Māyā and the Sanātana Reality: The Eternal and the Apparent in Indian Metaphysics
This essay explores the intricate relationship between
Sanātana (the Eternal Reality) and Māyā (the Power of Manifestation
or Appearance) within the broader Indian philosophical spectrum. Drawing
from the Upaniṣads, Vedānta (Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita), Sāṃkhya-Yoga,
Nyāya–Vaiśeṣika, and Śākta traditions, it examines whether Māyā
is an integral part of the Sanātana order or whether even Sanātana is subsumed
within the play of Māyā. The discussion also extends to metaphoric parallels
between energy–matter reciprocity in physics and Brahman–Māyā
dynamics in metaphysics.
The conclusion suggests a layered truth: from the
empirical standpoint, Māyā and Sanātana interact in cosmic reciprocity; from
the absolute standpoint, Māyā is merely Brahman’s play, and Sanātana remains
forever unchanged.
1. The Enigma of Māyā
Among the many concepts in Indian thought, few have
provoked such sustained reflection as Māyā. From the earliest Upaniṣadic
whispers to Śaṅkara’s dialectical brilliance, the idea evolves as both cosmic
veil and creative potency.
The Upaniṣads declare:
“Māyāṃ tu prakṛtiṃ vidyān māyinaṃ tu
maheśvaram” —
“Know Māyā to be Prakṛti, and the wielder of Māyā to be the great Lord.”
— Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (4.10)
This verse lays the ontological foundation: Māyā is
the power, Brahman is the possessor of that power. Thus, the Eternal
does not depend on Māyā but manifests through it — much as sunlight is
reflected in myriad colors without ever being diminished.
2. The Upaniṣadic Core: The Sanātana as
the Substratum
In the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and Chāndogya Upaniṣads,
Brahman is presented as the sole reality — satyaṃ jñānam anantaṃ brahma
— the infinite consciousness that underlies all.
Māyā, therefore, is the name given to the mysterious interface between
the unmanifest and the manifest, between the changeless and the changing.
In the Upaniṣadic vision, the Sanātana is not
“changed” by Māyā; rather, change itself is the appearance of the changeless,
the līlā or divine sport of consciousness revealing itself as cosmos.
3. Advaita Vedānta: Māyā as Dependent
Reality
For Śaṅkara, the relation between Sanātana
(Brahman) and Māyā is asymmetrical.
Māyā possesses two principal powers:
- Āvaraṇa-śakti
— the power of concealment (it hides Brahman’s true nature), and
- Vikṣepa-śakti
— the power of projection (it manifests multiplicity).
Yet, this dual action never affects Brahman itself.
Śaṅkara insists that Brahman is changeless (nirvikāra) and that all
change belongs to the level of empirical reality (vyāvahārika satta).
Thus, the universe is a vivarta (apparent transformation), not a pariṇāma
(real transformation).
In Advaita, therefore:
Māyā operates in Brahman, but Brahman
never operates within Māyā.
The world, the gods, and even individuality (jīva)
are manifestations under the spell of Māyā. Liberation (mokṣa) is the
direct realization that Sanātana alone is real, and Māyā was never truly
operative in the Absolute sense.
4. The Qualified Non-dualist and Dualist
Response
Rāmānuja’s Viśiṣṭādvaita
challenges Śaṅkara’s illusionism. The universe is not a mirage but a real
body (śarīra) of Brahman, eternally dependent upon Him. Māyā is thus the creative
potency (śakti) of the Lord, not an illusion but the means of real
manifestation.
Similarly, Madhva’s Dvaita sees Māyā as the Lord’s
real instrument — a tangible power by which the pluralistic world exists.
In both systems, Sanātana has total influence over Māyā, but never the
reverse. Māyā is dependent, not delusive.
5. Sāṃkhya and Yoga: Māyā as Prakṛti
In Sāṃkhya, the eternal duality between Puruṣa
(pure consciousness) and Prakṛti (primordial matter) forms the basis
of existence.
Prakṛti evolves into mind, senses, and matter through the play of the three guṇas
(sattva, rajas, tamas). Māyā here is synonymous with Prakṛti’s power to
manifest, not deception.
