Vivekacudamani - Maya

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Vivekacudamani by Adi Shankara

Verses on Maya.

Translated by Swami Turiyananda

 

There is one - undifferentiated and undivided. Nobody can define what it

is, but it has the power of God. Beginningless and, yet, also called

ignorance, it has three qualities: sattva, rajas & tamas. It cannot be

understood except by its action, and that, only by the illumined ones. It

has created all this universe - produced it all. It is Maya. - 108

 

If you ask of its form, it cannot be stated. It is beyond description. It

is neither real nor unreal; neither is it the mixture of the two. Is it

separate from the Atman? It is nether separate, nor yet non-separate; not

part of the Atman, yet neither can you say it is not part. It is not the

body. It is most wonderful and beyond all description. - 109

 

It is real and unreal; unreal because it changes, and not unreal because it

is. It is not separate, because you see Atman (if separate, there must be

two), and you cannot say not separate (as you cannot say that snake is not

separate from the rope). Knowledge of Brahman - the One, pure, without a

second - destroys it, as the illusion of the snake in the rope is destroyed

when the nature of the rope is known. - 110