What Is Maya?
Maya (माया) is the Sanskrit word for illusion, and it describes how we live in a constant state of illusion or unreality due to the thinking from our egoic minds. We are asleep spiritually and surrounded with materialistic attachments so that our pathological behaviours define who we are. The mask we wear wraps around our consciousness in a stifling choke hold of illusion. We only exist at this level purely from a thinking perspective and the world of duality is the only world that we know. We have no comprehension of anything else but to constantly think over and over again, as our minds are the very prisons that hold our conscious in continuous detention.
We have forgotten what we have forgotten so much that we have become the illusion of oneself. This illusion permutates the belief that life only exists in our physical bodies, and with no possible spiritual connection to anywhere else in the universe. Our egoic minds can only grasp the concept of birth and death and that our perceived reality only exists at the 3rd dimensional level. This illusion gives us no further capacity to experience anything else.
Most of mankind gives no thought as to why we are here? where we are going? and is this who we really are? Occasionally such questions may appear only to be swallowed up by Maya again and completely forgotten about.
Our egoic minds constantly crave more and more. We are never happy with what we have and the satisfaction of constantly craving will never ever be met. This illusion of desire only helps to compound the layers of Maya.
Leela (Lila) (लीला) is the Sanskrit word for ‘The Divine Play’ and it describes the endless cycle in the participation of Maya. Until we remove the mask of Maya we will always be contestants in the cycle of illusion and delusion. Think of Leela in the following analogy:
‘How can children spend endless hours at the beach digging the same hole in the sand with always the same outcome? They are playing for the sake of playing as they desire no other outcome but to dig holes in the sand. The outcome of digging holes or the repetitive nature is of no concern for them, as to dig holes in the sand is all that matters.’
This endless repetitive behaviour is our deluded souls controlled by our egoic minds constantly playing the game of Maya. We are constantly digging holes in the sand to no avail.
Maya is like the game of snakes and ladders as the more you desire to get to the top, the more you never will. The constant process of climbing the ladder to only slide back down the snake is the cycle of nothingness. To play the game over and over again is Leela and the lack of awareness of this process is known as Avidya. It is the Sanskrit word for ignorance, misconceptions, and incorrect knowledge. For those who are stuck in the endless cycle of Maya the veil that shields their faces and blinds their souls is Avidya.
Extract taken from my book: MAYA available to buy on Amazon Kindle.