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What is Maya

  The Bhagavad Gita

By Eknath Eswaran

In this text below : Eknath Eswaran : defines "Maya" and Unity in Diversity

There are three states of consciousness - Waking, Dreaming , Dreamless Sleep -

Each has a higher order of reality-

Beyond the three, there is a fourth state -"Turiya" - Unitive State


Now : in the Waking Life - Dream of Separate - merely physical existence

 - refers to Maya

a kind of magic - the creative power of Godhead ,

the primal creative energy that makes unity appear

 as the World of innumerable separate things

with "Name" and "Form"

Another Definition : of Maya : 

Mind observes the so called outside world and reports that it consists of

multiplicity of separate objects in a framework of time , space and causality

because these are the conditions of perception! 

Due to Maya - Mind looks at Unity and reports Diversity !

Looks at timelines and reports Transience! 

or mistake is that in taking this for Ultimate reality like a dreamer

thinking that nothing is real except his Dream! 

So, when mind is transcended : a higher mode : Turiya : Fourth state of Consciousness-

the Duality disappears

This is what Physics says as well : World of name and form (Nama and Roopa)

exists only as condition of perception ;

at the subatomic level - separate phenomena - dissolve into a flux of energy! 

Effect of Maya is similar : 

Name and Form is just Unity appearing as Multiplicity!