What role does Maya play in the relationship of Brahman and Atman?

Answer 1

To understand the role played by Maya in the relationship between Atman and Brahman we must know what these are.

BRAHMAN:

Brahman is the one and only omnipotent Hindu god.

Brahman is made of a facilitating force (Saguna Brahman/moving force) and a retarding force (Nirguna Brahman/ resting force). The two never co exist, making activity and rest 100% efficient and reliable.

ATMAN:

All the seven Hindu gods viz. Indra, Shakti, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Shani and Yama, are made of Saguna and Nirguna Brahman. However, in these the two coexist, making both our activity and rest inefficient. In these gods, greater the efficiency lesser is the reliability. Thus, Yama is the most efficient for activities but so unreliable that he is supposed to play a role after our death only.

The facilitating force of the Hindu gods is what we call Atman. It is not under our control.

The remaining retarding force of the seven basic Hindu gods is what we call 'I/ Aham'. It acts as the controlling unit, giving us indirect control over the facilitating force.

Since there are seven gods, there are seven different Atman. This is due to the presence of the retarding force in seven different positions of Purusha (Manu Smriti 1. 20).

Saguna Brahman is pure/ supreme Atman or Paramatma. It is pure facilitating force, with no retarding force.

MAYA:

Maya means illusion. It is produced by Shakti, the second of the seven basic gods.

Under chaotic conditions Indra keeps us in a cosy dream world. As living conditions become a bit better we surrender to the next god, Shakti. Like Indra, Shakti can't enable us to make a move in the real world. However, unlike Indra it enables us to observe the real world for opportunities.

Shakti abolishes all movements, creating an illusion of extreme interest and courage. It creates an illusion that we are omnipotent. However, our bluff gets exposed if we try to do any thing. Small achievements enable us to make our illusion look real. People around us would be amazed by our simplicity, inspite of our 'greatness'. They would be glad to associate with a person as 'great' as we are. They convince everyone that our greatness is not an illusion.

Thus, without making a single move we achieve omnipotence, though a false one. We live in a world of Maya. We start feeling that Brahman and real greatness are not worth the effort.

Maya is a means to tide over a crisis. It is not an end in itself.

We can't achieve Moksha and become one with Brahman until we get rid of this Maya. For that, we must appease the remaining gods viz. Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Shani and Yama.