Śivasaṃhitā 1.64

Māyā as a fundamental cosmogonic principle: there is no creation without illusion. This verse introduces the central concept that will operate throughout the rest of the chapter. The universe is not a creation of an external God nor the product of an independent primordial matter: it is the projection of māyā onto the screen of Consciousness. Without the veil, there is no world as we know it.

The enumeration na khaṃ vāyurna cāgniśca na jalaṃ pṛthivī (neither ether, nor air, nor fire, nor water, nor earth) traverses the five elements in descending order—from the most subtle to the densest—to deny that any of them is the ultimate reality. Māyā (illusion, creative power) is presented here as viśvajananī (mother of the universe): the potency that generates the appearance of multiplicity.

The concept of māyā in the Śivasaṃhitā is not exactly the same as in Śaṅkara’s Advaita Vedānta. While Śaṅkara considers it anirvachanīya (indefinable, neither real nor unreal), in Śaiva Tantrism māyā is a śakti—a real power of Śiva—that veils his nature. Understanding māyā is not denying it but recognizing it as the play (līlā) of Consciousness with itself.