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INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
6. The Status of the World and the Concept of Maya
The immutability of Brahman as well as the mutation of becoming.[1] Maya is the power which enables Him to produce mutable nature. It is Sakti or the energy of Isvara, or atmavibhutibhuti, the power of self-becoming. Isvara and maya in this sense are mutually dependent and beginning-less.[2] This power of the Supreme is called maya in the Gita.[3] (3) Since the Lord Is able to produce the universe by means of the two elements of His being, prakrti and purusa, matter and consciousness, they are said to be maya (higher and lower) of God.[4]
(4) Gradually, maya comes to mean the lower prakrti, since puruasa is said to be the seed which the Lord casts into the womb of prakrti for the generation of the universe.
(5) As the manifested world hides the real from the vision of mortals, it is said to be delusive in character.[5] The world is not an illusion, though by regarding it as a mere mechanical determination of nature unrelated to God, we fail to perceive its Divine essence. It then becomes a source of delusion. The Divine maya becomes avidydmayd. It is so, however, only for us mortals, shut off from the truth; to God who knows all and controls it, it is vidyamaya. God seems to be enveloped in the immense cloak of maya.[6] (6) Since the world is only an effect of God, who is the cause and since everywhere the cause is more real than the effect, the world as effect is said to be less real than God the cause. This relative unreality of the world is confirmed by the self-contradictory nature of the process of becoming. There is a struggle of opposites in the world of experience, and the real is above all opposites.[7]
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