Yoga adopts the same metaphysics but frames it
psychologically: Māyā is misidentification — when consciousness (draṣṭā)
becomes entangled with mental modifications (citta-vṛtti). Liberation (kaivalya)
comes not by destroying Māyā, but by seeing through it.
6. Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, and Mīmāṃsā: Realism
and Epistemic Error
These realist schools regard the world as objectively
real. Illusion (mithyā-jñāna) arises not because reality is false,
but because perception is defective.
For them, the Sanātana (truth) cannot be subject to Māyā because truth, by
definition, cannot be illusory.
Thus, in the realist schema, Māyā is cognitive
error, not ontological principle.
7. The Śākta and Kashmiri Śaiva Vision:
Dynamic Reciprocity
The Śākta and Kashmir Śaiva systems move
beyond Advaita’s asymmetry into reciprocal non-duality (abheda-abheda).
Here, Śiva (Sanātana Consciousness) and Śakti (Māyā) are
inseparable.
Śiva without Śakti is śava (lifeless);
Śakti without Śiva is chaos.
Creation, maintenance, and dissolution are the vibrations
(spanda) of Consciousness itself — a rhythmic pulsation of stillness into
movement and back again.
Thus, the relationship between Sanātana and Māyā
becomes mutually reflective:
Sanātana manifests through Māyā, and Māyā reveals the creative fullness of
Sanātana.
It is a cosmic reciprocity akin to the physics of potential and
kinetic energy, each meaningless without the other.
8. The Energy–Matter Analogy
If one interprets Brahman as cosmic energy —
infinite, undifferentiated, eternal — and Māyā as the field of
transformation, the parallel becomes clear:
|
Modern Physics |
Vedāntic Metaphysics |
|
Energy is conserved but manifests as matter and
motion. |
Brahman is changeless but manifests through Māyā as
world and beings. |
|
Energy and matter interconvert (E=mc²). |
The Real and the apparent coexist as expressions of
the same substratum. |
|
Observation affects manifestation (quantum
principle). |
Consciousness conditions appearance (Ātman–Brahman
identity). |
Thus, the energy–matter reciprocity mirrors the
Brahman–Māyā dynamic: activity within stillness, multiplicity within
unity.
9. The Bhagavad Gītā’s Reconciliation
The Bhagavad Gītā presents perhaps the most
elegant synthesis:
“By Me, in My unmanifest form, all this
universe is pervaded” (9.4).
“Resting on My own Māyā, I again and again project this creation” (9.8).
Here, the Eternal acts without acting. Māyā is
the Lord’s instrument, a tool for manifestation, but the Lord Himself remains unaffected,
untouched, unbound.
This unbroken continuity of being amid ceaseless
becoming defines Sanātana Reality.
10. Conclusion: The One Beyond the Two
In sum:
- From
the empirical standpoint (vyāvahārika), Māyā and Sanātana appear
to interact — like energy shaping matter, like Śiva dancing as Śakti.
- From
the absolute standpoint (pāramārthika), Sanātana alone is,
and Māyā is its shadow-play — anirvacanīyā, indescribable,
neither real nor unreal.
Māyā moves within Sanātana, but Sanātana
never moves within Māyā.
The dance of creation, sustenance, and dissolution is
real only as long as the dancer identifies with the movement. Once awareness
rests in its own still center — the Sanātana Self — Māyā becomes
transparent, revealing the unchanging light of Brahman through every wave of
change.
Select Scriptural References
1.
Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad,
4.9–10 — “Know Māyā to be Prakṛti…”
2.
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad,
2.5.19 — “By knowing Brahman, the knower becomes all.”
3.
Bhagavad Gītā,
9.4–9.8 — On the Lord’s unmanifest pervasion.
4.
Śaṅkarācārya, Vivekacūḍāmaṇi,
108–110 — On Māyā as anirvacanīyā.
5.
Rāmānuja, Śrī Bhāṣya, 1.1.1 — On
Brahman as the organic whole.
6.
Abhinavagupta, Īśvara-pratyabhijñā-vimarśinī
— On the reciprocity of Śiva and Śakti.
“The Eternal is the Real; the world is its
appearance; the Self is none other than That.”
— Brahma-jñānavālī-mālā
@Vijay Vijan for Sanatana Code
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