Brahman of Vedanta and with the Atman of Yoga.

Ramakrishna discovered that maya operates in the relative world in two ways and he termed these "avidyamaya" and "vidyamaya.' Avidyamaya sustains lower planes, but vidyamaya is enlightening, including qualities like kindness. Vidyamaya elevates a man to a better consciousness. With the help of vidyamaya he then gets free of maya, if only for a while. The two aspects of maya are two forces of creation.

Ramakrishna said further: "When I think of the Supreme Being as inactive - neither creating nor preserving nor destroying - I call Him Brahman or Purusha . . . When I think of Him as active - creating, preserving, and destroying - I call Him Sakti or Maya or Prakriti, the Personal God.

To Ramakrishna maya itself was God - everything was God - [maya] was one of the faces of [the Godhead].

As per Ramakrishna: Maya can not be distinguished from the supreme [Godhead]

As per Ramakrishna: The mighty weaver (Maya) is none other than the Divine Mother.

As per Ramakrishna: Maya releases from bondage.

"I tell you the truth: there is nothing wrong in your being in the world." - Ramakrishna

Vivekananda on Maya

This universe is maya - Vivekananda

Maya is used incorrectly to denote illusion or delusion. - Vivekananda