What is "MAYA"
In Sanskrit, the word Maya means both "energy" and "illusion." The Absolute Truth, also known as God or Krishna, is the ultimate source of all energies, and Maya is a term used to describe His exterior, material energy, via whose delusion we accept the physical body as self and our material world as the sum of all things.
Another definition of maya is "that which is not" (ma = "not," and ya = "there is"). The ephemeral manifestations of material energy are disguised as being beautiful and substantial by maya, which also hides the truth that everything originates from the Absolute Truth. The ego is kept in an eternal cycle of birth and death by attraction to maya in an effort to satiate desires for temporary things.
Confusions due to Maya:
The initial constitutional position of the living being is that of pure spirit. But one might say that a person is in maya if they identify with their material body. "Not this," says Maya. A rope that is curled up can occasionally be mistaken for a snake in the evening. The rope in question is "not this" snake. There is a mix-up between two things. As a result of Maya's deception, the conditioned living entity believes that the body is the soul.
If you are thirty years old, your body did not exist thirty years ago, and it will no longer exist in fifty more years. Similar to how sea waves rise and fall, the material universe constantly manifests and then is destroyed once more. So, much like the body, the material world is a creation of maya.
The living beings who reject the supreme Lord's authority are given the opportunity to pretend to be "something they are not" when the material world manifests. Maya creates 8,400,000 different species of life to satisfy their myriad cravings.
Because the body, being matter, behaves in accordance with the laws of maya, the living entity in the body of one of these species is under the direction of maya. One must act as though they are in the body of a dog or a demigod, respectively.
The material world is a jail without bars, and its prisoners are kept there by constantly focusing on the pleasures of the senses. As a result, individuals forget their true wisdom and accept any wretched circumstance. The cognition of lesser species, such as plants and animals, is so shallow that they are unable to distinguish between happiness and distress. Pigs are content eating faeces because they relish what would give us agony.
It is Maya's role to convince us of the fallacy that maintaining physical health and indulging our senses will make us happy. It makes us mistakenly assume that there is no need for God while exposing the illusory glitter of this world, making us work hard to enjoy social, familial, and sexual activities, etc. It keeps us occupied with our four instinctual animalistic behaviours - eating, sleeping, mating, and fearing.
How to escape from jail of Maya?
Anyone with intelligence realises that "I'm striving to be happy by enjoying my life," is a fact. I have put a lot of effort into building up my riches over the years, as well as providing the best comforts for my body and senses, but I still do not feel satisfied. So let me give myself over to God.
Such a person searches for the true nature of God and, after many reincarnations (Bg. 7.19), discovers that Krishna, Vasudeva's son, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. An enlightened individual who reaches such a stage of realisation surrenders to Krishna and vanquishes the illusory power of Maya (Durga Devi).
Because the body and the spirit soul are combined, everything occurs in the world of maya. The Supreme Lord Himself has made it possible for this combination to exist. All living things are injected into the womb of maya by the original father, Krishna, with the glance of His eyes (when He is in the form of Maha Vishnu). Maya cannot function without Krishna. Still, He has no direct relationship with the material world because He is always in His transcendental abode. This is analogous to how one's sense of smell is touched by a flower placed in front of their nose, yet the smell and the flower are separate.
His (Krishna's) vitality permeates the entire universe. Krishna's energy is one, but it manifests in several ways. Take the example of electrical energy. It's one type of energy, but can be used for heating or cooling. In this way, single energy is divided for multiple uses. So, in order to better grasp Krishna's energy, we categorise it into three categories: spiritual, material, and marginal. Maya, the material energy, is an expansion of Krishna's spiritual energy. The living creature is the marginal (or minor) energy because it must seek refuge in either the spiritual or the material energy.
We fail in our fight for survival on a material level because there is no way to escape the misery of old age, illness, and death. The spirit soul, however, does not have to occupy temporary bodies. The soul only acts in this way out of ignorance or forgetting of Krishna. Because our intelligence has grown in the human form of life, we should endeavour to understand Krishna in order to alter our awareness. We will then be freed from Maya.
Read our blog on "Where do we lack happiness" to get more details regarding this topic.
What Scriptures Say:
Based on this false belief that binds the hearts of the male and female, one is attracted to the other's body, home, property, children, relatives, and wealth. By doing this, one deepens their delusions about life and adopts an "I and mine" mindset ~ Srimad Bhagavatam (5.5.8)
My divine energy Maya, consisting of the three modes of nature, is very difficult to overcome. But those who surrender unto Me cross over it easily ~ Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita (7.14)
After many births of spiritual practice, one who is endowed with knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be all that is. Such a great soul is indeed very rare ~ Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita (7.19)
