maya a term with various uses in Indian thought; it expresses the concept of Brahman’s power to act. One type of Brahmanic action is the assuming of material forms whose appearance can be changed at will. Demons as well as gods are said to have maya, understood as power to do things not within a standard human repertoire. A deeper sense refers to the idea that Brahman has and exercises the power to sustain everlastingly the entire world of conscious and non-conscious things.
Monotheistically conceived, maya is the power of an omnipotent and omniscient deity to produce the world of dependent things. This power typically is conceived as feminine (Sakti) and various representations of the deity are conceived as male with female consorts, as with Vishnu and Siva. Without Sakti, Brahman would be masculine and passive and no created world would exist. By association, maya is the product of created activity. The created world is conceived as dependent, both a manifestation of divine power and a veil between Brahman and the devotee. Monistically conceived, maya expresses the notion that there only seems to be a world composed of distinct conscious and nonconscious things, and rather than this seeming multiplicity there exists only ineffable Brahman. Brahman is conceived as somehow producing the illusion of there being a plurality of persons and objects, and enlightenment (moksha) is conceived as seeing through the illusion. Monotheists, who ask who, on the monistic view, has the qualities requisite to produce illusion and how an illusion can see through itself, regard enlightenment (moksha) as a matter of devotion to the Brahman whom the created universe partially manifests, but also veils, whose nature is also revealed in religious experience. See also BRAHMAN. K.E.Y.