Māyā
idea · 6 works · 12 mentions · 23 anchored passages
also in the atlas: Maya the figure
māyā · illusion · invisibility · magical power · means of invisibility · māyā-tricks · māyāśakti · powers of illusion
in the texts
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa
The power of magical invisibility by which Indrajit conceals himself during his assault.
they could not see the foe of the lord of gods, hidden by māyā — they did not perceive that Rākṣasa there at all.
Those monkeys, mountain-like, their bodies shattered by the arrows of Indra's conqueror, struck down by māyā, crying out in discordant voices, fell in battle like great elephants struck by Indra's thunderbolt.
Seeing Mahendra thus forcibly seized in battle and carried off by māyā, all the immortals cried out:
Rigveda
Māyā, the divine magical power by which Varuṇa and Mitra-Varuṇa govern rain and the cosmos.
Your māyā is established in the sky, O Mitra-Varuṇa;
you cause the sky to rain by the māyā of the Asura-lord.
Of this celebrated Asura, Varuṇa — his great magical power have I now declared;
Paramārthasāra
The Lord's own power of self-veiling and differentiation, which produces the appearance of a bound, limited self.
Just as the vault of the sky is not [really] sullied by cloud, smoke, and dust, so the supreme Person remains untouched by the modifications of māyā (the Lord's self-veiling power of differentiation).
Thus, when the thought-construct of duality has dissolved, having overleapt the deluding māyā (the Lord's self-veiling power of differentiation), one becomes dissolved into Brahman — as water into water, as milk into milk.
That supreme autonomy of the Great Lord, which accomplishes what is [otherwise] impossible — this is the Goddess, the māyā (the Lord's self-veiling power of differentiation)-power (māyāśakti), Śiva's self-veiling of His own Self.
Paramārthasāra
The deluding creative power, of the very nature of Viṣṇu, that produces the apparent dual world and its bondage.
The God, as it were, deludes himself by his own {{māyā|deluding power}} in the form of duality;
This whole unfolding, made of {{māyā|the deluding creative power that produces the dual world}}, is in turn withdrawn again, step by step.
As frost, foam, and bubbles [are natural] to water, and as smoke [is natural] to fire, so this {{māyā|deluding creative power}} is declared to be of the very nature of Viṣṇu.
Atharvaveda (Paippalāda)
Creative/illusory power, here both a name of the wandering cow among the Asuras and an abstract cosmic riddle-term.
On that Māyā the Asuras subsist.
where is it deposited by māyā (creative power)?
Where the flower of the waters is placed, set exceedingly by māyā in a hidden place — he who would know that directly, he would know the great Brahman.
The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana
A magical technique of concealment enabling secret entry into the harem.
Other means of invisibility are prescribed by Duyana Brahmans and Jogashiras.
He may also go in and out, concealed in a folded bed, or bed covering, or with his body made invisible, by means of external applications, a receipt for one of which is as follows:
The heart of an ichneumon, the fruit of the long gourd (Tumbi), and the eyes of the serpent, should all be burnt without letting out the smoke, the ashes should then be ground and mixed in equal quantities with water. By putting this mixture upon the eyes a man can go about unseen.