Maya

Māyā (माया) is the cosmic power of illusion that causes the apparent multiplicity of the phenomenal world to appear separate from Brahman, pure consciousness.

In Advaita Vedānta, māyā is not simple “illusion” but the creative power (śakti) of Brahman by which the one appears as many. It has two functions: āvaraṇa (concealment, veiling true nature) and vikṣepa (projection, creating the appearance of a separate world).

In the yoga tradition, māyā is what binds the individual self (jīva) to saṃsāra. Liberation (mokṣa) involves seeing through māyā — not its destruction, but the recognition that its apparent reality was always grounded in Brahman. The Śivasaṃhitā treats māyā as the power (śakti) through which Śiva appears as the multiplicity of forms.