Maya: illusion og magt i hinduisme og buddhisme

Maya literally means illusion, extraordinary power (aka magic) and wisdom. It all depends on the context.

Nevertheless, in earlier and old language Maya meant: illusion, unreality, deception, fraud, trick, sorcery, witchcraft and magic.

Maya was the name of Gautama Buddha’s mother. In Hinduism, Maya is also a form of Lakshmi, the goddess of beauty and wealth, the wife of the god Vishnu.

In Hinduism Maya is used to denote both Prakriti or Nature and the power of betrayal.

Prakriti is the dynamic energy god, that according to some schools of Hinduism, exists forever as a separate part of god. Just like god, Prakriti is unborn, uncreated, independent and indestructible.

Prakriti works either with god or independently by himself.

Almost all schools of Hinduism recognize god as the creator of the world, he takes the role Iswara, the Lord of the visible and invisible universe. God then takes 5 different functions namely, creator, preserver, destroyer, concealer and bestowed of grace. In his role of concealer, he unleashes the power of Maya, TROUGH Prakriti, to conceal himself from what he creates and fools all living beings (also called jivas) into thinking that what they experience through their senses is true and that they are independent of the objects and other beings they receive through their senses.