A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

""MAYA AND ILLUSION.LMOST all of you have heard of the word maya.Generally it is used, though I am afraid verywrongly, to denote illusion, or delusion, or somesuch thing, but as this theory forms, as it were, one of thepillars upon which the Yedanta rests, it is necessary thatit should be properly understood, and I ask a little patienceof you, for there is great danger of being unpresented inexpounding the theory of maya. The oldest idea of mayathat we can find in Vedic literature is, whe~e thisword is used in the sense of delusion, but then thereal theory has not been reached. We find suchpassages as Indro mayabhih gurwrupamiyate, Indrathrough his maya, assumed the form of Guru." Here itis true the word maya means something like magic. Sowe find various other passages, always taking the samemeaning. The word maya then drops out of sight altogether. In the meanwhile the idea is developing. Wefind later on the question is raised, why cannot we knowthis secret of the Universe, and the answer that is givenis very significant Niharena pram*ita jalpya asutripahulctasa sah charanti. Because we talk in vain, andbecause we are satisfiedwith the things of the senses, andbecause we are running after desires ; therefore, we coverthis reality, as it were, with a mist." Here the wordmaya is not used at all, but we get one idea, that thereason they attribute for our ignorance is a kind of mistthat has come between us and the truth. Much lateron, in one of the latest Upanishads, we find the word