Cabinet of Curiosities

Maya Shakti is the divine power which brings out the evolution of this present world. It makes this possible by an interplay of the three gunas : sattva, rajas and tamas. Cosmic Consciousness becomes individual consciousness by its own maya.

In Hindu mythological literature, Maya has been described in many contexts. Apart from Maya Shakti, Maya also stands for a demon that was the architect of the demons and the creator of the magical arts.
When one accepts entry into the game as a player, awareness of unity is lost in the obsession (fascination) of play. This taking-over of consciousness is the fun of play. The one becomes many, to play a game of cosmic hide-and seek with itself.

The one is reality. Multiplicity is illusion. This illusion of multiplicity is created by the veiling power of the one (the Supreme Consciousness). This veiling power is called Maya Shakti, or maya. This veiling power creates the illusion of me and mine, or thee and thine, which creates ignorance in the individual consciousness. Those who realize this ignorance call it avidya (a = no; vidya = knowledge: thus ignorance or absence of knowledge). So maya is also called avidya by yogis. This ignorance comes to individual consciousness through the mind: that is why yoga is the practical device to stop the modifications of mind, and yoga's aim is to arrest mind, to stop the inner dialogue, to go beyond the mind, to realize one's true nature, beyond the illusion of me and mine.

The world of names and forms is maya. This illusion can be seen at every level. The human body itself is not a unit of existence, but is composed of countless numbers of cells and micelles. If each cell starts growing a sense of me and mine, each human body will become a subcontinent. It is the individual ego (ahamkara) which creates separate units of existence - but this is itself is maya (illusion). Ego cannot function without mind, as mind cannot without sense-organs. So it is only after the mind is brought to a suppressed state that the sense of me and mine can be completely annihilated. By yoga alone can this state be achieved, and an end brought to this illusory sense of being an independent unit. After realization of truth through a direct experience of reality in samadhi, Maya Shakti can be understood - and the human psycho-drama can be observed as divine play, as Leela.

Maya Shakti is the power which brings forth the evolution of the phenomenal world. It makes this possible by an interplay of the three gunas - sattva, rajas and tamas.

Comic Consciousness becomes individual consciousness by its own maya. This diversity in unity is illusion, and is caused by the veiling power of the Supreme Consciousness. All that the player perceives of the phenomenal world exists within himself.

Two comes into being when 1 repeats itself. Two is maya, because both were present in the One. The two are the internal and the external world; the unmanifested and the manifested, Shiva and Shakti, male and female, Sun and Moon, gross and subtle, Absolute and maya, Noumenon and Phenomenon. Two is therefore the number of maya or illusion, the universal play of cosmic energy.

Maya gave birth to the Enlightened One, Buddha. The same Goddess, called Maia by the Greeks, was the virgin mother to Hermes the Enlightened One, who had as many reincarnations as the Buddha. Sometimes Maia's partner was Volcanus (Greek Hephaestus, the divine smith and fire-god). This was another mythic mating of male fire and female water. Hindus said Agni the fire-god was the consort of Kali-Maya, though he was periodically swallowed up and "quenched" by her. According to the Tantric phrase, the Goddess quenched a blazing lingam in her yoni.

As the virgin mother of Buddha, Maya embarrassed ascetic Buddhists and was soon written out of the script. Like ascetic Christians speaking of Christ's birth, some Buddhists claimed the Enlightened One could not touch his mother's "parts of shame" and so was born through an opening in her side. This mythic Caesarian section seems to have been bungled, for a few days later Maya died -- "of joy," as Buddhist scriptures rather fatuously put it.

Nevertheless, Maya remained very much alive as one of Kali's most revered manifestations, because the very fact of "Existence"-- the material cosmos-demanded her presence. As Zimmer analyzed her:

Maya-Shakti is personified as the world-protecting, feminine, maternal side of Ultimate Being, and as such, stands for spontaneous, loving acceptance of life's tangible reality...[S]he affirms, she is, she represents and enjoys, the delirium of the manifested forms.... Maya-Shakti is Eve, "the Eternal Feminine," das Ewig-Weibliche: she who ate, she and tempted her consort to eat, and was herself the apple. From the point of view of the masculine principle of the Spirit (which is in quest of the enduring, eternally valid, and absolutely divine) she is the pre-eminent enigma.

In herself Maya embodied all three aspects of the maternal trinity. Her colors were white, red, and black, the colors of the Gunas, or the Virgin-Mother-Crone. Like every other form of Kali, she was Creator, Preserver, Destroyer. She was also a spirit dwelling perpetually in women, A Mahayana text says, "Of all the forms of Maya, woman is the most important."

Maya's son Buddha was surrounded by her symbols. He entered his trance of meditation under her sacred fig tree, which protected him from the weather. On his return from the soul-journey, his first symbolic act was to accept a dish of curds from a maiden on Full Moon Day in the month of May, the greatest of Buddhist festivals.

ranfuchs asked me about this and I replied but here is to anyone who is interested

I am not yet finished with presenting all the meanings of the word Maya, and I was about to make some sort of summary in the end, but here we go! Some basic core would be this Maya is repeatedly connected to fertility, birth and rebirth, creation, life and new life...and it is existing in various different cultures as a symbol of a divine mother. In herself Maya embodied all three aspects of the maternal trinity. Maya is one of those active powers: the constant movement of the universe, pervasive to the atomic level. Maya is a positive active force, and can be a mesh through which we perceive the ultimate reality of existence -- if we are not distracted by her magnificent creativeness and complexity. Hope I answered your question, I am still finding new things and thoughts about this and will write about them.

Maya is also the name of an Asura, who was the father-in-law of the Lord of Lanka, Ravana and the father of Mandodari. He is the archnemesis of Vishwakarma, the celestial architect of the Gods. His knowledge and skills are compatible with Vishwakarma. When Lanka was destroyed by Hanuman, it was the King of Demons, Maya, who had re-installed the beauty of that Island Kingdom.

In Hinduism, Maya is to be seen through, like an epiphany, in order to achieve moksha (liberation of the soul from the cycle of samsara). Ahamkar (ego-consciousness) and karma are seen as part of the binding forces of Maya. Maya may be understood as the phenomenal Universe of perceived duality, a lesser reality-lens superimposed on the unity of Brahman. The samskaras of perceived duality perpetuate samsara. Maya may also be visualized as a guise or aspect of the Divine Mother (Devi) concept of Hinduism. In the Hindu scripture Devi Mahatmyam, Maya covers Vishnu's eyes in Yoganidra (Divine Sleep) during cycles of existence when all is resolved into one. By exhorting Mahamaya to release Her illusory hold on Vishnu, Brahma is able to bring Vishnu to aid him in killing two demons, Madhu and Kaitabh, who have manifested as thoughtforms from Vishnu's sleeping form. Maya is a lesser reality that must be overcome so that one is able to realize their true Self.

well, I have been away for awhile so I have to get back in writing shape.
I wish you all the very best for this 2008.
There is a saying here, which I will try to translate the best way I can
SOME PEOPLE WAIT FOR THE NEW YEAR
OTHER ONES CREATE IT
So create, or keep creating!