Maya is a force that makes what is not real appear real. Maya makes what is phenomenal and short-lived appear eternal and stable. It makes appearance seem real when it is not real. In short, maya is delusion. Maya makes us see a rope as a snake. Even when there is no snake, it is the delusion that causes fear to rise up inside us when we see the appearance of a snake.
Maya affects our mind because we believe the misperception that the appearance is something other than consciousness. We are nothing but the ocean of consciousness, but maya makes us forget this and see ourselves as an individual, as a body. Maya’s power is to conceal. It conceals our divinity and we think we are small, insufficient and limited. It is maya that hides the truth from us.
We are divine and that divinity is inside us. But maya makes us look for the highest, the light, the God-head, the bliss outside of us. The pure I-consciousness reveals oneness but maya is the ego that creates separation.
Lord Krishna said, “My maya is mysterious. All those who join their hearts to Me, who are constantly thinking of me and who see me in others, all those who see not others but My manifestations, will be able to cross this ocean of maya.”
Krishna is speaking of the one Divinity, the one God, the one universal consciousness that is Brahman and our true Self. He is saying be devoted to God and Self. Remember God and Self. See other as God and Self.
Blessings,
